Like many things in life, writing a first draft is mostly about the process. Of course, the product is wonderful when it’s done and everything is how you want it to be, but you can’t get there without trial and error. Lammot writes about her doubts, worries, and irrational fears while writing her first few drafts, but once the process is over, she’s left with a beautiful piece of writing that she can say she worked hard on. A key piece of this is “trusting the process”. I know from experience that the process is difficult and uncomfortable, and sometimes it’s the last thing you want to do. As long as you know your goal and message, just let the process take its course and let it carry you until the end of the writing. Another important piece of advice she shares is to just write. Let your wildest inhibitions take over and write anything that comes to mind. She gives an example of letting yourself think that you’re a child and that any thought, whether coherent or not, should just be written down. The worst that will happen is that you don’t use the sentence, or you can just reword it to sound right. In the end, the product is often worth a difficult process, as long as you’re willing to just sit down and write.
