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Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Anne Lamott (Goodreads Author)

4.23 · Rating details · 66,435 ratings · 6,255 reviews

"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 t ...more

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Paperback, 237 pages

Published September 1st 1995 by Anchor (first published January 1st 1994)

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Community Reviews

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4.23 ·

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· 66,435 ratings · 6,255 reviews

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Jul 02, 2012 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing

"Wonderful book". I read it awhile back when I took a class. (I still own it --and look through often)--
I was inspired when I saw my Goodreads friend here reading it!

NOTE: I still never want to 'write' (as in serious) ---but I feel 'free' to express myself. Anne Lamott' book is filled with wisdom.

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Apr 14, 2009 Naomi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: re-reading, on-my-bookshelf, to-re-read

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 ...more

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Jul 10, 2008 Patrick O'Neil rated it it was amazing

This is the book that made me want to be a writer. I read it while incarcerated, doing time on armed robbery charges. It was handed to me by a rather large tattooed neo-nazi. He said, "ya gotta read this. It hella beautiful." I didn't know then that I wanted to be a writer. There just wasn't a lot to do locked up. Contrary to popular belief, jail time is mostly long stretches of boredom, punctuated with bits of extreme violence. There were months confined to a cell for twenty-three hours a day. ...more

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Jun 17, 2010 Miriam rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

I have heard so much hype concerning this book recently that I had assuming it was a recent publication. I mentioned it to my mother during my pre-Father's Day visit and was surprised when she pulled out a 1994 copy from behind a dusty stack of books (we layer books in my family). My mother's book categorizing follows a system unknown to me so I cannot explain why it was next to Rebecca West's The New Meaning of Treason; my mother described both volumes as "interesting".

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Feb 18, 2019 Jennifer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2019, language-writting, non-fiction, five-star-reads

Bird by Bird is a book about writing and what it means to be a writer. Observing, feeling, and communicating your story to the reader. The connections you make with people by sharing a piece of yourself.

Lamott provides instruction on how to get started writing, how to work through writer’s block, and the importance of finding people to read your work and provide you with honest feedback. She takes you through her feelings, thoughts, and struggles of being published, not being published, waiting ...more

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Jan 27, 2018 Barbara (The Bibliophage) rated it really liked it

Shelves: own, own-digital, audio, memoirs, publishing-and-writing, 2018

Anne Lamott is both wise and self-deprecating. She approaches writing with humor and a hearty dose of practicality. I loved how she blends life lessons with writing advice. No wonder this is a classic! Now why did I wait so long to read it?

I enjoyed this on audio, but will reread in my print copy to make notations.

Full review at TheBibliophage.

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Jan 02, 2019 Jenny Baker rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, writing, 2019, favorites

I can’t think of a better way to start the new year than with a funny and inspirational book about writing. I had my blue Bic pen in hand as I read and marked my favorite points. It was so refreshing getting a different perspective on writing and with so much depth. I laughed at some of her neurotic thoughts she had as a writer, because I’ve had those thoughts as well. It’s nice to know I’m not alone.

Overall, this book was so eye-opening. It’s amazing what gems we can find on our own bookshelve ...more

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Sep 05, 2011 Caroline rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, writing-guides-english-usage, she-wrote-it, memoir

This book is very much a combination of memoir/personal musings and writing instruction. Anne Lamott has quite a gift for comedic writing, and you will laugh many times while reading Bird by Bird. If you’re looking for a straight-up guide to writing a good story and getting published, though, this isn’t the book for you. Lamott possibly spends too much time discussing her son, her friends, her childhood, and her own feelings of inadequacy as a writer. She has an enviable conversational writing s This book is very much a combination of memoir/personal musings and writing instruction. Anne Lamott has quite a gift for comedic writing, and you will laugh many times while reading Bird by Bird. If you’re looking for a straight-up guide to writing a good story and getting published, though, this isn’t the book for you. Lamott possibly spends too much time discussing her son, her friends, her childhood, and her own feelings of inadequacy as a writer. She has an enviable conversational writing style, but at times I did feel she rambled. This is one big reason I never felt terribly compelled to continue reading this book; it was always the book I reached for when I had nothing better to read (and when my “main book” was Lolita, a book that earned me some weird looks when I ventured to read it in public).

