Bobby Rock

The Bobby Rock Newsletter #51 (3-26-2022) - Shitty First Drafts

Hey Gang -

I hope everyone is well today. I’m back in LA after a few fun days of recording in Vegas (perhaps a bit more on that soon), and all is a stone groove here at home. Let’s dive right into this week's edition:

• From the world of writing and authorship comes one of the more helpful life lessons around: Shitty First Drafts!
  
  
• Rare Old Photo... with a bit of backstory: my first serious band in high school
  
  
• Health Beat: a quick Q&A on the fake meat phenomenon: Beyond and Impossible burgers
  

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Friends, life is indeed fragile.
RIP fellow brother drummer, Taylor Hawkins.
Damn.
(pic by Alex Solca)

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Shitty First Drafts

In her book, Bird By Bird, author Anne Lamott shares a variety of wisdom for writing and life. One of my favorite concepts she gets into is this idea of “Shitty First Drafts.” And as I’ll explain, this advice can be life-changing for virtually everyone, even if writing isn’t your thing. Here’s the overview:

Writing and publishing a book is a hell of a complex journey. For at least 99% of all authors, the process entails writing multiple drafts (versions) of the book before it ever goes to press. For example, the first draft is typically very rough, showing decent potential but riddled with lumpy sentences, rambling paragraphs, and horrendous grammatical infractions. And then there’s the really bad stuff! Seriously, a first draft isn't pretty, but once completed, you can go back through it and start tightening things up: fixing this, deleting that, adding more here, etc. This usually requires a second, third, or even fourth draft. From there, you might send a few copies to some “beta-readers” for feedback and input, which then leads to more revisions and at least another draft or two… before you bring in an editor and the fun really begins.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes peek at a page from my last book, 
The Boy Is Gonna Rock, midstream in the editing process.
You can see my editor’s (Nancy Bryan) comments and notations.
This is just one page… after multiple drafts!

The point is, nothing will move forward, and the work cannot evolve, without that completed first draft.

The problem is, virtually all writers have a hell of a time getting out of their own way long enough to actually complete that first draft.

We want shit to be perfect out of the gate; we become hyper-critical of our ideas; we start micro-editing sentences prematurely and wasting untold amounts of time polishing paragraphs that might not even survive the first draft; we question our abilities, our ideas, the viability of the entire project, etc., all before we’ve even made it beyond the first chapter! And then, of course, we find any reason at all not to put our ass in the chair and work… which leads to endless procrastination and delay. Hell, it’s a wonder writers are able to finish anything at all.

Here’s where the Shitty First Draft concept not only saves the day for pro writers, but for anyone who needs to compose or create, well, virtually anything: a business proposal, email, love letter, screenplay, resume, song, life goals list, mission statement, vacation itinerary… hell, anything.

The concept is simple: accept the fact that your first attempt at it will be shitty—and create it anyway.

Let’s say you have to write an email to a biz associate where you need to address some delicate issues. A Shitty First Draft will be fast and rough. You will be writing quickly, from the top of your head. Ideas will be spewing forth out of proper sequence, you will be misspelling words, and completing throwaway sentences that you will regret writing as you are writing them. Who cares? No need to fix anything yet. Just "get the black on the white" (the words on the page). This is a Shitty First Draft. No one else will ever see it.

This is essentially the dumping of the puzzle pieces on the table and, at least, turning them all upward for your assessment on what will go where. It doesn’t matter how messy that part of the process is. You just need to be able to see all the pieces so you can accurately evaluate how to put them all together properly. And this is precisely what you will begin to do during your second draft of whatever it is you’re working on.

The other cool thing about this process is, for as shitty as much of it will be, the reckless and wild, stream-of-consciousness nature of this approach can be so liberating for your child-like, creative right-brain sensibilities, that you may inadvertently produce some real gems: new ideas or even complete sentences or paragraphs that will wind up in your final draft. These would not likely have happened had you remained in the analytical left-brain mode, hyper-analyzing every word as you wrote them.

The bottom line is this: it is always, always, always easier to revise and improve upon something that is already in existence—like a Shitty First Draft—than to try and create something out of mid-air... like the dreaded blank page that every writer must initially face.

So just begin.

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A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words:
My Old Band!

Throwing’ it back to ’79 with Tour de Force, my main band from high school. I was 16 here, and we had just finished a show, which were typically parties back then. That’s Watson Davis on the left (guitar) and Gary Pinkstaff (bass) in the center, my brothers for life. We never had a singer, so we started out doing instrumental versions of hard rock standards (“Tie Your Mother Down,” “Highway Star,” etc), but then transitioned into a Rush-inspired progressive rock band, doing some fairly sophisticated shit by my senior year. I really got lucky being able to play with musicians of this caliber as a youngster.

PS. The playing-shirtless thing was something that started early on, partially because Tommy Aldridge always went shirtless, but also out of practicality: I’ve always sweat my ass off behind the kit. (Dig those pants!)

PSS. Gary’s shirt says, “I Would Rather Eat Barbwire Than Listen To Disco.” This was a typical expression of disdain that we rockers felt back then for this unwelcome new form of music!

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Health Beat - Quick BR Q&A

The “Fake Meat” Phenomenon:
"What’s your take on these Beyond or Impossible Burgers?"

"Do you ever eat Beyond or Impossible burgers?"

Fuck yes! They are both incredible. I’ll even have them with fries sometimes.

"Are they a regular part of your healthy eating regimen?"

Fuck no! These are NOT healthy foods! They still have a ton of saturated fat, sodium, and a bunch of other suspect ingredients in them. So… I would consider them recreational foods to enjoy occasionally. 

"Would you recommend them to non-vegans?"

Sure. I believe they are still healthier for you than “regular” beef burgers. Plus, given the volume of animal products most folks consume, any time you can give your body a reprieve from an animal-based version of something by enjoying a plant-based version of it, you’re better off. And any time you can do this for environmental reasons—given the insanely disproportionate amount of earthly resources needed to produce traditional animal products, especially beef—we are all better off!

"Do you think this recent "mainstream craze" of these plant-based burgers will last?"

Not at the level it currently is, unfortunately… although I hope I’m wrong about that. Until more folks embrace the concept from more of an ethical perspective, I believe it will be more of a “trend,” like the gluten-free thing, for example. However, I do think these foods will still be plenty prevalent moving forward—thankfully!

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Thanks again, everybody. Connect next week! Until then, BR _______________ For Your Quick Reference: My main website at www.bobbyrock.com is constantly updated with cool new stuff. Be sure and take a moment to sign up in the upper right-hand corner of any page on the site. It only takes a minute. This will give you a much more customized experience, and also grant you access to various members-only areas, events, etc. Tour Dates: If you are signed up to the site, you will receive an automatic email notification any time I'm playing within 150 miles of your crib. Newsletter Archives: Scope all the back issues here. There is even a Table of Contents reference so you grab an "at-a-glance" view of what's in each issue. News Feed: Stay in touch! Think of this as Facebook and Instagram rolled into one location, plus extra posts exclusive to the site. The Bobby Rock Store: Books, Music, BR drumsticks (stage-played and brand new), T-shirts, Signed 8x10s, Dragon Dirt and more... Dragon Dirt: My brand new custom superfood powder. Scope the site for tons of info!