Blog One SFD

(290 Words)

In the article “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamotte, she talks about the first draft of writing being like a “child’s draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place…” (para.4). I really like that way of putting it. The idea seems to be, throwing words at the paper and seeing what sticks when you’re done.

People tend to think of children as innocent and uninhibited. Treat the first draft that way and you’ll probably get a few nuggets out of it that you otherwise wouldn’t if you were all ‘self conscious’, trying to wordsmith a piece of art on the first shot.

Where I come from, children are vile parasitic beasts that know no law but chaos. Lamotte’s idea still holds up.  Look no further than myself, an avid consumer of eloquent words. A Novel Gourmet, if you will. I consume my ‘sustenance’ in all its forms, video and audio with a heavy helping of the ol’ written word. Inspired as I am, I’ve never been able to put pen to paper. Much like an aspiring artist fearing the canvas. He sees his own potential from a lofty seat upon the shoulders of giants like da Vinci and van Gogh.

Yet here I am today, driven by the life and death situation of college grades, and that innocuous piece of advice from Lamotte, I’ve let loose a demon child. Much like the spread of a nasty virus, words populated the page with wanton abandon. There were mistakes and there were edits. You now have the pleasure(?) of reading those words with a thinly veiled threat of more to come.

And heres my name to say so.

D.A. Mills