The writing advice Lamott does offer, however, is exceptional. I have read a few books on writing and getting published, but this one possibly is the most helpful. It’s more than clear that despite having earned success many times over as an author, Lamott never lost touch with what it feels like for the struggling writer--or even the person who merely dreams of being a writer; her advice is very “real.” Her instruction isn’t cold and stringent: set a schedule; write X number of words each day; create an outline with story arc--all of those practical things, which, although important, are not what beginning writers probably need to hear just yet. Instead, she talks about “shitty first drafts,”--because all writers have them--“short assignments” (a piece of advice that takes considerable edge off the fear of starting a writing project), and starting a project by writing about your life, viewing it as if you’re only recording it for your children. From these things, the beginnings of a novel can spring. Lamott does discuss the “more practical aspects”--writing regularly, finding an agent, avoiding libel--but what makes this book stand out is that these were not her sole focus. A favorite passage:

If something inside you is real, we will probably find it interesting, and it will probably be universal. So you must risk placing real emotion at the center of your work. Write straight into the emotional center of things. Write toward vulnerability. Don’t worry about appearing sentimental. Worry about being unavailable; worry about being absent or fraudulent. Risk being unliked. Tell the truth as you understand it. If you’re a writer, you have a moral obligation to do this.

You will finish this book feeling you truly can write something decent, something that could even be published. Lamott’s empathy and “realness” imbues the entire book with a kind of warmth; this is a feel-good, empowering how-to.

Final verdict: Well worth reading if you are ok with half-memoir, half–writing advice books.
...more

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Feb 15, 2014 Kogiopsis rated it it was ok

Shelves: reviewed, nonfiction

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 a 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. ...more

