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Bird By Bird: Some Instructions On Writing And Life (1995)

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (1995)

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4.22 of 5 Votes: 2
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ISBN
0385480016 (ISBN13: 9780385480017)
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English
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About book Bird By Bird: Some Instructions On Writing And Life (1995)

This was fantastic, and I wrote a million notes. For example:I love the description of throwing rats in a jar and watching them scratch. This was a tool for the mind to silence distractors in your life that block you from writing. Also having an acre of land with a fence, and if people come in and mess it up-you simply kick them off. I like the idea of creating a book from characters, and letting the plot follow what the characters desire. I liked the idea of moving forward bird by bird, (reading the book will explain what this means), and the informal prose.Other great advice is not just researching subjects you know nothing about, like gardening for example, but calling local nurseries and spending time with gardeners. Asking questions, like: "what would the fruit be doing? Would there be leaves?" Calling friends with antique furniture, and letting them describe a lamp to you, taking your articulate friends with you to a restaurant, and writing down the funny things they say and descriptions they give. Also using movies for settings-trying to describe the scene, city, landscape with as much detail as possible.Advice for Characters: when your out in the world listen to people talking, play with what you hear, edit it in your minds eye and see how it would look on a page. Also-you should be able to identify a character by what he or she says. It's a given that each should sound different, look different, and have different backgrounds and mannerisms-but this simple advice hit home b/c I thought, "if I didn't write-he said/she said-after this quote, would they know it was from this character?"Also, ABDCE, for Action, Background, Development, Climax, and Ending. You begin with action that is compelling enough to draw us in, background to know who these people are, what happened before the story began, then you develop these people so you know what they care most about. The plot-drama, actions, tension-come out of that. Move them along-til it comes together in a climax, after which things are different for the characters in some real way, and then the ending-what is our sense of who these people are now. What are they left with and what does that mean?I loved the description of rewriting and tucking the octopus in bed. The legs that keep popping out from the bed sheets, and just when you think you have them tucked in, another pops out. I'm also interested in reading E.M. Forster and John Gardner's advice on plot which Lamott mentions as great reads and thinking about joining a writing group. And...ok-(I love so many things about this book!)-the advice on having someone read your first drafts was really good-it helps to know if you're on the right path. And I liked the advice on how to find people for writing groups and to help you edit. How to approach them, and how to laugh at the rejection you might encounter meeting them in a writing class and they perhaps, not wanting to help you:)One of the life lesson tips I loved was on page 170, about not wasting your time on people who doesn't respond to you with kindness and respect, or wasting your time with people who make you hold you breath. "You can't fill up when your holding your breath, and writing is about filling up, when you're empty. Letting images, and ideas, and smells run like water."I'm laughed at the beginning writer things-the writing about yourself, and making yourself the main character and trying to throw EVERYTHING in your first book, short story, whatever. Yup-I'm doing all of that, and at least I'm learning I'm not alone:)Letters is an amazing idea as well-writing a part of your history-a part of a characters history-in the form of a letter-that the informality might just free you from the tyranny of perfectionism, and even address it to someone. I loved this idea and I can see how several of my favorite articles or essays could have been written using this method-at least as a first draft or to brainstorm.Ok-just adding to this again, I like the idea of carrying an index card and pen in your back pocket when you walk your dogs, and that the idea of writers block is really-being empty-and that you need to write 300 words on anything for however many days until it passes. That being out with nature-living life like it was your last day and re-filling your imagination can fill back up. "Any of the things you love to do will fill you with observations, flavors, visions, ideas, and memories."Also-thinking of what you want to say and if anything else has been written on the subject. But tell your story-or someone else's-free someone from bondage, or risk freeing yourself. I loved the quote by Toni Morrison on p. 193 that Lamott uses, "The function of freedom is to free someone else." On p. 198 Lamott says, "We write the unexposed. If there is a door in a castle you've been told not to go through you must." She says that you need to discover your true voice, and you can't do that if you think your parents are reading over your shoulder. Think about who your writing for-dedicate it to your favorite author as a gift to give back to them for influencing you. I'm also wrote down the name of a book Lamott talks about called Intimations of Mortality that I think I need to read, and remember to suggest to anyone dealing with cancer-it sounds wonderful.And...I love the idea of writing a present for someone.The last note I'm going to add that really impacted me was Lamott message not to worry about what people think of you, but to worry about not finishing your writing. Good advice.

