There were a few moments while reading Anne Lamott’s Shitty First Drafts, that I related to what she was saying. I feel as though her inner panicked monologue comes from the fact that she is creating content for others to enjoy and consume on a regular basis. When I write things, they aren’t for the public, but for classes. I can understand some of the nerves when it comes to other people reading something you wrote, not knowing if it is good enough. Yet I also know I won’t be judged how she is. Therefore there is significantly less pressure on me. One quote from her excerpt that I agree with, is “Just get it all down on paper because there may be something great in those six crazy pages.” I believe that the best tactic, like she says, is to get it all down, no matter the quality. Just get the rough brainstorm down first, and fix it up later.
With a few of these things in mind, I have come up with the following revision plan strategy after my first draft of my essay on metaphors.
My goals for the revision and second draft of my essay are not one but a few small goals combined into one. One statement that wraps each goal into a bow, it that I want to write a well thought out, descriptive, and helpful essay to any reader new to the topic of metaphors and they role they play on health. Examples of my small goals to achieve this are to write a more fleshed out/finished conclusion paragraph, add smoother transitions, and to support my arguments in each paragraph better. The steps I am planning on taking are to add more quotes in miscellaneous paragraphs that will help support my thesis/argument, add sentences between points or arguments, and add more detail of my opinions or summarize my arguments in the conclusion. I see my biggest challenge as not finding enough quotes or not finding the right quotes to help support my thesis. If this challenge comes up, I have numerous resources at my disposal to help me. One could be meeting with our class writing fellow, another could be asking a peer to review my paper or help me search for quotes! Overall I think I have a solid action plan that will help me execute this revision in the right way.