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Jan 15, 2018 Murat S. Dural rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Anne Lamott'un "Bir Kuştan Öbürüne: Hayat Ve Yazmak Üzerine Tavsiyeler." kitabı yeni bitti. Her sayfa gittikçe daha hevesli, yüzümde bir gülümseme ve takdirle okudum. Kendine kahkahalarla gülen böylesi bir yazarın yazar namzeti, adaylarına onları alıştırarak, incitmeden yaşayacağı her konuyu, duyguyu, düşüş ve çıkışları samimiyetle anlatması, küçük, kendi hayatından açık yüreklilikle örnekler vermesi harika. Yazmaya yeni başlayanlar için muhakkak öneriyorum. Yıllardır "yazmak üzerine (senaryo / Anne Lamott'un "Bir Kuştan Öbürüne: Hayat Ve Yazmak Üzerine Tavsiyeler." kitabı yeni bitti. Her sayfa gittikçe daha hevesli, yüzümde bir gülümseme ve takdirle okudum. Kendine kahkahalarla gülen böylesi bir yazarın yazar namzeti, adaylarına onları alıştırarak, incitmeden yaşayacağı her konuyu, duyguyu, düşüş ve çıkışları samimiyetle anlatması, küçük, kendi hayatından açık yüreklilikle örnekler vermesi harika. Yazmaya yeni başlayanlar için muhakkak öneriyorum. Yıllardır "yazmak üzerine (senaryo / oyun/ öykü / roman / deneme vb.) olan her şeyi, edebiyat üzerine kitapları" alıyorum. Bazı kitaplar gerçekten çok öne çıkıyor. Yazma çabasında biri olarak kefil olabileceğim bir eser oldu. Üretkenlik, yaratıcılık, çalışma ve yazma teknikleri üzerine bir sürü not aldım. Ursula Le Guin'in "Dümene Yaratıcılığa Kırmak" kitabı gibi "Bir Kuştan Öbürüne"de Hep Kitap'ın imzasını taşıyor. Tebrike ediyorum. Yazmak üzerine çok güzel kitaplar basıyorlar. Şimdi yine aynı yayınevinden çıkan serinin üçüncü kitabını, Hakan Bıçakcı'nın derlediği "Uydurmanın İncelikleri & Kurmaca Üzerine Kişisel Yaklaşımlar" ile devam edeceğim. Sözlerime iki alıntı ile son vereceğim;
“Gerçek olan tek şey şu: Eğer her gün gam alıştırmalarınızı yaparsanız, gittikçe daha zor parçaları çalışmaya başlarsanız, sevdiğiniz müzikleri çalan harika müzisyenleri dinlerseniz, siz de daha iyi olacaksınız. Bazen çalışırken orada öyle oturacak, kendinizi akşamdan kalma ve bıkkın hissedeceksiniz; o gün kendinizi bu ruh halinden kurtarıp kurtaramayacağınız belli olmaz. Fakat başarılı yazarların böylesi bıkkın, mağlup saatleri olmadığını, insanın bir böcek kadar küçük ve ürkek hissettiği bu derin güvensizlik saatlerini yaşamadığını sanmak bir hayalden ibarettir.” Ama kitabına adını veren "Bir Kuştan Öbürüne" örneği müthiş; “Bundan otuz sene önce, o zamanlar on yaşında olan ağabeyim kuşlar hakkında teslim tarihi ertesi gün olan bir rapor yazmaya çalışıyordu; oysa yazmak için tam üç ayı vardı. Bolinas’taki yazlığımızdaydık, mutfak masasında gözleri dolu dolu oturuyordu; dört bir yanında deste deste kağıt, kalemler, kuşlar üzerine açılmamış kitaplar vardı; onu bekleyen görevin devasalığı karşısında taş kesilmişti. Sonra babam yanına oturdu, kolunu ağabeyimin omzuna doladı ve şöyle dedi: “Kuş kuş ilerle dostum. Bir kuştan başla, öbürüne ilerle.” ...more

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Dec 02, 2016 Gauri rated it it was ok

I didn't learn anything particularly new from this book. In fact, I think this book could have been a lot shorter if she hadn't written paragraphs upon paragraphs of self-deprecating jokes about erratic and self-destructive behavior.

In every chapter, she's said something along the lines of: "If you feel terrible about your writing, you're going to eat a bunch of fast food, cry, call people on the phone, and wallow. That's normal. But don't fear, because I'll tell you this obvious truth!"
No, An ...more

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Oct 27, 2016 Arielle Walker rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

I'm pretty ambivilent to this one.

One one hand, Lamott really does manage to hit, quite often, to the centre of those fears about writing. That it'll be terrible, that I'm the worst, that I should stop before I even start. She kicks your arse - and not gently, and makes you feel like actually maybe this writing this is not only doable but worth it.

On the other hand, I don't know how much I liked the author - and when you have to spend a few hundred pages in someone's head, it's hard to get thro ...more

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Sep 18, 2018 Elizabeth added it

I read this book in school. I can't remember when!

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Aug 22, 2013 J.F. Penn rated it it was amazing

Shelves: writing

My most recommended book for writers - knowing that you can write "a shitty first draft" is life changing. An honest, authentic memoir style book.

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Dec 31, 2018 J. Sebastian rated it really liked it

Shelves: writing

I have one memory from a highschool camping trip when, seated about a campfire a teacher asked us all whether we would prefer to read or to write a book. My friend Dan was adamant and certain that he should much prefer to write a book than to read one, and I could not understand him at all, for I loved reading, and much preferred to read books than even to think of writing. Clearly, I was not destined to be a writer, but I later discovered that I enjoy writing. I love crafting sentences, and I l I have one memory from a highschool camping trip when, seated about a campfire a teacher asked us all whether we would prefer to read or to write a book. My friend Dan was adamant and certain that he should much prefer to write a book than to read one, and I could not understand him at all, for I loved reading, and much preferred to read books than even to think of writing. Clearly, I was not destined to be a writer, but I later discovered that I enjoy writing. I love crafting sentences, and I love trying this in multiple languages, just because I amuse myself this way, and because it is the one artistic and creative medium I most enjoy working in. There are others I know who can paint and draw most beautifully. Once they have completed a work, it adorns a room and makes one’s surroundings more beautiful, but I never had the patience to develop much skill in any of the visual arts.