I don’t necessarily aspire to write fiction, but I loved this book all the same. Along with step-by-step advice on dialogue, plot, characterization, etc., it has Lamott’s trademark wry observations about living life somewhere between faith and failure.If you feel compelled to write, write, Lamott urges; “I don’t think you have time to waste not writing because you are afraid you won’t be good enough at it.” Accept that you’ll produce “really shitty first drafts,” and move on from there. At its worst, writing is confidence-crushing torment. At its best, writing is like a sacred duty to convey a message of hope and contribute to a better world. She’s not advocating polemic or agenda-driven fiction, but voices against nihilism: There’s no point in writing hopeless novels. We all know we’re going to die; what’s important is the kind of men and women we are in the face of this. ... To be a good writer, you not only have to write a great deal but you have to care. You do not have to have a complicated moral philosophy. But a writer always tries, I think, to be a part of the solution, to understand a little about life and pass this on.She characterizes writing as a form of meditation: a means of both understanding the self and transcending it. “To be engrossed by something outside ourselves is a powerful antidote for the rational mind, the mind that so frequently has its head up its own ass—seeing things in such a narrow and darkly narcissistic way that it presents a colo-rectal theology, offering hope to no one.”•t“writing motivates you to look closely at life, at life as it lurches by and tramps around.”•t“hope is a revolutionary patience; let me add that so is being a writer. Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work; you don’t give up.”•t“John Gardner wrote that the writer is creating a dream into which he or she invites the reader, and that the dream must be vivid and continuous.”Lamott’s strongest warning is against the siren call of publishing: “I tell you, if what you have in mind is fame and fortune, publication is going to drive you crazy.” Writing must be its own reward, so fulfilling that it doesn’t matter what kind of reviews or advances you get. “No matter what happens in terms of fame and fortune, dedication to writing is a marching-step forward from where you were before, when you didn’t care about reaching out to the world, when you weren’t hoping to contribute, when you were just standing there doing some job into which you had fallen. ... Even if you never publish a word, you have something important to pour yourself into.”My apologies for all the long excerpts, but this is a very quotable book. I’ll finish with her summation of the writing life and the literary community:There are a lot of us, some published, some not, who think the literary life is the loveliest one possible, this life of reading and writing and corresponding. We think this life is nearly ideal. It is spiritually invigorating ... It is intellectually quickening. One can find in writing a perfect focus for life. It offers challenge and delight and agony and commitment. We see our work as a vocation, with the potential to be as rich and enlivening as the priesthood. As a writer, one will have over the years many experiences that stimulate and nourish the spirit. These will be quiet and deep inside, however, unaccompanied by thunder or tremulous angels.Essential reading for any writer.

