blog#5

Mark Mason’s first draft was a masterpiece compared to any first draft I’ve produced in my lifetime. I noticed he left much of what he had in his first draft in the final draft. But as the drafts progressed he added more substance, he delved deeper into his points, he wrote an attention grabbing introduction, and by the time the final draft was complete, the previous drafts were just measly foundations. Something I’ve learned through this class though, is to no longer judge my writing abilities based on a shitty first draft.
My number one problem when it comes to writing, or anything, is that I’m a perfectionist. So it is torture when I am forced to turn in a shitty first draft… pure torture. Because of the perfectionist curse, I’ve never liked the usual case of having a finite amount of time to finish a paper either. But aside from that, I’m really not a fluid thinker that writing just comes naturally to. When I sit down to write a paper, my thoughts are all jumbled up, and I never know how to say each one exactly. So I often find myself just staring at the screen with my hands on the keys so I at least feel like I’m moving in the right direction. But I am getting nowhere with my hands just sitting on the keyboard, and I know it the whole time. I had never really tried writing all my thoughts and ideas down at once and leaving it as a first draft before this class though. I’ve always felt like I need to have an enticing and inspirational paper the first time I write it, which could quite possibly be the reason for my shear frustration when it comes to writing. I know that it’s illogical and insane to try and write a perfect essay in one sit down. So I have admitted to myself that there is nothing wrong with starting off with a horrific first draft. With this most recent paper, my first draft showed me that I want to take a slightly different view on my topic that would be a better argument. So overall, I have never been the greatest with words, but allowing myself to revise and rethink my writing has shown me that I can indeed improve it, and that I’m not a dunce.