All my friends in my program and I, we're all doing the same thing this week, during our "Spring Break": trying to make decent headway on our Master's Writing Project essays.
Every time I begin a new draft, I feel like I am purging myself of all my ideas and trying to force them into a Word document. Once it is all there, I can take a deep breath and begin the part of writing I enjoy-- the making it sound right part. I love that part. I do not like the purging. Sometimes I start trying to make it sound right while purging and I get unbelievably frustrated.
Nearly every time I begin a new draft, I think I must be the only one who suffers this difficulty. Then I remember Anne Lamott's discussion of "Shitty First Drafts" from her book, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. A good excerpt is available online here. If you're in the midst of a shitty first draft, or you're trying to force yourself to begin one, or you want to feel good about the fact that you've moved onto the second draft, please read it.
And if your Writing Project director actually told you that you could just "revise" the paper you already wrote, and you therefore do not have to write a shitty first draft this time around, keep that to yourself. I don't want to hear it.
Time to refill the coffee mug and get back to purging.
This is the scene on my dining room table. I promise that it is not staged. This is really what it "Liz is writing" looks like.
a)LOVE "Bird by Bird"
ReplyDeleteb)How do you manage to write at the kitchen table? Where is Billy when this happens? If I tried to write at the kitchen table, Jon and I would argue about appropriate TV volume levels, Dixie would begin barking incessantly, and my paper would become a colossal mess. Props to you. This is quite a feat.
Billy was at work, but we don't have a TV on the main level. I love having a tv-free zone!
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