First Drafts

            Lamott used the adjective “shitty” to describe the essence of the first drafts because from the semantic point view this word serves the purpose the best. This is exactly how she feels about the first drafts of any written piece she produces. Writing the “shitty” drafts is not less important than reviewing them and proofreading the final version. This is the beginning of the writing process and it is helpful because “very few writers really know what they are doing until they've done it” (Lamott 93). You just have a topic and a broad idea what you are going to write about, but you may have no idea what exactly you are going to write. The “shitty” drafts are useful at finding some key points or words that deserve to become the basis of the final version and, more generally, “you need to start somewhere” (Lamott 95).

            The choice of the adjective is not accidental as the first drafts, as a rule, represent a flow of random phrases and word combination that relate to the topic. They are so premature and ill-structured that you do not want anybody to see them. It is not to say that they are completely bad. They may contain genial ideas or sentences, but overall they are not cohesive and do not constitute a complete sophisticated story. Therefore, the word “shitty” implies that it is something you need to do to get a well-written final version, but which you do not like itself. This is how it is because even nobody out of the famous writers “writes elegant first drafts” (Lamott 93). We need to take it for granted that only by writing “shitty” first drafts can we achieve good results and be pleased with what we have written at the end.

Lamott, Anne. Shitty First Drafts. Language Awareness: Readings for College Writers. Ed. by Paul Eschholz, Alfred Rosa, and Virginia Clark. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005: 93-96.