Source: Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird (1994), Ch. "Shitty First Drafts"
Tags: shitty first drafts, Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, writing process, drafting, revision, first draft, second draft, dental draft, child's draft, down draft, up draft, creative writing process, composition
All good writers produce terrible first drafts, and the finished work only emerges through multiple rounds of revision. Lamott argues that the fantasy of sitting down and writing polished prose in one pass is exactly that: a fantasy. She introduces a practical three-draft framework (down draft, up draft, dental draft) that normalises messy beginnings and treats revision as the real work of writing.
Shitty first draft
The initial attempt at any piece of writing, expected to be messy, overlong, and generally awful. Lamott's core claim is that every good writer produces one, and accepting this is what makes the rest of the process possible.
Child's draft
Lamott's name for the first draft, where the writer lets everything pour out without restraint, as a child would. Logic, structure, and quality control come later. The point is volume and freedom, not coherence.
Down draft
The first draft in Lamott's three-draft model. The only goal is to get it down on paper. Nothing else matters at this stage.
Up draft
The second draft. Here the writer fixes the first draft up, tries to say more accurately what they meant, and begins shaping the material into something coherent.
Dental draft
The third and final draft. The writer checks every tooth: every sentence, word choice, and structural joint. Is anything loose, cramped, or decayed? This is the fine-grained editing pass.
People tend to look at published, successful writers and assume they sit down each morning feeling confident, inspired, and ready to type fully formed passages at speed.
Lamott calls this "just the fantasy of the uninitiated." She knows very great writers, people who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident.
Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. (She notes one exception, but adds: "we do not like her very much.")
Very few writers know what they are doing until they have done it. They do not feel dewy and thrilled. They type a few stiff warm-up sentences, then find themselves bounding along "like huskies across the snow."
One writer Lamott knows tells himself every morning: "It's not like you don't have a choice, because you do: you can either type or kill yourself."
Writers often feel like they are pulling teeth. The right words and sentences do not pour out like ticker tape.
Muriel Spark is said to have felt she was taking dictation from God every morning, plugged into a Dictaphone, typing away, humming. Lamott's comment: "But this is a very hostile and aggressive position. One might hope for bad things to rain down on a person like this."
For Lamott and most writers she knows, writing is not rapturous. The only way to get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts.
The first draft is where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place. No one is going to see it, and you can shape it later.
You let the childlike part of yourself channel whatever voices and visions come through and onto the page.
If one of the characters wants to say, "Well, so what, Mr. Poopy Pants?", you let her. No one is going to see it.
If the writing wants to get sentimental, weepy, or deeply emotional, you let it. Just get it all down on paper.
There may be something great buried in those six crazy pages that you would never have reached by more rational, grown-up means.
There may be something in the very last line of the very last paragraph on page six that is so beautiful or wild that you now know what you are supposed to be writing about, or in what direction to go. But there was no way to get there without first getting through the first five and a half pages.
A friend of Lamott's describes the drafts this way:
The first draft is the down draft. You just get it down. That is the entire job.
The second draft is the up draft. You fix it up. You try to say what you have to say more accurately.
The third draft is the dental draft. You check every tooth, to see if it is loose or cramped or decayed, or even healthy.
Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something, anything, down on paper.
⚠️ Lamott's central argument is a process claim, not just encouragement. She is saying that bad first drafts are structurally necessary, not merely forgivable. The good material is often inaccessible without writing through the bad material first.
⚠️ The three-draft framework (down, up, dental) is a commonly tested concept. Be able to name all three and explain what each draft's purpose is.
⚠️ Lamott is dismantling a specific myth: the image of the writer who produces polished prose in a single, inspired sitting. If an exam question asks what assumption Lamott is arguing against, this is the answer.
⚠️ The "child's draft" concept connects to ideas about freewriting and silencing the internal editor. Lamott's version is distinctive because she frames it as childlike play, not just speed-writing.
Q: What is Lamott's central claim about first drafts?
A: All good writers write shitty first drafts. Polished writing is the product of revision, not of an inspired first attempt. The messy first draft is a necessary stage, not a failure.
Q: What are the three drafts in Lamott's framework, and what is each one for?
A: The down draft (get it down), the up draft (fix it up, say what you mean more accurately), and the dental draft (check every sentence and word for problems, like checking every tooth).
Q: Why does Lamott call the first draft the "child's draft"?
A: Because the writer should let their childlike, uncensored self take over, channelling whatever comes to mind without worrying about quality, logic, or structure. The freedom of a child's imagination is the point.
Q: What myth about professional writers does Lamott challenge?
A: The myth that successful writers sit down each morning feeling confident and inspired, then type polished prose effortlessly. Lamott insists that even the most accomplished writers struggle with first drafts and do not produce elegant writing on the first pass.
Q: How does Lamott argue that the messy first draft is structurally necessary, not just tolerable?
A: She points out that good material is often buried on page five or six, in the last paragraph, and that there is no way to reach it without writing through the bad pages first. The mess is the path to the discovery.
shitty first drafts, Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, writing process, drafting and revision, child's draft, down draft, up draft, dental draft, freewriting, process writing, revision stages, creative writing, first draft anxiety, writing myths, composition theory, three-draft model, ENG R1A, UC Berkeley