Embracing the Shitty First Draft

I didn’t come up with the idea of the Shitty First Draft, but boy do I find it helpful. (I think I might have read it in a book by Anne Lamott, here’s a great post about her writing advice.)

Here’s how it works:

Option1: I approach a creative project from the perspective of “This must be perfect!”

I’m immediately tense.

“I have to get it just right!! Ahhhhh!”

Often this paralyzing fear keeps me from even beginning a project, which is sad. I believe the world wants creative projects to be born.

Option 2: I approach a creative project from the perspective of “This will be a shitty first draft.”

I’m relaxed, ready for fun.

I know I can always go back and fix the project later, but I can settle into the comfortable low expectations of creating a SFD. *

Currently, pretty much all of my projects are SFDs. I’ve spent many previous years TERRIFIED of putting a comma in the wrong place. And I haven’t ever shown any of my drawings or other artwork in a public way because I’ve been worried it wasn’t “good enough,” or, more accurately, that it wasn’t “Real Art.”

At this point, I don’t care if my art is “Real” or not. (Ultimately, whether art is “real” or not is an existential question on the nature of our perceived reality anyway, right?) My art/writing is mine, I’ve made it, and I feel deeply that it wants to be shared.

This is all to say that if this blog feels piecemeal or unfinished, it is because it is. The whole thing is a Shitty First Draft.

 

 

*I TLA’d Shitty First Draft! SFD FTW!