Featured book:

Lamott, Anne, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, New York, Pantheon Books, 1994.

You may know of this time-honored advice for beginning writers. The book appears on reading lists for many writing conferences and courses. You can find Bird by Bird in hard-copy or e-book from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or other book sellers. Many libraries house it on their shelves under 808.02.

What this book meant to me as a new writer:

I read this during the time I worked on my first novel, the one driving many of us, the one often described as the novel burning within. Each time I wrote, the intimidation factor of the remaining story kept my stomach churning. I was afraid I would forget something critical. I didn’t know how to focus without losing a key scene I wanted to include later in the story.

I was lucky to find Bird by Bird during this time, because Anne Lamott’s advice helped me calm the clashing anxieties and ignore the mountain ahead so I could focus on my work. Each day, I wrote what amounted to a boxcar piece of the story. Eventually, the cars populated the tracks and looked like a train. I was relieved and thrilled to reach the end of the novel. I knew the editing road would be long, but completing the story proved to me I could do it.

If you have ideas but don’t know how to shape the story, Bird by Bird is as much about the approach to writing as the tools you need. It is practical and motivating. Lamott shares her personal experiences in the process of writing and the realities of working with a publisher.

This is an invaluable resource for any aspiring writer. When you read it, you’ll realize why it has stayed at or near the top of the list of books on writing for so many years.

A closer look at the book:

The simplest approach to a school project, Lamott’s father advised her brother when they were young, is bird by bird. She applies his advice to writing prose. Her book is specific about the craft, but also personal and emotional, far from a traditional text.

I took to heart her powerful suggestion to view our work as if we were looking at a mountain range through a miniature picture frame. Only write the part in the tiny frame, she says. Trying to write the mountain range all at once can be self-defeating.

Her chapters includes basics like character, plot, and dialogue, but also intriguing topics such as shitty first drafts, perfectionism, false starts, how you know when you’re done, the writing frame of mind, the moral point of view, jealousy, writing groups, and finding your voice.

I love a paragraph near the end of the book: “If something inside you is real, we will probably find it interesting, and it will probably be universal. So you must risk placing real emotion at the center of your work.  Write straight into the emotional center of things.  Write toward vulnerability.  Don’t worry about appearing sentimental.  Worry about being unavailable; worry about being absent or fraudulent.  Risk being unliked.  Tell the truth as you understand it.  If you’re a writer, you have a moral obligation to do this.  And it is a revolutionary act–truth is always subversive.”