Bird by Bird: Anne Lamott's Gift to Writers

My sister gave me Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott's treatise on writing and life, that made me laugh from cover to cover. http://www.authorsontheweb.com/features/bird-by-bird.asp

Barbie had worn it soft from numerous rereads as a kind of bible on life that she had suggested I read for some time. Finally my sis caught up with me on a family visit over Christmas and gave me her blood copy. What a gift. She handed it to me as if releasing a child in my care. This made me even more anxious to read it. Barbie is not prone to cult worship.

The advice in Bird by Bird is superb, crafted out of Lamott's life's struggles, with many good ideas for creating character, plot and dialogue. She begins with this gem in Chapter One, Getting Started: "...good writing is about telling the truth. We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason they write so very little. But we do."

Anne encourages "shitty first drafts" from which we hone the final decent drafts. She gave an example of how she begins with the one-inch frame assignment into which you write about your childhood, for example, just letting it come without the critic that haunts your writing space. In one she wrote about school lunches and rambled on until she saw the boy who always stood against the fence on the playground, the one with the muddy shoes from walking off the sidewalk to avoid notice. That is the book she will write... about the boy who stood against the fence.

Other salient advice that no one wants to hear but must: few of us will be published but all of us will be enriched. Contrary to publication curing our need for accomplisment or paying the bills, Anne poignantly describes how publication gave her no satistfaction at all, and not until her fourth publication did she come close to paying bills with her royalties. But what she does describe is coming to know oneself and being present in your own life...noticing, writing it down for your family and friends...for posterity.

After reading Bird by Bird, I kind of felt settled about the whole publication issue and began to view my writing as a life, not a destination. Maybe this is what my sister gave me for Christmas.

That we should all have sisters like my Barbara Gay and writers like Anne Lamott to remind us why we write in the first place.

Happy writing!
Susan

P.S. You have to read Bird by Bird to learn how the title came to be the core of Lamott's wisdom.

Golden Ocean

Cliffs of Moher
Near Doolin, Ireland
Photograph by Heather Williams


I have been advised by many writers that reading from the great masterpieces of literature, popular authors and what accomplished writers have to say about writing is a key to becoming an effective writer.

This I have taken to heart. What a task. Can you imagine how hard it is to treat myself to great stories, memorable characters under my comforter with a mug of hot tea or fresh ground coffee? Aye, what a labor.

Along the way, I picked up some books on tape as well. For me-a visually driven learner-listening, learning how a great writer draws my imagination forward in my mind's eye, has helped me immeasurably. Besides being very entertaining, it is helping recover words and expressions long buried in my brain. Popular culture tends to dull the imagination whereas great literature sharpens the relief.

From Patrick O'Brien's great book, The Golden Ocean, I pulled these gems over the weekend. Listen:

"dark patch of ruffled sea"
"the sun pierced in shafts through heavy clouds"
"stood mute and submissive"
"unctuous light"
"burst with turgid plums"
"vapid conversation"
"uncommon elegant notion"
"harrying visions of treasure"
"pierced through all his disregarded clamour"
"faint movement of the air"
"purple land stretched low across the sky"

The Golden Ocean, Patrick O'Brien, 1956
Performed by John Franklyn-Robbins