Well uh……this was definitely an interesting read, not going to lie. Right off the bat, the very first page stood out to me with the amount of metaphors and anomalies that are written down. For example, it mentions the idea of a dog chewing a chew toy constantly, as well as asthmatic deaths. However, on this first page, the thing that jumped out to me the most and resonated with me was the mention of mental illnesses creep up on you, comparing them to weird relatives. As someone who struggles with a lot of mental illnesses, for example I have ADHD, Autism. Depression, Social Anxiety and constant Self-Doubt, I can just envision myself in constant scenarios, beyond writing, where I have had so many mental breakdowns to the point where I felt like I couldn’t do anything right. It is such a hard thing to cope with and just reading stuff like that makes me remember how hard it is to do something that seems deceptively simple. That is why I think the term “Bird by Bird, Buddy”, despite being such a simple phrase, is incredibly helpful. If you are ever feeling so much anxiety or mental breakdowns when writing something or doing anything at all, just take it Bird by Bird, or as I call, one shot at a time. Take it step by step and think it out properly, don’t just wing it. I also like the idea of taking a quote from a comedy movie, that being “Stripes” which is an army spoof film starring Bill Murray and Harold Ramis and connects to a real-life strategy. “Lighten up, Francis” is a commonly used phrase to tell somebody to take a chill pill and relax, and I think everyone needs to be told this phrase once in a while. Finally, the one thing that sticks with me from the reading is the fact that the author says that the most important thing about writing a story is to first off write really bad first drafts because that is how you learn from your mistakes and get better. Practice makes perfect, as they say. I also really appreciate this part of the text because it confirms to me, who is super insecure about my skills, that it is ok to make mistakes once in a while because everyone was once bad at something before they became good at it, so that entire section is super nice to read and reaffirms that my way of thought has been correct.
I am a perfectionist when I write. It is super hard for me to just write something and not edit it while I write and it slows me down. But I do it because as I write I get a ton of ideas that just come out in the sentence. So I write them down so I don’t forget them because I will forget them. I think that has been my issue when I write and I call it writer’s block and it’s not actually writers block. It is because I am a perfectionist. The just write and worry later message from this passage really sticks with me, it makes me not want to edit and fix things while I work and reread and get to them after I’ve made a draft. Just let my writing flow out of me and then go back and edit because the “shitty” first draft part is going to come out anyway. I think that I need to also stop overperfectionsist thinking and just do it. This passage was short but it had a lot of concrete things in it about perfectionism in writing, like using your muscles even though you are in pain.
When it comes to my own writing, I often try to make my first draft the best. I sit down and force myself to make every line perfect with each punctuation mark in right place. This allows me to create something so close to a final product, that I don’t find the need to write as many drafts as I might think I need. What I have learned from “Shitty First Drats” is that my mindset needs to change. The author’s first note is that he does not know of any writers who have been able to sit down confidently and enthusiastically enough to write their first draft perfectly. Often times, we write down – what we think is complete nonsense – but may give us ideas we would have never thought of before. The author also noted that we as writers always need to start somewhere, and to not think too deeply about the final product of our first drafts. If we are thinking too deeply and analytically about our first drafts, it can be seen as form of perfectionism. If we focus on perfectionism too much, it will block the ability to be imaginative and playful with our writing. It will drive us insane, and cause us to doubt our writing ability altogether. One quote in particular that I liked was when Lamott said, “Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist’s true friend” (Lamott, p. 32). As an artist myself, I see messes as new beginnings. When I make an error, especially in painting, I will turn it into something else. Like Lamott says, these messes are the true friend of an artist. As an aspiring writer, I should use imperfections to my advantage and view them as new beginnings.
“Bird by Bird” contains some interesting ways of thinking about the drafting process. I agree that the first draft is primarily to get information down, the second draft is the fix up draft, and the third draft is the dental draft, in which little details are examined. Many of my creative ideas have come from just writing something out and then re-examining it later and improving upon it. Although I do not struggle with hearing voices in my head when I write, I found the hypnotist’s strategy for addressing those voices to be entertaining. The idea of picking up a mouse and putting it in a mason jar mentally until every fear is vanquished seems time consuming, yet it is rewarding for some people and I can see how making the potential criticism more harmless can help people cope with it. This same strategy could likely also apply to removing other negative and unwanted thoughts unrelated to writing, making it more interesting and applicable to all of our lives. The second chapter on perfectionism has much the same vibe as the chapter on shitty first drafts. Basically, writing shitty first drafts without trying to be perfect has the potential to result in much more creative thought, because one is backing away from life and experiencing it in a more “immediate” way. As the author stated, we will all die anyway in the first draft, so we might as well run full steam ahead and have fun doing so. As a Catholic, the part about God helping people through enhancing their gifts rather than direct intervention was also relevant to me. I believe that if we put effort into a meaningful endeavor, (such as writing) God will help us in small and indirect ways that augment our capacity to achieve.
