Dorien

  • Hometown: San Diego
  • Bored of SD, could use a change in scenery
  • Interested in robotics, aviation, rocketry, legos
  • Memorized 505 by Arctic Monkeys
  • Wants to learn more about rocketry, aerospace

Shitty First Drafts

First Off

  • Every writer starts with shitty first drafts
  • The most important thing is getting your thoughts flowing out of your brain
    and on to paper!
  • Getting started with writing is the hardest part

Shitty First Drafts Responses

  1. The people who haven’t gone through the process of forcing yourself to
    write even when your brain isn’t flowing think that all good writers write
    elegant first drafts.
  2. Lamott says “more or less” to express that for her, the writing process is
    always plagued by uncertainty and non-uniformity. Even though she has been
    through the process of writing shitty first drafts many times, they always
    feel like “shitty first drafts” with no clear structure, just a brain dump.
    I believe that this is the same feeling that most writers share.
  3. First drafts are more about the process.

The Art of Pre-Writing

Start with reading critically: the prompt, course materials, any additional
sources.
Concept Mapping

  • Gather all of the evidence relevant to your paper and visualize it
  • Draw connections between the pieces of evidence
    Developing a Thesis Claim
  • Look at the connections on your concept map: these are your themes
  • Draft a thesis claim that addresses the prompt, drawing on your themes
    Outlining
  • Develop the structure for your paper: What organization will help you argue
    effectively for your thesis claim?