Blog 6: First Drafts

To create my first draft of the rhetorical ecology project, I used the brainstorm we made in class as a jumping off point. Once I knew what I wanted my project to be about and what some of the branches coming off of it were going to be, it was a lot easier to start the draft. From there, I thought about more ideas for branches and added those to the mind map. I also separated some of my branches that were too vague into multiple branches. After coming up with the ten branches, I thought of what could branch off of those initial bubbles. For example things like snacks, time of day, and background music branch off of the player’s mood bubble. It took around 30 minutes to create the draft, but before I started drafting, I had been periodically thinking of ideas for it and adding notes to my outline. I wrote the draft in the library on Wednesday afternoon. The writing process for the draft felt pretty good; having an outline to work off of from my brainstorm and other ideas was very helpful. For me, one of the hardest parts of the writing process is getting started, so starting off small and low-pressure with an outline and then a first draft is very beneficial for me.

The “Shitty First Drafts” piece by Anne Lamott was very helpful, it reinforced the idea that the first draft is just a starting point and doesn’t have to be amazing. A first draft is important for getting the ideas out onto the page, but one should try not to worry too much at this stage about if the final product is going to be good. By reducing the pressure one places on themselves, it makes it easier to get started and for creativity to flow.