I have always been a huge perfectionist with my writing. I am always overthinking if my story is interesting, would people even read it, does it make sense?, and am I even giving enough background information on what is going on in my story? But hearing Anna Lamott talking about how many writers struggle with it really resonates with me. I really loved her book when she said “while writing needs to breathe and move” . I think this shows that your writing doesn’t have to be so stiff and you can have fun with it and be able to write an amazing story, without having that voice in your head saying it is not perfect. Lamott always saying “ The bottom line is that if you want to write, you get to, but you probably won’t be able to get very far if you don’t start trying to get over your perfectionism” I really like this because it almost seemed like harsh advice in a loving way, that you need to not worry about making your writing “perfect” all the time because it will not help you. The author talking about a way that a hypnotist gave her an exercise to help quiet the voice of perfection and I think her adding this gives other writers an idea on how to help them as well.
I have always been a huge perfectionist with my writing. I am always overthinking if my story is interesting, would people even read it, does it make sense?, and am I even giving enough background information on what is going on in my story? But hearing Anna Lamott talking about how many writers struggle with it really resonates with me. I really loved her book when she said “while writing needs to breathe and move” . I think this shows that your writing doesn’t have to be so stiff and you can have fun with it and be able to write an amazing story, without having that voice in your head saying it is not perfect. Lamott always saying “ The bottom line is that if you want to write, you get to, but you probably won’t be able to get very far if you don’t start trying to get over your perfectionism” I really like this because it almost seemed like harsh advice in a loving way, that you need to not worry about making your writing “perfect” all the time because it will not help you. The author adding in an exercise a hypnotist gave her I think was a wonderful idea, because it’s giving other writers an exercise to help quiet their perfectionist voice.
I appreciate how Lamott is honest about her initial drafts. As someone who edits themselves as they go, I can respect those who embrace the messier sides of drafting. I find it challenging to cut down and weed through the chaos, which is why I tend towards perfectionism as I go. I agree that the word scramble that comes from drafting is beneficial and may bring new ideas, but I admit to struggling with this process. The thought that tidiness creates cramps in the writing was a helpful visualization, and I would like to become more lenient with my perfectionism. When a thought is nicely wrapped and concluded, it fails to leave room for edits and new ideas. Especially in fiction, I can see how important it is to let up on these restrictive processes. Sweeping up the mess is limiting myself, and it is a habit I am trying to break. This is likely why I have been struggling to generate pieces of fiction to mold into a story. Lamott’s perspective of just putting everything out on the page could potentially work for me in this class since it is clear that my methods for other writing classes are failing to be constructive. Going forward, I will utilize this advice as it is better to generate more than to have close to nothing.
I really appreciated the emphasis on letting go of your perfectionism in this reading. The author insists that allowing yourself to do poorly is necessary to get started. Unlike what the author discusses, I often struggle with my second draft more than the first. I have no problem ‘word vomiting’ onto a page; it’s making something of that which I dread. Understanding that it’s ok not to be perfect is helpful for those times in my writing. I like that the author writes about three drafts. In my experience, writing for classes usually takes two drafts and feels incomplete. I appreciate the emphasis on taking your time with each draft of a piece, being patient with yourself, and letting go of the perfectionism that makes writing and editing so difficult.
This piece felt pretty comforting in the sense that she was patting our backs and reassuring us that it takes time to produce the finished product. Of course, the first draft is going to be garbage. It has not been refined yet and we should not be so hard on ourselves. Perfectionism is an enemy that holds us back from achieving so many things. I like the example she provided saying that perfectionism is like a muscle that is trying to protect your insecurities and hurts from coming out. Getting rid of perfectionism is hard and painful but eventually you get used to it. She said it well that perfectionism keeps us from taking the first step, getting our drafts written and voicing our thoughts and ideas.
