Blog 6

Writing the first draft of anything is supposed to be messy and uncoordinated. In her piece Shitty First Drafts, Anne Lamott explains how writing is a process and is not done perfectly during the first draft. I can definitely relate to this when I compare it to the first draft of my metaphor essay. While writing my essay, I had a hard time starting because I had so many ideas that I wanted to get on the page that I just did not know how to start. Lamott describes a similar experience her friend has when says, “you can either type, or kill yourelf,” before he starts. She also describes how a first draft is a lot of putting nonsense and irrelevant points into the piece because no one will see it and it can be erased later. I definitely felt that while writing my piece and have felt it in past essays I’ve written. I tend to over elaborate which makes my work very wordy and it just becomes word vomit. I know that I can go back during my second draft and try and revise this. I agree with Anne Lamott that the first draft should not be treated overly seriously because they can be fixed later.

After going through a peer review of my essay about metaphors and mental health, I think I have a good idea of what direction I want to stir my piece towards. One goal that I have for my essay is that I was under 1200 words in my first draft. Though I was very close to this I still needed about fifty more words, so I plan to add more details. I hope by doing this I can give more examples that will further support my argument. Along with that, I also need to add at least one more quote from Geary. Another goal that I have is that I want to go back and reread my piece to make sure it makes sense. It was brought up during my peer review that I have a lot of repeated sentences and run on sentences. I am planning on revising and fixing these in my next draft. Going back and rereading my essay is going to be the first step that I make while revising. Though there are other important elements that I need to take care of, it is most important that I fix and repetition or any unclarity. After this I plan to evaluate the quote one of my peers gave me and decide how well it fits into my piece. If it does not work then I will go back to the original texts and try to find quotes. One of my peers also gave me multiple places where I can put “I say” statements to make my writing flow better. I  plan to look at these places and decide if they fit. Once I have done this I plan to reread my essay again, this time looking for grammatical mistakes. At this point I will judge if my essay is done being revised or if there is anything else I think needs to be changed or added. I think the biggest challenge I am going to have while revising is going to be taking out repeating sentences. As a writer I tend to over explain my topic/argument, which means that I repeat information that I have already said. I often feel like without doing this I am not giving the reader a clear understanding of the text, even though I know this is not true. If some sort of problem does come up while I am revising my work, there are multiple things I can do to help myself. What I would probably do first is to set my work aside, and take a mental break to calm and collect myself. After this if I am still having problems I could have one or two of my peers read over my essay and ask for their advice. Is there anything you think I could do better here? If this does not work than I will email the teacher with my question and wait to hear her advice. I think the best way to deal with a problem while writing is to ask the advice of others.