Anne Lamott is a novelist, memoirist, and teacher who penned, ‘Bird by Bird: Instructions for Writing and Life’. It is one of the ‘must read’ books about writing.
Anne shares everything she has learned about the process of writing through years of success, trial, and error. She is a terrific writer and observer of life, and ‘Bird by Bird: Instructions for Writing and Life’ is a must-read for anyone interested in the writing process.
If you feel compelled to write just do it
“I still encourage anyone who feels at all compelled to write to do so. I just try to warn people who hope to get published that publication is not all that it is cracked up to be. But writing is. Writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises. That thing you had to force yourself to do — the actual act of writing — turns out to be the best part.”
Writers see people for who they really are, including themselves
“The writer is a person who is standing apart, like the cheese in “The Farmer in the Dell” standing there alone but deciding to take a few notes. You’re outside, but you can see things up close through your binoculars. Your job is to present clearly your viewpoint, your line of vision. Your job is to see people as they really are, and to do this, you have to know who you are in the most compassionate possible sense.”
You have to care
“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 to pass this on.”
Learn to be reverent
“In order to be a writer, you have to learn to be reverent. If not, why are you writing? Why are you here? Think of reverence as awe, as presence in and openness to the world. Think of those times when you’ve read prose or poetry that is presented in such a way that you have a fleeting sense of being startled by beauty or insight, by a glimpse into someone’s soul.”
You’ll never get anywhere if all you want to do is get published
“The problem that comes up over and over again is that people want to be published. They kind of want to write, but they really want to be published. You’ll never get where you want to be that way.”
Perfectionism is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft
“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft.”
Writing a novel is like driving a car at night
“E.L. Doctorow said once said that ‘Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.’ You don’t have to see where you’re going, you don’t have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you. This is right up there with the best advice on writing, or life, I have ever heard.”
Write straight into the emotional centre of things
“If something inside of you is real, we will probably find it interesting, and it will probably be universal. So you must risk placing real emotion at the centre of your work. Write straight into the emotional centre of things. Write towards vulnerability. 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.”
Quiet your mind and just do it
“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. 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.”
Don’t be afraid of how people see you, be more afraid of not getting your writing done
“Try to write in a directly emotional way, instead of being too subtle or oblique. Don’t be afraid of your material or your past. Be afraid of wasting any more time obsessing about how you look and how people see you. Be afraid of not getting your writing done.”
Don’t let the act of not writing break your heart
“Oh my God, what if you wake up some day, and you’re 65, or 75, and you never got your memoir or novel written; or you didn’t go swimming in warm pools and oceans all those years because your thighs were jiggly and you had a nice big comfortable tummy; or you were just so strung out on perfectionism and people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life, of imagination and radical silliness and staring off into space like when you were a kid? It’s going to break your heart. Don’t let this happen.”
All good writers write terrible first drafts
“All good writers write terrible first drafts. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts. 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.”
Leave a Reply