Shitty First Drafts

When I was doing my first draft, I was in my room from around 1 to 4 at night watching a bunch of different youtube videos of sports analysts and their takes on whether or not Eli Manning should be in the Hall of Fame, in order to try and get different perspectives on both sides of the argument. Earlier in the day, I also had some of my friends text me their reasons on why they think Eli should not be in the Hall of Fame, so I could try to include the thoughts of the average sports fans who think he does not deserve it, and not just analysts. Typically, I have music on in the background, but I think the sports analysts were a better fit in this case since it was able to give me different insights and quotes. So while it varied from what I normally do, I feel it was a better choice than music. I felt good about my writing process for this project so far. I was pretty excited and happy to be able to write about something that I enjoy and have strong feelings about rather than some prompt that I am forced to choose a side on that I couldn’t care about. 

Lamott says that almost every first draft is shitty, but this framework provides writers with the ability and opportunity to change their papers and make them more complex or coherent. In regards to my own writing and writing process, I agree with her. However, I feel that because I change my writing while I am in the middle of it instead of breaking it up into different operations like she does, my first drafts are at least somewhat decent and coherent, rather than the mess she describes hers as.