“Shitty first drafts” has been my motto since my freshman year of high school. I had one of the most amazing teachers that I have ever experienced, and she was the one who shared this concept with me. Whether it be creative writing, poetry, an essay, or a research paper, it is important to just write. I didn’t need to worry about what was on the page, but just that something was on the page. Typically, after a few lines of what sometimes turned out to be utter nonsense, I would be in my writing process; I would know where I wanted to go. When writing with sources, I like to have my quotes in mind, trying to incorporate where they may be or jotting down where I’d like to see one placed. I typically try to go over the word count when I draft, because due to my tendencies towards perfectionism, I cut a lot of “junk” out. When revising, I prefer to do my first run through on my own. I am a stickler for grammar, which may or may not be apparent in this journal, but I try to get those surface areas out of the way the first time through. Rereading my work leads to bolding awkward sentences and underlining words I don’t love. Only after I am mostly comfortable with what I have on the page, feeling it’s the best I can do with it, do I give it to someone else to tear apart. I need criticism. I hate being told the pieces of my work that are good; I already know–I just spent three hours on it. I enjoy reading my peers pieces to help get inspiration for how to better work my own, but I have struggled in the past with my peers not wanting to “hurt my feelings”, when reality is I have just read the piece too many times to notice little errors of my own. I have found that often peer reviewing online leads to lazy glazing over the work with the mandatory 2-3 comments saying, “nicely put.” When getting peer reviewed, I would hope to get real review
