Journal 3

After reading "Shitty First Drafts" by Anne Lamott i realized that everyone goes through the same issues that I do. When i start writing i sit down at my computer and have no idea what's about to happen. I just type away not worrying what i say praying that what I am saying will eventually make sense. At first when i was young and used to do this i would always get worried that my writing would suck and i would never be able to fix it. But just like Lamott said "you learn to trust the process". It took a while before i realized that i go through the same thing every time i try to write so it eventually will all work out. This is the same thing that happened to me while writing my personal memoir. I started by having trouble thinking of a topic. I went through my life and was trying to pick a moment in my life that was not only important to me but also that people would not be bored of when reading. When i finally picked my topic i had to think of every little detail of that moment. When i first wrote i was putting in pointless ideas that no one would want to read and that would make my paper way to long. Just like Lamott i went back through the paper and took out the things that would not make any sense and that were pointless to put in the paper. My story got better and better after i went through it and fixed it up. But just like Lamott i felt awful after writing it all day. I was worrying that my first college essay ever would be shitty and it would start a terrible trend where i can not write anything. I realize now that everyone goes through the same thing no one can just write off the top of their head and produce an A paper. I always thought like Lamott said that all of these famous writers were able to just write and write and everything would make sense and it would be a hit. Now i know that even the famous authors need to write drafts and everything does not make sense the first time you write it. Even when seeing everyone peer edit in school i know that everyone in our class went through the same thing. Not one person in the class turned in a rough draft that did not need one correction. This is because writing is not an easy thing to do. Everyone has these great ideas in their head and want to write about them but once they sit down to write nothing comes out like they want it to. All i know is that from now on when i am about to write a paper i am going to change my process. I will sit down and write as much as i can even the little pointless details and then go back and take them out. It is always better to have to long of a paper with a lot of detail then to short of one with no detail at all.