There is a sort of myth going around that our favorite authors books are their first draft. We need to understand that our beloved authors and writers have had to train themselves too. They need to spend time and work and rewrite their drafts too. That’s how we get to read the books we obsess over. There is no such thing as a perfect and ‘elegant’ first draft. The process is not fun of course but you must write to get the ideas out and flowing- no matter how crappy it is.
Lamott’s voice seems to be very down to earth and casual which makes it seem that we are close and that she is being very a friend. Overall, I like her writing style and how it seems like an honest conversation of advice.
I feel the emphasis on drafting is important, whenever I write I refer to a list of quotes I’ve made over the years and see how I can incorporate them, but before that I jot down general ideas for what I want to write. I think another point this chapter emphasizes is how as long as you have emotion towards anything, you’re able to write because with feeling comes will to do something about the feeling- and when I have feeling, I write. I love how this chapter highlights the feelings of how writing isn’t effortless, and with it not being effortless it won’t ever be perfect. Often times when someone writes, they want it to come out perfect. But people don’t realize that with every so -called perfect page, there were a million drafts of what the author was trying to get across in the beginning.
Journal #4: Writers feel despair. They feel despair and worry and slowly go insane, and then they write awful crap and tear their hair out- and then they edit the hell out of it. The important thing is not to let worrying about being perfect, worrying about writing something brilliant the first time you sit down, or worrying about what you’re going to say, keep you from sitting down and writing anything at all. While we all need breaks sometimes it’s important to get back on the proverbial horse and write everything that comes into your head, no matter how bad or stupid or ridiculous, onto the paper so that the little good you find in it can flourish in your next draft. I think this is good advice. I enjoyed reading this, I enjoyed how playfully the author approached the stereotype of the tortured author. I’m interested to read the other chapters, because reading this also made me think of some of Ray Bradbury’s advice to writers. I’ll have to paraphrase, but basically he explains that if writing makes you miserable you should consider finding a different career. Writing should make you happy. This was true of Ray Bradbury, but it doesn’t seem to be true of most writers, so I’m trying to reconcile these two points of view. I’m not sure I want to be a writer if I have to lose all my hair.
I enjoyed these two chapters of the book a lot. The lesson within it is something I’ve been trying to teach myself for the last decade. When I was younger, I wanted things to be perfect on the first try. Now that I’m older, I still feel the same way, just in different facets of my life. The lesson from this part of the story, that first tries are meant ot suck, is really important to me. It reminds me of a quote from one of my favorite shows: “Sucking at something is the first step to being kind of good at something.” That’s essentially the message that Lamott is trying to communicate. She discusses the importance of messing up, how starting with anything, even if it’s bad, is better than nothing. Personally, I struggle starting to write more than anything. It’s nice to know even professional authors have the same issues. Having her explain her process to get over that issue was helpful. Perfectionism is another part of writing that I deal with. While I deal with perfectionism in my daily life, I deal with it a lot in my writing. But Lamott argues that writing doesn’t need to be perfect. That all writing inherently has flaws, and that’s what makes it so interesting. I resonated with that, and I want to remember that in my writing going forward.
Lamott describes perfectionism as a “mean, frozen form of idealism” that stifles creativity as muscles tense around injuries to protect them. This idea highlights how pursuing flawlessness can paralyze you, making it challenging to begin a project. But if you just start the process, loosen up your mind like she loosened her gums and throat by chewing gum, and your creativity will start flowing. Perfectionism demands control over every aspect of writing, but Lamott suggests that being open to mistakes and chaos is where true creativity happens. This idea sticks with me because it reframes mistakes as part of the creative journey rather than failures. I appreciate her practical advice to silence the critical voices in your head, especially during the early stages of writing; this reminds me to write with more courage and less self-criticism and to worry about judgment only in the later editing stages. When I write, I often struggle to write very quickly or much at all because I over-edit and criticize what I write. I know what I want to say but not how I want to say it, and I struggle with getting past that and just getting my ideas on the page. Between these two chapters, what resonates with me the most is how she gives us permission to be human in the writing process. She encourages us to embrace the messiness of creating, trusting the revision process, and rejecting the myth that good writing happens all at once. It reminds me to prioritize progress over perfectionism.