Mine was the realm of words, and what I might create with these remained ethereal and invisible to all but to those who might want to read; the beauty of good writing remains hidden, much as does the beauty of a symphony, which is gone once the echoes of the final chords have vanished, though the audience may still rest in the glow of the whole that has just transpired. I think a good book is like that too; sentence by sentence I am charmed by the rhythm and melody of consonants, the quality of vowel tones, and the structure of the thoughts as these unfold in time, and when I have read to the end and the cover is closed, I can bask in the sense that I have experienced something wonderful. It is a very private and personal connection that I may then feel to a book or to an author, something that others do not see.

At a certain age I felt driven by an inner impulse or perhaps by the yearning towards a creative outlet to try my own artistry in words. Perhaps I had read so much, had thought so much, that my soul was bursting at the seams to express itself. Perhaps I was just eager to join the company of those great authors I admired, by practicing their art in my own small way. Later, some others, with whom I have shared my little experiments, have been moved by my writing, and would have liked me to write much more, and so my wife bought me this book as a Christmas present to encourage my return to the craft, and to spend some time daily writing.

It has encouraged me to try my hand at some non-academic writing once again; I am holding a pen and revisiting some of the old stories I had once thought up. The authoress has a fantastic sense of humour, even if she sometimes descends to four-letter words and the occasional vulgar image. I have not laughed so much or hard since I can remember, but Lamott also reveals a sobering glimpse into the downsides of the professional writer’s career as well. The job often appears so daunting; the task of writing and rewriting, of revising and restructuring, perhaps of having to start over from scratch a year or more into a project, only to meet with rejection and financial hardship, makes writing a novel seem like the struggle to reel in a Leviathan. But why shouldn’t it be a desperate adventure? The rewards of hunting and catching your own Moby Dick would be great indeed, even if your book were never published; nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Why am I not striving to become a published author? Perhaps it is because I am pursuing a different whale, and that I only like to play with writing. There must be a deeper reason for writing than merely the goal of publishing. Still, I should try to see some of these stories to their completion, if only for personal reasons. I like the following words of Ann Lamott:

"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. We build this place with the sand of memories; these castles are our memories and inventiveness made tangible. So part of us believes that when the tide starts coming in, we won’t really have lost anything, because actually only a symbol of it was there in the sand. Another part of us thinks we’ll figure out a way to divert the ocean. This is what separates artists from ordinary people: the belief, deep in our hearts, that if we build our castles well enough, somehow the ocean won’t wash them away. I think this is a wonderful kind of person to be.” (p. 231) ...more

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Aug 25, 2018 Ravi Prakash rated it liked it

