Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott

I’d seen the book ‘Bird by Bird’ in stores and online but never gave it a second glance. While I like birds as much as the next person, I’m not a bird watcher and as such the book held no interest to me. It wasn’t until a writer recommended ‘Bird by Bird’ to another writer and sang its praises that I took a closer look. Online I found the following:

“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’”

Ah so ‘Bird by Bird’ was not about birds, the subject was writing. I read the first page of the book and was immediately sold. This was not a dry do this, do that book, this book read like a story. An engaging story.

Chapter by chapter Anne Lamott gives the reader valuable information. She doesn’t sugar coat it, she doesn’t promise writers the moon and the stars, but rather give them a good dose of reality.

- Writers do not sit at their computer and type with fire in their fingers. Most stare at their screen, stare out the window, or stare at the ceiling, thinking of something to say.

- Not all that is written is good, out of three written pages, maybe one sentence is gold.

- Literary agents will not welcome a writer with open arms.

At the same time, Lamott eases a writer’s mind. It’s okay to sit at a computer and vacantly stare into the distance. It’s okay to let your mind wander. It’s okay to take a break and say — to hell with it.

It is not okay to wait for inspiration indefinitely. A writer needs a schedule and he needs routine. Writing does not happen effortlessly, it takes work, work, and more work.

Even though Anne Lamott is a bestselling author of several books, is the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship and an inductee of the California Hall of Fame, she is not afraid to reveal her own mistakes and shortcomings. She freely admits that sometimes she sits in front of her computer and can’t think of a thing to write. That when she does write something, it more often than not gets deleted and thrown into the wastebasket.

She also tells the story of how she completed a manuscript and her agent rejected it. She worked on it, was satisfied with the results, but once again her agent didn’t think it fit for publication. In a fit of rage, she stormed to her agent’s house and let him have. She ranted and raved and got all her grievances off her chest. He calmly told her to rewrite what she had and try again. She did, and according to her own saying, it turned out the best book she had written.

This in particular I liked. All too often amateur writers think that bestselling writers only need to sit at their computer and the words flow onto the screen. Lamott paints a different picture.

All in all, I can highly recommend ‘Bird by Bird’ to anyone with an interest in writing. Whether one writes novels, short stories, poems or articles, ‘Bird by Bird’ is a must for all who want to improve their craft.