Understanding drafting as just simply getting your words onto the paper and then worrying about it later is definitely a new perspective for me. While this method may be hard for some people, it seems that having to delete and change some parts is easier than painstakingly creating “the perfect sentence” over and over again as you’re writing. Allowing yourself to be incoherent and be much less than perfect and to just plainly sit down and write whatever it is you want to write about, even if you think it’s horrible and nobody will ever want to read it, and then going back and pulling it apart and piecing it back together can make your work so much easier to produce. Getting over your perfectionism seems to be the first step in even allowing yourself to begin to write something meaningful and something that you end up really liking.
Journal #4
Something I’m really enjoying about this book is simply the way Anne Lamott chooses to write. She talks so much in shitty first drafts about quieting the voices in her head and allowing herself to just put pen to paper. But the experience of reading her final product could not be more different than her process. Where she is stressed out and doubtful as she writes, what she writes is confident and witty. It has within it funny anecdotes and dark jokes. These darker jokes really work for me, and I appreciate how she seems to present one when I least expect it. An example from this chapter is when she quotes a friend of hers who says, “It’s not like you don’t have a choice, because you do—you can either type or you can kill yourself.” I think we can all agree that this isn’t exactly a considerate joke to make, and at the same time it really is a very funny joke, and the joke itself is yourself. You feel connected to an author who is taking the time to try and make you laugh in a special way. I’ve read other books on writing that were less like this. Books that were written in a way where the author was God and he was willing to share with you his divine knowledge. Lamott doesn’t feel like that. Her writing is vulnerable and honest. She isn’t telling you what you need to do, she is simply showing you what she does. Just holding your a hand a little bit as you explore your world.
During the reading, I enjoyed how Lamott in a way reassured that it’s okay for the drafts to indeed be shitty. When I write I tend to try and be perfect the first time so that I can try and avoid as much revision as possible but for her to say that we need to let your writing be imperfect at first in order to get started and get going was eye opening for me. I think for me knowing that it’s okay to be all over the place and incomplete is a good thing because I tend to struggle later in the revision process because I wanted to make the first on so good that when I get to the second or third draft I struggle on where to make my writing better or where areas need work because I become almost vision clouded on my writing.
As a whole I liked how Lamott puts an emphasis on your taking your time and letting go of being perfect because in the long run it only helps you as a writer to slow down your process and that’s something I hope I can use when I do my own writings.
16 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 4”
Well uh……this was definitely an interesting read, not going to lie. Right off the bat, the very first page stood out to me with the amount of metaphors and anomalies that are written down. For example, it mentions the idea of a dog chewing a chew toy constantly, as well as asthmatic deaths. However, on this first page, the thing that jumped out to me the most and resonated with me was the mention of mental illnesses creep up on you, comparing them to weird relatives. As someone who struggles with a lot of mental illnesses, for example I have ADHD, Autism. Depression, Social Anxiety and constant Self-Doubt, I can just envision myself in constant scenarios, beyond writing, where I have had so many mental breakdowns to the point where I felt like I couldn’t do anything right. It is such a hard thing to cope with and just reading stuff like that makes me remember how hard it is to do something that seems deceptively simple. That is why I think the term “Bird by Bird, Buddy”, despite being such a simple phrase, is incredibly helpful. If you are ever feeling so much anxiety or mental breakdowns when writing something or doing anything at all, just take it Bird by Bird, or as I call, one shot at a time. Take it step by step and think it out properly, don’t just wing it. I also like the idea of taking a quote from a comedy movie, that being “Stripes” which is an army spoof film starring Bill Murray and Harold Ramis and connects to a real-life strategy. “Lighten up, Francis” is a commonly used phrase to tell somebody to take a chill pill and relax, and I think everyone needs to be told this phrase once in a while. Finally, the one thing that sticks with me from the reading is the fact that the author says that the most important thing about writing a story is to first off write really bad first drafts because that is how you learn from your mistakes and get better. Practice makes perfect, as they say. I also really appreciate this part of the text because it confirms to me, who is super insecure about my skills, that it is ok to make mistakes once in a while because everyone was once bad at something before they became good at it, so that entire section is super nice to read and reaffirms that my way of thought has been correct.
I am a perfectionist when I write. It is super hard for me to just write something and not edit it while I write and it slows me down. But I do it because as I write I get a ton of ideas that just come out in the sentence. So I write them down so I don’t forget them because I will forget them. I think that has been my issue when I write and I call it writer’s block and it’s not actually writers block. It is because I am a perfectionist. The just write and worry later message from this passage really sticks with me, it makes me not want to edit and fix things while I work and reread and get to them after I’ve made a draft. Just let my writing flow out of me and then go back and edit because the “shitty” first draft part is going to come out anyway. I think that I need to also stop overperfectionsist thinking and just do it. This passage was short but it had a lot of concrete things in it about perfectionism in writing, like using your muscles even though you are in pain.
