I really needed to read pages 20-31 in Bird by Bird. Not because I had to for this assignment, but because these pages centered on one of my biggest problems as a writer. Pages 21-27 focus on the idea of a shitty first draft, something that I’ve talked about with my peers in multiple classes. Despite the fact that I’ve had this idea pounded into my head for almost two semesters, it’s just now starting to take root. First drafts, as said in BBB, are supposed to be crap. They’re supposed to suck. First drafts are essentially word vomit. We, as writers, have to get something out in order to make anything at all. This ties in with perfectionism, the other topic discussed on pages 27-31. I’m still trying to get over my own perfectionism because I can tell that it holds me back from writing. It keeps me from word vomiting and getting something down on the page. For me, I look at my writing, sentence by sentence, and see every minute error and immediately decide that what I’m working on is shit and should never ever be seen by anyone. My partner typically looks at my work while I’m like this (picture a very tired education major reading one paragraph while a very dramatic and inconsolable writer is face-down on the floor contemplating suicide), and then she’ll say, “I like it” or “There are some errors, sure, but aren’t you still figuring it out?”. Even my partner understands the importance of first drafts, but my perfectionism gets in the way of truly getting anything done. Lately, I’ve really just tried to write without worrying about making it “good”. I think Lamott summarizes this well when she writes, “You can still discover new treasures under all those piles [of clutter], clean things up, edit things out, fix things, get a grip” (pg 28-29). Clutter, in essence, can be beautiful. It shows us that we are human, and what is writing without humanity? I guess I do need to get a grip on perfectionism. I really enjoyed the exercise on page 27, where Lamott says to turn the voices in your head into a little mouse and then lock it away in a jar. It seems like a good way to minimize the effect of whatever you’re telling yourself. Also, the imagery is pretty humorous.