Shitty First Drafts by Anne Lamott

            The saying practice makes perfect is immediately what I think of after reading “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott.  “All I had to do was to write a really shitty first draft of, say, the opening paragraph.  And no one was going to see it.” Lamott declared.  Just get some words down on paper and revise is the message Lamott is trying convey in this essay about her writing experience as a professional where she lets the reader know that even she struggles to write an article.  In the fourth paragraph there is a part where Lamott talks about the first draft being the kids draft and how it just pours out and how she lets it romp all over the place, “knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later”.  I think the best advice given in the whole essay is when she tells us the audience that “You have to start somewhere” (Lamott 2005).  It’s just as simple as that.   I am sure all writers can relate to this essay and that it saves them a lot of grief.  Like Lamott we need to “trust the process”.