Your Name: _____Gabriela Raya_____ Todays Date: __January 14, 2014___

Week of One through ______________________

Chapters Read This Week: Shitty First Drafts___________
Pages Read This Week: 229-232 ___
Codes: (Q) Question; (C) Connect; (P) Predict; (CL) Clarify; (R) Reflect; (E) Evaluate
Passages From Text Page #s Response and Comments
In fact, the only way I can get anything
written at all is to write really, really
crummy first drafts. The first draft is like
the childs draft, where you let it pour
out and then let it romp all over the
place, knowing that no one is going to
see it and that you can shape it later.

229 What does she mean by a really crummy
first draft?
The connection I found with this passage
and myself is that when it comes down to
writing an essay I just keep writing every
idea that comes to mind without any real
order and how I would incorporate it into
the essay in the first place.

Eventually Id go back and sit down at
my desk, and sigh for the next ten
minutes. Finally I would pick up my
one-inch picture frame, stare into it as if
for the answer, and every time the
answer would come: all I had to do was
write a really crummy first draft of, say,
the opening paragraph. And no one was
going to see it.

230 Why does she take a break to write her
crummy first draft?
I like what the author says in this passage
because she talks a little about her life and
how she looks at a picture to get the
answers when she gets stuck.
This relates to me because when I get
stuck on something I tend to just focus on
something and end up spacing out.
Almost all good writing begins with
terrible first efforts. You need to start
somewhere. Start by getting something-
anything-down on paper.

231 Why does she use the word Almost to
say that good writing begins with a
terrible start?
I predict that she had made a lot of
mistakes before she was a good writer and
I also think that she learned from all the
bumps along the way.

What Ive learned to do when I sit down
to work on a crummy first drafts is to
quiet down the voices in my head. First
theres the vinegar-lipped Reader Lady,
who says primly, Well, thats not very
interesting, is it? And theres your
thought crimes keeps those crazy,
ravenous dogs contained.
231 I wonder if she really has to get rid of the
voices in her head before going on to
write her crummy first drafts.
I disagree wit the author in this because
personally getting rid of the voices in my
head dont give me much motivation as in
having them wonder in my head pushing
me to prove them wrong.


Passages From Text Page #s Response and Comments

Then put the lid on, and watch all these
mouse people clawing at the glass,
jabbering away, trying to make you feel
crummy because you wont do what they
want wont give them more money,
wont be more successful, wont see
them more often Leave it down, and
get back to your crummy first draft.

231-
232
This passage makes me feel a bit
optimistic to how I should be able to write
a first draft whether its for an essay or
something important and I want to be
good.