When it comes to my own writing, I often try to make my first draft the best. I sit down and force myself to make every line perfect with each punctuation mark in right place. This allows me to create something so close to a final product, that I don’t find the need to write as many drafts as I might think I need. What I have learned from “Shitty First Drats” is that my mindset needs to change. The author’s first note is that he does not know of any writers who have been able to sit down confidently and enthusiastically enough to write their first draft perfectly. Often times, we write down – what we think is complete nonsense – but may give us ideas we would have never thought of before. The author also noted that we as writers always need to start somewhere, and to not think too deeply about the final product of our first drafts. If we are thinking too deeply and analytically about our first drafts, it can be seen as form of perfectionism. If we focus on perfectionism too much, it will block the ability to be imaginative and playful with our writing. It will drive us insane, and cause us to doubt our writing ability altogether. One quote in particular that I liked was when Lamott said, “Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist’s true friend” (Lamott, p. 32). As an artist myself, I see messes as new beginnings. When I make an error, especially in painting, I will turn it into something else. Like Lamott says, these messes are the true friend of an artist. As an aspiring writer, I should use imperfections to my advantage and view them as new beginnings.
“Bird by Bird” contains some interesting ways of thinking about the drafting process. I agree that the first draft is primarily to get information down, the second draft is the fix up draft, and the third draft is the dental draft, in which little details are examined. Many of my creative ideas have come from just writing something out and then re-examining it later and improving upon it. Although I do not struggle with hearing voices in my head when I write, I found the hypnotist’s strategy for addressing those voices to be entertaining. The idea of picking up a mouse and putting it in a mason jar mentally until every fear is vanquished seems time consuming, yet it is rewarding for some people and I can see how making the potential criticism more harmless can help people cope with it. This same strategy could likely also apply to removing other negative and unwanted thoughts unrelated to writing, making it more interesting and applicable to all of our lives. The second chapter on perfectionism has much the same vibe as the chapter on shitty first drafts. Basically, writing shitty first drafts without trying to be perfect has the potential to result in much more creative thought, because one is backing away from life and experiencing it in a more “immediate” way. As the author stated, we will all die anyway in the first draft, so we might as well run full steam ahead and have fun doing so. As a Catholic, the part about God helping people through enhancing their gifts rather than direct intervention was also relevant to me. I believe that if we put effort into a meaningful endeavor, (such as writing) God will help us in small and indirect ways that augment our capacity to achieve.
I have always been a huge perfectionist with my writing. I am always overthinking if my story is interesting, would people even read it, does it make sense?, and am I even giving enough background information on what is going on in my story? But hearing Anna Lamott talking about how many writers struggle with it really resonates with me. I really loved her book when she said “while writing needs to breathe and move” . I think this shows that your writing doesn’t have to be so stiff and you can have fun with it and be able to write an amazing story, without having that voice in your head saying it is not perfect. Lamott always saying “ The bottom line is that if you want to write, you get to, but you probably won’t be able to get very far if you don’t start trying to get over your perfectionism” I really like this because it almost seemed like harsh advice in a loving way, that you need to not worry about making your writing “perfect” all the time because it will not help you. The author talking about a way that a hypnotist gave her an exercise to help quiet the voice of perfection and I think her adding this gives other writers an idea on how to help them as well.
I have always been a huge perfectionist with my writing. I am always overthinking if my story is interesting, would people even read it, does it make sense?, and am I even giving enough background information on what is going on in my story? But hearing Anna Lamott talking about how many writers struggle with it really resonates with me. I really loved her book when she said “while writing needs to breathe and move” . I think this shows that your writing doesn’t have to be so stiff and you can have fun with it and be able to write an amazing story, without having that voice in your head saying it is not perfect. Lamott always saying “ The bottom line is that if you want to write, you get to, but you probably won’t be able to get very far if you don’t start trying to get over your perfectionism” I really like this because it almost seemed like harsh advice in a loving way, that you need to not worry about making your writing “perfect” all the time because it will not help you. The author adding in an exercise a hypnotist gave her I think was a wonderful idea, because it’s giving other writers an exercise to help quiet their perfectionist voice.
