Bird by Bird: Taking it one day at a time

I’m reading a memoir-ish guide to writing called Bird by Bird by the author Anne Lamott. It was published in 1994, but its advice is timeless. The phrase “Bird by Bird” comes from Lamott’s father, who was also a writer and the inspiration for a lot of Lamott’s storytelling. It refers to a time when Lamott was a child and her brother put off a school assignment about different types of birds. It was the evening before the report was due, and her brother was overwhelmed by all that he still had to do. His father sat down with him and reminded him to take the report bird by bird. Start with one bird, write up the description, and then move on to the next bird.

The takeaway of the story was that many things in life can seem overwhelming, impossible. But if you take them one step at a time, in small chunks, eventually you can accomplish big things. This of course applies to writing a novel. And it happens to be the advice I need right now as I am stalled at the 2/3rds mark in my new cruise ship novel. For some reason, I’m having trouble finding the inspiration to write. I’m at the terrible phase in the writing process during which I hate my work and want to metaphorically crumple up the pages and toss them into the trash bin. It’s a form of writer’s block, and boy, does it suck.

Thanks to Anne Lamott, I’ve adopted a daily regimen to help me through this time of self-loathing and dis-inspiration. She suggested writing 300 words a day until inspiration strikes and I’m able to get into the flow of writing again. Three hundred words is basically one page, double-spaced. And it’s enough to get your protagonist from Point A to Point B, but no further.

It doesn’t feel particularly satisfying to force out just 300 words a day. It’s enough words to be difficult but too few words to feel very productive. It’s a bit like pulling teeth or scrubbing the grout in the shower stall. But I’ve been doing this for the last two weeks, and I’ve managed to push out 10,000 words, which is about 1/8th of the whole book. That’s impressive. The book will probably be about 80,000 words total. And now I’m 56,000 words in! So thank you, Anne Lamott.

In other news, there is still now news about my novel on submission, King of Brave. It could be months before I hear anything, good or bad. So…ugh.

GET EXCLUSIVE CONTENT ON MY PATREON PAGE. Even see the query letter that landed me an agent!