Writing my first draft was similar to how Lamott described her writing process. It was hard to begin writing and then it felt as though I was just typing away at nonsense, to even have it come out well is a surprised. Personally, writing is hard, to get out everything in my brain and have it be cohesive is a struggle for me. Seeing that even writers struggle with drafts and ideas makes me feel a lot better about my own first drafts. Writing shouldn’t be a burden, but is often seen as one. Nothing about Lamott’s essay was offensive, its her own perceptive on her writing process which is unique to everyone.

My goal and my strategy in writing this paper and for future papers is to be authentic, this includes not worrying about how my first draft comes out but writing and then finding a good paper within my thoughts. Sometimes I psych myself out and worry and this creates writers block and can be very difficult to come back from. To help myself from writers block I need to allow myself to just write, and then find my concept and write again. My biggest challenge is letting go of the way we were taught to write for most of our lives. I was taught that writing should be one draft and timed and that was your finished piece, in high school this changed into being writing a set prompt and everyone’s papers looked the same. Writing freely is so different form how I was taught and it is eyeopening. I plan on using free writing a lot more to help get my hand going and when in doubt take time to really nail my paper. Having a teacher who comes from a creative background is helpful because she can help as well. Having a school and a teacher as a resource is very helpful.