I appreciate how Lamott is honest about her initial drafts. As someone who edits themselves as they go, I can respect those who embrace the messier sides of drafting. I find it challenging to cut down and weed through the chaos, which is why I tend towards perfectionism as I go. I agree that the word scramble that comes from drafting is beneficial and may bring new ideas, but I admit to struggling with this process. The thought that tidiness creates cramps in the writing was a helpful visualization, and I would like to become more lenient with my perfectionism. When a thought is nicely wrapped and concluded, it fails to leave room for edits and new ideas. Especially in fiction, I can see how important it is to let up on these restrictive processes. Sweeping up the mess is limiting myself, and it is a habit I am trying to break. This is likely why I have been struggling to generate pieces of fiction to mold into a story. Lamott’s perspective of just putting everything out on the page could potentially work for me in this class since it is clear that my methods for other writing classes are failing to be constructive. Going forward, I will utilize this advice as it is better to generate more than to have close to nothing.
I really appreciated the emphasis on letting go of your perfectionism in this reading. The author insists that allowing yourself to do poorly is necessary to get started. Unlike what the author discusses, I often struggle with my second draft more than the first. I have no problem ‘word vomiting’ onto a page; it’s making something of that which I dread. Understanding that it’s ok not to be perfect is helpful for those times in my writing. I like that the author writes about three drafts. In my experience, writing for classes usually takes two drafts and feels incomplete. I appreciate the emphasis on taking your time with each draft of a piece, being patient with yourself, and letting go of the perfectionism that makes writing and editing so difficult.
This piece felt pretty comforting in the sense that she was patting our backs and reassuring us that it takes time to produce the finished product. Of course, the first draft is going to be garbage. It has not been refined yet and we should not be so hard on ourselves. Perfectionism is an enemy that holds us back from achieving so many things. I like the example she provided saying that perfectionism is like a muscle that is trying to protect your insecurities and hurts from coming out. Getting rid of perfectionism is hard and painful but eventually you get used to it. She said it well that perfectionism keeps us from taking the first step, getting our drafts written and voicing our thoughts and ideas.
There is a sort of myth going around that our favorite authors books are their first draft. We need to understand that our beloved authors and writers have had to train themselves too. They need to spend time and work and rewrite their drafts too. That’s how we get to read the books we obsess over. There is no such thing as a perfect and ‘elegant’ first draft. The process is not fun of course but you must write to get the ideas out and flowing- no matter how crappy it is.
Lamott’s voice seems to be very down to earth and casual which makes it seem that we are close and that she is being very a friend. Overall, I like her writing style and how it seems like an honest conversation of advice.
I feel the emphasis on drafting is important, whenever I write I refer to a list of quotes I’ve made over the years and see how I can incorporate them, but before that I jot down general ideas for what I want to write. I think another point this chapter emphasizes is how as long as you have emotion towards anything, you’re able to write because with feeling comes will to do something about the feeling- and when I have feeling, I write. I love how this chapter highlights the feelings of how writing isn’t effortless, and with it not being effortless it won’t ever be perfect. Often times when someone writes, they want it to come out perfect. But people don’t realize that with every so -called perfect page, there were a million drafts of what the author was trying to get across in the beginning.
Journal #4: Writers feel despair. They feel despair and worry and slowly go insane, and then they write awful crap and tear their hair out- and then they edit the hell out of it. The important thing is not to let worrying about being perfect, worrying about writing something brilliant the first time you sit down, or worrying about what you’re going to say, keep you from sitting down and writing anything at all. While we all need breaks sometimes it’s important to get back on the proverbial horse and write everything that comes into your head, no matter how bad or stupid or ridiculous, onto the paper so that the little good you find in it can flourish in your next draft. I think this is good advice. I enjoyed reading this, I enjoyed how playfully the author approached the stereotype of the tortured author. I’m interested to read the other chapters, because reading this also made me think of some of Ray Bradbury’s advice to writers. I’ll have to paraphrase, but basically he explains that if writing makes you miserable you should consider finding a different career. Writing should make you happy. This was true of Ray Bradbury, but it doesn’t seem to be true of most writers, so I’m trying to reconcile these two points of view. I’m not sure I want to be a writer if I have to lose all my hair.