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5/31/09:This may be the single best book I have ever read in my entire life. It is helping me get my work done, on a daily basis; it helped me see where I do fit in life (my niche); and it helped me see how utterly not alone I am. It's a wonderful thing.All of which I had inklings of prior to reading this book, but Lamott confirmed it. Validation is such a sweet quality.If you want to understand me, read this book, and then you will. Seriously.I usually write favorite quotations from a book in a journal I keep with me, but this one had too many for that; so I switched to typing them. I have 15 typed pages of favorite quotes. I am considering printing out the best quotes in sign form and taping them up to my office walls. That's how inspirational I find them. In fact, that is a fabulous idea; and I fully plan to do it, just as soon as I get done gloating about how much I loved this book.I would say this is my new "bible" if that would not be offensive to people.Thank you, Laurie, for the recommendation. This is why it's important to share your favorite books with people. This is why paying attention to what others are reading is important. My friends most of all taught me this, and for that I am grateful. Laurie is my most literary friend, who has gifted me with books that have always changed my world for the better.Now I just need to figure out how to get a letter of thanks to Anne Lamott. She is a kindred spirit. She is fabulous. I can't wait to read all of her books. Maybe someday she'll read my books too. I can't wait.5/6:This book is incredible. I want to just devour it, but I also want to write down so many things I have read in it, to not ever forget them.So far I'm putting into practice her suggestions with what I feel are good results. Specifically, to write what I know, starting with writing down all my childhood memories ("Remember you own what happened to you," Lamott says.); also to write every day at approximately the same time, no matter what. (Mornings work better for me, fresh mind, the craziness of the day not yet pressing in on me. So I have been writing at 8 in the morning, every day, with good results, already, I feel.)***Here are some of my favorite quotes so far:“Think of a fine painter attempting to capture an inner vision, beginning with one corner of the canvas, painting what he thinks should be there, not quite pulling it off, covering it over with white paint, and trying again, each time finding out what his painting isn’t, until finally he finds out what it is.“And when you do find out what one corner of your vision is, you’re off and running. And it really is like running. It always reminds of the last lines of Rabbit, Run: ‘his heels hitting heavily on the pavement at first with an effortless gathering out of a kind of sweet panic growing lighter and quicker and quieter, he runs. Ah: runs. Runs.’”~p. 9, 10"My gratitude for good writing is unbounded; I'm grateful for it the way I'm grateful for the ocean. Aren't you?" ~p. 15***And then there is this fabulous poem she includes in her book, written by Phillip Lopate. It's an example of how you can use your paranoia, your germaphobia, or whatever mental issues you are dealing with, to your benefit. I think it's fantastic; here it is:We who areyour closest friendsfeel the timehas come to tell youthat every Thursdaywe have been meeting, as a group,to devise waysto keep youin perpetual uncertaintyfrustrationdiscontent and tortureby neither loving youas much as you wantnor cutting you adrift.Your analyst isin on it,plus your boyfriendand your ex-husband;and we have pledgedto disappoint youas long as you need us.In announcing our associationwe realize we haveplaced in your handsa possible antidoteagainst uncertaintyindeed against ourselves.But since our Thursday nightshave brought us to a community of purposerare in itselfwith you as the natural center,we feel hopeful youwill continue to make unreasonabledemands for affectionif not as a consequenceof your disastrous personalitythen for the good of the collective.***This book so far is a breath of fresh air. I'm reading all the things I have felt so very deeply my entire life, and it is validating. It gives me hope that I can actually do this, that I can actually be a successful, a real, writer.More to come, I am sure! I am only on page 17.4/15:I want to write a book. I attempt to work on this project, but I do not get very far. My friend Laurie is a writer (I'm still an aspiring one) and she recommended this book. I just ordered it from the library and am excited to read my first book on writing. I am sure I'll read many more before I do achieve my goal to write my own book. It's a step forward, a good starting point. I am excited.
—Naomi

If I could give this book a 6 star ratings, I wouldn't.I would give it a 10 star rating.My first Anne Lamott and first on writing. And the first is always special, no? No. this book would have been special even if I'd have read it after reading a whole library on the art of writing. You know why?Ofcourse you don't. You haven't read the book.Well. Because this book made me cry. It made me cry because I laughed too hard and the tears leaked out of my eyes and became a perfect cliche.There are so many instances that are so true and so funny and sometimes true but not funny... though insightful.. and you think this is the best book I bought this year. (I had it shipped. It wasn't available. Best money spent.)Check out some words in there - “Try looking at your mind as a wayward puppy that you are trying to paper train. You don't drop-kick a puppy into the neighbor's yard every time it piddles on the floor. You just keep bringing it back to the newspaper.”“I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one 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 that she has a rich inner life or that God likes her or can even stand her. (Although when I mentioned this to my priest friend Tom, he said that you can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.)” “If your wife locks you out of the house, you don't have a problem with your door.”“If there is one door in the castle you have been told not to go through, you must. Otherwise, you'll just be rearranging furniture in rooms you've already been in.”“But how?" my students ask. "How do you actually do it?" You sit down, I say. You try to sit down at approximately the same time every day. This is how you train your unconscious to kick in for you creatively. So you sit down at, say, nine every morning, or ten every night. You put a piece of paper in the typewriter, or you turn on the computer and bring up the right file, and then you stare at it for an hour or so. You begin rocking, just a little at first, and then like a huge autistic child. You look at the ceiling, and over at the clock, yawn, and stare at the paper again. Then, with your fingers poised on the keyboard, you squint at an image that is forming in your mind -- a scene, a locale, a character, whatever -- and you try to quiet your mind so you can hear what that landscape or character has to say above the other voices in your mind.”“I took notes on the people around me, in my town, in my family, in my memory. I took notes on my own state of mind, my grandiosity, the low self-esteem. I wrote down the funny stuff I overheard. I learned to be like a ship's rat, veined ears trembling, and I learned to scribble it all down.”I wish I could quote the whole book. Just type away and re-live all the words. Maybe that's illegal, copyright infringement or something.And that is why it is imperative that you go and buy a copy of this book. BUY and not borrow so you can always come back to it. That is, if you have a sense of humor and good taste. Only then.
—Aditi

