Week 3 Response

Lamott uses a very casual writing style to ease the reader into a subject that can be stressful or even downright frightening. Lamott makes the reader feel comfortable by using an informal and personal style of writing. The reader can feel Lamott's stress about writing first drafts which allows them to feel better about his or her own first draft. Lamott also makes the reader feel comfortable with writing their own first draft by showing how hard and nerve racking it can be for her to write a first draft, even though she is a professional writer. Lamott relaxes the reader which allows her point of not being too nervous about how bad a first draft can be, and that it is all right for first drafts to be bad, to come across quite clearly.
The best suggestions that Lamott makes about first drafts are to sit down and just write it, and to let it sit for awhile and then come back and make changes. Her suggestion of just writing the draft is definitely my favorite and most helpful. I find that it is much harder to sit and think about writing a first draft than it is to just sit down and go for it. It can be surprising how well a first draft can start flowing once it has been started. Lamott's other suggestion of leaving the draft alone for a while is one that I had never really thought about. It makes sense that by letting the draft sit in your sub-conscious for a little wile, it allows you to look at it from a different state of mind than the one you were in when you wrote it. It gives your brain a chance to settle down so you can go back and look it over and make the necessary changes without driving yourself crazy trying to do everything at once.