Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Summary:

Anne Lamott is an American novelist, author, and writing teacher. Bird by Bird is her distillation of her writing course, along with many life lessons along the way.

Review:

If I’m honest, I’ve never read any of Anne Lamott’s works prior to this. I have heard of her, but just haven’t had the desire or chance to read her works.

That is, until I heard her speak on the How I Write podcast. I was instantly struck by how funny she is and how she brings that humor into her descriptions of life’s hardships. She spoke about the reality of becoming an author and how it takes daily effort for a long period of time that can feel like a grind and be quite discouraging. Something about that interview just gripped me and I knew I had to pick this one up.

I am glad that I did. The humor that I heard on the podcast was on full display in her book on writing and so was her openness about the pain and trauma she’s been through in this life.

She has many stories that really hit home with me. For instance, she said that her first taste of writing success was in second grade when she wrote a poem about Neil Armstrong. She got praise from her teacher, who turned into a writing contest and it won an award.

My first taste of writing success was in third grade when I wrote a short story about Neil Armstrong. My teacher told me how great it was and asked my parents for permission to enter it into a contest. I won an award and even got invited to visit the Kennedy Space Station because of it.

She also spoke at length about how writers who received such praise at young ages often struggle to complete full manuscripts when they are older, because they feel like their first drafts should be good enough. They get discouraged when they turn their work into an editor and get told it’s not good enough.

I’ve personally struggled with frustration because my entire life I never wrote more than a first draft for any paper or story I turned in for a grade and yet, I got A’s on those assignments.

She explains, like other authors I’ve listened to, that the first draft of anything we write is terrible. Sure, there are good parts in there and the structure is usually fine, but it’s not a finished work. Ernest Hemingway was famous for saying this as well.

As much as that can be discouraging for an aspiring author, it’s actually freedom if you’re willing to embrace it. It allows us to simply draft in a forward manner the entirety of the first draft. We don’t have to worry about it being perfect because we know it’s not going to be. Our later self will go back and edit it multiple times… so when we sit down to write the first draft, we can just let the words flow.

In addition, she speaks about the fact that many aspiring authors she speaks to focus heavily on the desire to be published as if that is going to bring fame and fortune, but that’s not always the case. In addition, if we write solely to become published, we won’t be able to take advantage of the joy of the process of writing - of creating art itself.

That, by far, is the most important message in the book, if you ask me. As writers, or any artist for that matter, we should make art because it’s what we’re made to do. When we can approach it that way, regardless of the outcome, we get to experience joy.

She also transparently shares her struggles with writing and feelings of failure or fear of rejection. I appreciated how she honestly talked about her methods for overcoming these, even when it means eating your feelings or calling friends for support because you know they’ll always have your back.

All in all, I thought this book was very good. I’ve read a few other books on writing and hers was by far the most humorous. You can tell that it was written a while ago, specifically when reading the sections on publishing, but it holds up well.

If you’re interested in writing a book, definitely give this one a read. I think you’ll pick up at least one thing that will help you along the way.