Words of Wisdom from Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird
by Gillian Burgess
Happy New Year, everyone! I hope January is treating you well, and your resolutions (if you were bold enough to make any) are still going strong. I vowed to read or reread more books on writing this year -- everything from Strunk and White’s classic The Elements of Style to Teressa Iezzi’s new media handbook The Idea Writers -- for professional development and just plain enjoyment. When I’m busy with work and other commitments, curling up with a good book can feel selfish or indulgent, but I’m trying to shush that pesky guilt-trippy little voice in my head that tells me I should be doing more productive things. Reading is productive, and good writers are avid readers. The first book on my list was Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. I couldn’t put it down; it is refreshingly honest, funny, self-deprecating and practical. Reading it felt as if I were sitting down for a long coffee date with an accomplished, witty, blunt and slightly neurotic writer who had generously agreed to mentor me. It is such a relief to hear that respected, published writers like Anne (we’re pretty tight now, so I feel like we’re on a first-name basis) still experience everyday struggles -- writer’s block, false starts, self-criticism, perfectionism and jealousy. Bird by Bird isn't a rosy view of the writing process -- she makes it clear that it is hard work that requires discipline and a thick skin -- but it is, at its core, a testament to why she loves to write and encouragement for others who want to do the same. I kept a pencil on hand while I read and found myself underlining and scribbling notes like a madwoman. Here are a few of my favorite quotes.
10 Quotes from Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
1. "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, which 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.'”
2. "One of the gifts of being a writer is that it gives you an excuse to do things, to go places and explore. Another is that writing motivates you to look closely at life, at life as it lurches by and tramps around."
3. "I go back to trying to breathe, slowly and calmly, and I finally notice the one-inch picture frame that I put on my desk to remind me of short assignments. It reminds me that all I have to do is to write down as much as I can see through a one-inch picture frame. This is all I have to bite off for the time being."
4. "Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something -- anything -- down on paper. A friend of mine says that the first draft is the down draft -- you just get it down. The second draft is the up draft-- you fix it up."
5. "Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life... Besides, perfectionism will ruin your writing, blocking inventiveness and playfulness and life force (these are words we are allowed to use in California)."
6. "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."
7. "Writing is about hypnotizing yourself into believing in yourself, getting some work done, then unhypnotizing yourself and going over the material coldly."
8. "Jealousy is such a direct attack on whatever measure of confidence you’ve been able to muster. But if you continue to write, you are probably going to have to deal with it, because some wonderful, dazzling successes are going to happen for some of the most awful, angry, undeserving writers you know -- people who are, in other words, not you."
9. "So whenever I am leaving the house without my purse -- in which there are actual note pads, let alone index cards -- I fold an index card lengthwise in half, stick it in my back pocket with a pen, and head out, knowing that if I have an idea, or see something lovely or strange or for any reason worth remembering, I will be able to jot down a couple of words to remind me of it."
10. "You are lucky to be one of those people who wishes to build sand castles with words, who is willing to create a place where your imagination can wander."
