After reading Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts”, I noticed many similarities between my experience with my own first draft and hers. I specifically found the revision process was something we both have in common. When I was in high school, I did the same exact thing after I would write my first drafts, just sit down with a sharpie and see what I wanted to cut out and what I wanted to stay. I loved what Lamott said about the first draft being a child’s draft and essentially just having word vomit and getting everything you want to say out of your system. I really enjoyed her conclusion as well about describing the first draft as the “down draft”, the second as the “up draft” and the third as the “dental draft”. I thought that was very original and witty.
As far as my revision strategy plan goes, I plan to do what I previously mentioned before with my sharpies, but I plan on using a form of color coding with some colored pencils for reorganizing my paper and also using a highlighter to find my “big ideas” and make sure they are the topic of each individual paragraph.
Hey Taylor, you seem to have your plan under wraps. Color coding sounds like a great idea, that’ll help you really highlight what you wanna focus on and move topics around as necessary. If you’re a visual learner, you could always consider printing your essay and cutting the individual paragraphs so you can focus on one ‘big idea’ at a time. Good luck!
In general, our editing styles are some what similar. I try to get what I want to say on paper in an organized way for the first draft. After, I reread my essay and mark up my paper with a pen. I cross stuff out and rearrange sentences. Lamott stated in her essay that it’s okay to have your rough draft be messy and a jumble of thoughts. I try to understand that this is okay to start with, but naturally I try to perfect my writing as I go.
I really like your idea for an editing style! I don’t have a particular editing style that I use every time I’m editing, maybe I will try color coding like you said. This will help me reorganize all of my thoughts and what I’m trying to say because I definitely need help with that.