Stephen A. - Shitty First Drafts

I always used to wonder why starting a paper was so hard. I would have tons of ideas of what I wanted to say, but I never really liked to prepare or structure those ideas. What Lamott said about how the first draft is like a child's draft, where you let it just run about and do it's thing and know that you'll eventually shape it and make it right really resonated with me. That's how I start all of my papers. I start typing words, sentences, or phrases and just see where my fingers and my thoughts take me. Eventually, I stop and read back what I've written and realize it's horrible, but that's the beauty of the shitty first draft. It's allowed to be horrible. I really like the end of this article. The down, up and dental draft is a good structuring tool to keep in mind when working on drafts. You get everything down on paper for the first, you fix it all up for the second, and then you inspect and perfect it for the third and final draft. I'll be using this when I start working on my first paper and see how well it works for me.