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Response
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Passage
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Lamott expresses disdain toward the same type of
stereotype Sarah Allen identifies: the myth of the inspired writer. Lamott
calls this a fantasy. The “uninitiated” could in other contexts separate the
novice writers from the professionals, but Lamott uses to bridge the gap;
they share a common experience: the shitty first draft.
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People tend to look at successful writers, writers who are
getting their books published and maybe even doing well financially, and
think that they sit down at their desks every morning feeling like a million
dollars, feeling great about who they are and how much talent they have and
what a great story they have to tell…But this is just the fantasy of the
uninitiated (301).
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Lamott’s main point- she will argue the significance and
effectiveness of the shitty first draft.
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In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is
to write really, really shitty first drafts.
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The first draft is unfiltered, like a child- almost a
stream of consciousness. You turn off your critical voice and let it flow
freely. That freedom should loosen you up and let your writer juices flow
(sounds gross).
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The first draft is the child’s draft, where you let it all
pour out and then let it romp all over the place…You just let this childlike
part of you channel whatever voices and visions come through and onto the
page (302).
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Lamott describes her writing process, which ultimately
fails her. Implies how undependable processes can be, and what happens when a
process fails a writer (recalls Murray, Allen)- anxiety happens
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These reviews always took two days to write. First I’d go
to a restaurant several times…(302).
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I thought I was the only one who did this. If it weren’t
for writing struggles, I’d never trim my bangs, though.
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I’d get up and study my teeth in the mirror for a while
(302).
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Is this the main fear every writer has? That someone will
see his/her work and call him/her a fraud? Plus, there is still getting over
the fact that YOU have to see your shitty draft, and YOU’RE the one who
probably already feels like an imposter.
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And no one was going to see it (302)
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Again, hints at the unreliability of writing processes.
Lamott argues against a writing process, or at least one that doesn’t begin
with purging one’s thoughts down unfiltered.
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I would eventually let myself trust the process…I’d write
a first draft that was maybe twice as long as it should be (303).
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This is an intriguing statement. I immediately wonder: how
do writing and telepathy go together?
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All the arts depend upon telepathy to some degree, but I
believe that writing offers the purest distillation (King 305).
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Writers and readers share some sort of connection that
transcends time and space: telepathy.
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So let’s assume that you’re in your favorite receiving
place just as I am in the place where I do my best transmitting. We’ll have
to perform our mentalist routine not just over distance but over time as
well… (306).
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Words elicit essentially the same images. So words also
connect not only the writer and the reader, but all readers, because they
imagine nearly the same things.
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Do we see the same thing? We’d have to get together and
compare notes to make absolutely sure, but I think we do. There will be
necessary variations, of course… (306)
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Thus, telepathy.
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We’re having a meeting of the minds (307)
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This is a rather jarring transition and conclusion. How
does King make the leap from writing as telepathy to taking it so seriously?
Because of what it’s capable of doing. It is a medium that connects people
throughout time and space- that’s an extraordinary feat, according to King.
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Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank
page (307).
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Diaz describes his bought with writer’s block. Another
transgression from the myth of the natural, inspired writer pointed out by
Allen.
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My novel, which I had started with such hope shortly after
publishing my first book of stories, wouldn’t budge past the 75-page mark
(319).
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This shows Diaz’s determination and motivation,
characteristics of the real writer; success comes from hard work and drive,
not natural or god given talent.
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Want to talk about stubborn? I kept at it for five
straight years (319)
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Describes problems that the myth of the inspired writer
causes- a desperate reliance or hope for magical or miracle inspiration to
hit.
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Waiting, hoping, praying for the book, for my writing, for
my talent to catch fire (320).
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Sort of similar to the waiting for a miracle thing as
stated above, but this section also makes me think about Murray’s incubation
period (Berkenkotter). Putting things on the backburner and just letting
things marinate a bit before returning to them.
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So I became a normal. A square. I didn’t go to bookstores
or read the Sunday book section of the Times…I spent long hours in my writing
room, sprawled on the floor, with the list on my chest, waiting for the
promise of those words to leak through the paper into me” (320).
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Again, it’s the motivation and drive that gets a writer
through the stuggle/writer’s block. Perseverance.
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I didn’t have the heart to go on. But I guess I did (320)
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