{"id":4820,"date":"2016-06-05T22:30:57","date_gmt":"2016-06-05T12:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/?p=4820"},"modified":"2016-12-16T16:49:15","modified_gmt":"2016-12-16T05:49:15","slug":"bird-by-bird-some-instructions-on-writing-and-life-by-anne-lamott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/bird-by-bird-some-instructions-on-writing-and-life-by-anne-lamott\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life\u2019 by Anne Lamott"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although I\u2019d seen many recommendations for Anne Lamott<\/a>\u2019s Bird by Bird<\/em>1<\/a><\/sup>, I put off reading it because it sounded a bit too mystical for my tastes. In fact, this book is<\/em> fairly big on spirituality, with the author frequently referring to God or her church or her pastor\u2019s advice, but it\u2019s balanced with a healthy sense of humour. For example, she explains that she begins each day of writing with a prayer and recommends that all writers use some form of ritual:<\/p>\n

\u201cTry it. Any number of things may work for you \u2013 an altar, for instance, or votive candles, sage smudges, small animal sacrifices, especially now that the Supreme Court has legalized them. (I cut out the headline the day this news came out and taped it above the kitty\u2019s water dish.)\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"'BirdHowever, most of the book consists of sensible advice about various aspects of fiction-writing, including plotting, creating a setting, developing characters and writing plausible dialogue. She advises writers who feel overwhelmed by the thought of writing an entire novel to begin with \u201cshort assignments\u201d and to visualise scenes through a \u201cone-inch picture frame\u201d, because as E. L. Doctorow noted, \u201cwriting a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also explains that \u201cperfectionism will ruin your writing\u201d and emphasises that all first drafts are terrible:<\/p>\n

\u201cI know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one<\/strong> of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much. We do not think she has a rich inner life or that God likes her or can even stand her.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I especially liked Lamott\u2019s description of how to know when you\u2019re finally \u201cdone\u201d with writing your final draft, the process of which is like \u201cputting an octopus to bed\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get a bunch of the octopus\u2019s arms neatly tucked under the covers \u2013 that is, you\u2019ve come up with a plot, resolved the conflict between the two main characters, gotten the tone down pat \u2013 but two arms are still flailing around . Maybe the dialogue in the first half and the second half don\u2019t match, or there is that one character who still seems one-dimensional. But you finally get those arms under the sheets, too, and are about to turn out the lights when another long sucking arm breaks free.<\/p>\n

This will probably happen when you are sitting at your desk, kneading your face, feeling burned out and rubberized. Then, even though all the sucking disks on that one tentacle are puckering open and closed, and the slit-shaped pupils of the octopus are looking derisively at you, as if it might suck you to death just because it\u2019s bored, and even though you know your manuscript is not perfect and you\u2019d hoped for so much more, but you also know that there is simply no more steam in the pressure cooker and that it\u2019s the very best you can do for now \u2013 well? I think this means that you are done.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I didn’t agree with everything Lamott had to say about writing (for example, she is opposed to planning and dislikes \u201cthe rational mind\u201d), but she discusses it all with such warmth and charm that I enjoyed reading and considering her thoughts. This book is highly recommended for both beginning writers looking for practical advice and encouragement, and more experienced writers seeking inspiration.<\/p>\n

You might also be interested in reading:<\/p>\n

‘On Writing’ by Stephen King<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

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  1. By the way, the book\u2019s title comes from advice her writer father gave to her ten-year-old brother, who was overwhelmed by the task of writing a huge school report on birds that was due the next day: \u201cBird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.\u201d ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Although I\u2019d seen many recommendations for Anne Lamott\u2019s Bird by Bird1, I put off reading it because it sounded a bit too mystical for my tastes. In fact, this book is fairly big on spirituality, with the author frequently referring to God or her church or her pastor\u2019s advice, but it\u2019s balanced with a healthy … Continue reading \u2018Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life\u2019 by Anne Lamott<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,18,8],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-4820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-my-favourite-books","category-this-writing-life","tag-anne-lamott"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4820"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4830,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4820\/revisions\/4830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}