The chapter in Lamott's book about first drafts was very informational. I could relate the piece to my own writing because for me, starting out the first draft is the hardest part of the entire essay. Sometimes I feel like I sit at my computer for hours just trying to find the prefect first sentence or attention grabber. The chapter made me realize that I was stressing about all the wrong parts of a rough draft. The rough draft should be easier and not so structured. It shouldn't matter if I use the wrong word or don't get my attention grabber just right at first. It was comforting to know that even the best authors have trouble writing their first drafts and that they don't just spew out pages of their novels like a fountain. (which it seems like in with their finished products). In the piece Lamott said that she trusted this technique more or less when writing her first drafts. I think this is because it is hard for anyone to write something without any restraints or real order. She explains that you can't have any filter when writing your first draft and just focus on putting anything down on the paper. I don't believe this is personal just to her because it would be hard for anyone to write without thinking about their finished product in mind. The chapter of her book illuminated that writing a rough draft should be a lot easier than I make it. When I am writing my first draft I try to make it perfect so that writing my final copy will be a lot easier. By reading this chapter, I realized that I could be missing out on a lot of great ideas just because I am worrying about the conventions and organization of my essay. Now, I will approach my rough draft differently. Instead of sitting at my desk and pulling my hair out to find the perfect word or sentence structure, I will just try to put my ideas on paper so that I can work with what I have later. The piece is important because I think many people go about writing their first draft just like I do. They are worried about making their rough draft sound exactly like their final draft, when really they should be worried about getting all of the ideas in their head down on paper. In the chapter, Lamott said that the fist draft was the down draft, meaning just writing your ideas down. The second draft was the up draft, or the draft that you clean up and fix. Finally, the third draft should be more like your final copy or finished product. The chapter was really helpful to read before I start writing my first draft so that I can practice this new way of writing. I hope that it helps writing my first draft of the memoir.