Shitty First Drafts

I find it comforting to learn that I am not the only person that struggles to squeeze some sort of decent writing out on the page. When i sit down to write my first draft I often times find my self surrounded by several wadded up shitty first drafts that failed to make it into the wastebasket. "The first draft is the child's draft.."(P.75) I agree with the child's draft statement fully, when i finally manage to get something on the paper often times it sounds as if i am reading it from one of my elementary school assignments. As the author says though "... no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later." 

Lamott makes a good point when she states, "... good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere."(P.77) The place I always start is somewhere between fourth and fifth grade but it is a start, it can only go uphill from there. 

I plan on taking some of the authors advice when it comes to letting your inner child romp all over the page on that first draft.(P.75) I usually tend to hold back ideas that I might think are dumb at the time but if I have them down they might prove helpful later in my writing.

Reid, Stephen. Purpose and Process: A reader for Writers Fifth Edition 

New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2004.