I'm of two minds about this book.As an autobiography, it's actually quite good, especially the latter half. Lamott is good at talking about her own life in a way that feels genuine and touching, and when she recounts anecdotes she is, for the most part, really engaging.The problem is that this... isn't an autobiography. It's not even in that weird in-between place that a lot of science writing often is, where stories of discovery are intertwined inextricably with stories of life. This is first and foremost a book about writing and therefore it's unfortunate that that's where it fails.I should add a caveat here: I'm sure this is a functional writing book if you're more like Lamott. If, for instance, you're interested in writing semi-autobiographical fiction (or true autobiography), or 'literary fiction' - which I'm not; and as someone who prefers 'genre' fiction I'm perpetually frustrated at writing books which claim to be universal only because they assume their subject is all that's important. It probably also helps if, like Lamott, you're privileged and comfortable with it: comfortable enough to use phrases like 'ethnic people', or 'like a huge autistic child', or you think generalized insecurities qualify as 'mental illness' (and refer to them as such over and over and over), or toss out jokes about lobotomies, or describe people with a list of ways they're different from you first and foremost. I'm sure it's liberating to be able to describe South American writers as 'like primitive art' and not have any second thoughts, or to know so little about autism that you use the word to refer to an emotional state.What I'm saying here is that Lamott, as a writer addressing me as an audience, made me feel profoundly alienated. As a person with actual diagnosed mental illness - as the only non-autistic person in my apartment - as a queer person - as a white person who makes a conscious effort to be aware of race in society and in my life, there's something in the casual way she treads all over these things that was incredibly uncomfortable to read.That's made worse by the fact that once you get past all the casual ableism and racism and heterosexism, the writing advice really isn't that good. The first 95 pages of this book are pretty much all just 'keep writing no matter what' in different phrasings, substantiated by anecdotes. Very little of what Lamott says will be new information to anyone who's been writing for a while, especially if they've read other books on writing. Some of her information is (by dint of the book being 20 years old) irrelevant by dint of being out of date. Most of it is just banal. (A very small portion is plain bad, as in this: "Mondays are not good writing days. One has had all that freedom over the weekend, all that authenticity, all those dreamy dreams, and then your angry mute Slavic Uncle Monday arrives, and it is time to sit down at your desk. So I would simply recommend to the people in my workshops that they never start a large writing project in any Monday in December."I was also struck by how derisive Lamott is towards her own former workshop students. The phrase that stood out to me most is this: "Sometimes when a student calls and is mewling and puking about the hopelessness of trying to put words down on paper..." That's the most egregious example of a general trend throughout the book: she seems to look down on her students and especially on their attitudes towards writing, treating them as if they're pathetic, ignorant, and care only about publication. It was uncomfortable to read, and I can only imagine how it would feel to be one of her former students and see onesself categorized in such a callous, dismissive way.At the end of the day, what good there was in this book is far outweighed by the amount of it which is useless. You'll get about as much out of the full 200+ pages as you do from reading the anecdote on the back, which pretty perfectly encapsulates what Lamott goes on about ad nauseum. If you're looking for something with actual writing advice, look elsewhere. I suggest this podcast, which covers everything from getting over block to specific subgenres to getting published, and is funnier to boot.
—Anila

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