I enjoyed these two chapters of the book a lot. The lesson within it is something I’ve been trying to teach myself for the last decade. When I was younger, I wanted things to be perfect on the first try. Now that I’m older, I still feel the same way, just in different facets of my life. The lesson from this part of the story, that first tries are meant ot suck, is really important to me. It reminds me of a quote from one of my favorite shows: “Sucking at something is the first step to being kind of good at something.” That’s essentially the message that Lamott is trying to communicate. She discusses the importance of messing up, how starting with anything, even if it’s bad, is better than nothing. Personally, I struggle starting to write more than anything. It’s nice to know even professional authors have the same issues. Having her explain her process to get over that issue was helpful. Perfectionism is another part of writing that I deal with. While I deal with perfectionism in my daily life, I deal with it a lot in my writing. But Lamott argues that writing doesn’t need to be perfect. That all writing inherently has flaws, and that’s what makes it so interesting. I resonated with that, and I want to remember that in my writing going forward.
Lamott describes perfectionism as a “mean, frozen form of idealism” that stifles creativity as muscles tense around injuries to protect them. This idea highlights how pursuing flawlessness can paralyze you, making it challenging to begin a project. But if you just start the process, loosen up your mind like she loosened her gums and throat by chewing gum, and your creativity will start flowing. Perfectionism demands control over every aspect of writing, but Lamott suggests that being open to mistakes and chaos is where true creativity happens. This idea sticks with me because it reframes mistakes as part of the creative journey rather than failures. I appreciate her practical advice to silence the critical voices in your head, especially during the early stages of writing; this reminds me to write with more courage and less self-criticism and to worry about judgment only in the later editing stages. When I write, I often struggle to write very quickly or much at all because I over-edit and criticize what I write. I know what I want to say but not how I want to say it, and I struggle with getting past that and just getting my ideas on the page. Between these two chapters, what resonates with me the most is how she gives us permission to be human in the writing process. She encourages us to embrace the messiness of creating, trusting the revision process, and rejecting the myth that good writing happens all at once. It reminds me to prioritize progress over perfectionism.
Understanding drafting as just simply getting your words onto the paper and then worrying about it later is definitely a new perspective for me. While this method may be hard for some people, it seems that having to delete and change some parts is easier than painstakingly creating “the perfect sentence” over and over again as you’re writing. Allowing yourself to be incoherent and be much less than perfect and to just plainly sit down and write whatever it is you want to write about, even if you think it’s horrible and nobody will ever want to read it, and then going back and pulling it apart and piecing it back together can make your work so much easier to produce. Getting over your perfectionism seems to be the first step in even allowing yourself to begin to write something meaningful and something that you end up really liking.
Journal #4
Something I’m really enjoying about this book is simply the way Anne Lamott chooses to write. She talks so much in shitty first drafts about quieting the voices in her head and allowing herself to just put pen to paper. But the experience of reading her final product could not be more different than her process. Where she is stressed out and doubtful as she writes, what she writes is confident and witty. It has within it funny anecdotes and dark jokes. These darker jokes really work for me, and I appreciate how she seems to present one when I least expect it. An example from this chapter is when she quotes a friend of hers who says, “It’s not like you don’t have a choice, because you do—you can either type or you can kill yourself.” I think we can all agree that this isn’t exactly a considerate joke to make, and at the same time it really is a very funny joke, and the joke itself is yourself. You feel connected to an author who is taking the time to try and make you laugh in a special way. I’ve read other books on writing that were less like this. Books that were written in a way where the author was God and he was willing to share with you his divine knowledge. Lamott doesn’t feel like that. Her writing is vulnerable and honest. She isn’t telling you what you need to do, she is simply showing you what she does. Just holding your a hand a little bit as you explore your world.
During the reading, I enjoyed how Lamott in a way reassured that it’s okay for the drafts to indeed be shitty. When I write I tend to try and be perfect the first time so that I can try and avoid as much revision as possible but for her to say that we need to let your writing be imperfect at first in order to get started and get going was eye opening for me. I think for me knowing that it’s okay to be all over the place and incomplete is a good thing because I tend to struggle later in the revision process because I wanted to make the first on so good that when I get to the second or third draft I struggle on where to make my writing better or where areas need work because I become almost vision clouded on my writing.
As a whole I liked how Lamott puts an emphasis on your taking your time and letting go of being perfect because in the long run it only helps you as a writer to slow down your process and that’s something I hope I can use when I do my own writings.