Well, I am not a great expert in writing. I am learning how to write better. More appealing. More convincing. That's why I gave a chance to this "Bird by Bird".
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Six or seven months ago, I read "On Writing" by Stephen King. It's natural if you read two books on the same topic, you are bound to compare it.
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The similarities are- Both are Americans, both are autobiographical while teaching through the book, both accept that writing is just a process of knowing yourself better and get delighted, rar Well, I am not a great expert in writing. I am learning how to write better. More appealing. More convincing. That's why I gave a chance to this "Bird by Bird".
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Six or seven months ago, I read "On Writing" by Stephen King. It's natural if you read two books on the same topic, you are bound to compare it.
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The similarities are- Both are Americans, both are autobiographical while teaching through the book, both accept that writing is just a process of knowing yourself better and get delighted, rarely it is about name and fame. And, I must confess that I haven't read any other book of both except this one on artistic-cum-technical topic, "How to write better."
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Before "writing better", you should know basically how to write. For this purpose, Stephen King has mentioned about the basic tools of language while Anne Lamott presumes that you already know this. Besides , "How to write" , Anne Lamott focuses on "What to write".
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She insists to write on your childhood, however worse or better it might be, but writing on your childhood (because this is your first draft) will lead you to the highest peak of expression. You needn't research anywhere, just to play with the memories.
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She advises you to be a conscious, observing and note-taking animal. She advises to find your characters near you. And yes, don't crave for perfectionism, because "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 your shitty first draft."
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Like King, Anne Lamott also prefers the Characters more than the Plot. King has already said that Plot is the resort of weak writers. Even Lamott suggests that if you observe the conversation between two people and record it and then apply your artistic way to develop a story, you will certainly come to any realistic end.
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"Writing a novel is like driving a car in the night. Though you can't see very far away, but at last you will reach to your destination". Originally this is not by Lamott, but she has mentioned it in the book and I liked it most.
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The book is divided in three parts and contains small chapters that make it an easy and fast read. Take a chance, you will like it. ...more

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Dec 28, 2017 Anita Pomerantz rated it really liked it

Lamott documents her insights on writing as if she were teaching a class and really needs to command the room. She is funny and provides very engaging examples of the lessons she teaches. If you have any interest in writing, I think this book is certainly worthwhile.

One of my favorite books (not just on this topic) is Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. For some reason, King's book felt more motivational to me, while Lamott's seemed a bit more practical for people unlikely to have ...more

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May 13, 2018 Jeanne rated it it was ok

Shelves: did-not-finish

I'm sure the advice in this book will be useful for some, but I couldn't get past the use of a casual jokes trivializing the genocide of Native Americans and mocking autistic children. I'm not interested in learning writing from an author who hasn't progress passed humor and metaphors founded on ignorance and bigotry.

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Nov 30, 2007 Beth rated it it was amazing

This book got me motivated to try a career as a fiction writer, and look where I am now!

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Sep 12, 2017 Ashley rated it it was amazing

As its title and summary have suggested, Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird is not just a creative writing manual. No. It is definitely more than that. It's a journey of an extremely inspirational writer and creative writing instructor, filled with passion, warmth, insight, wisdom, rawness, humour and drama. Put differently, it is packed with all the beautiful, funny, ugly and messy things you would expect to find in a superb book and in life—yes, in life! Journey with Anne as I have done and you will l ...more

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Jun 11, 2011 Bird rated it did not like it

Shelves: ebooks, read-in-2011, non-fiction, library-reads

Ugh. What a self-absorbed, whiny, little memoir this is, written under the guise of being a book about writing. The author clearly has some self-esteem issues, which she is sure every other writer out there also struggles with. (Note to author: Not true. Perhaps you need to stop expending energy trying to convince yourself that your high level of self-deprecation is normal, and seek help instead.)

I hate, hate, hate memoirs, because everyone these days seems to think their lives are exciting enou ...more

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May 17, 2017 Vitor Martins rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2017, non-fiction

Essa foi uma leitura muito gostosa e inspiradora. É um livro que eu definitivamente recomendo para qualquer pessoa que quer começar a escrever.

A Anne Lamott passa por todos os tópicos importantes dentro da escrita (personagens, ambientação, trama, diálogo, etc) mas a abordagem dela não é só técnica. O que eu achei mais diferente nesse livro aqui é que ele aborda o lado mais "psicológico" da escrita, mas tudo de forma bem prática. É muito interessante fazer os exercícios que ela propõe para os s ...more

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Jul 27, 2015 Rosie Nguyễn rated it it was amazing

Shelves: writing

I can't describe enough the beauty this book. It's so hearty, so truthful, so insightful.

Have been going through all the craziness of writing and publishing, I felt deeply the empathy with what Anne Lamott has to write in the book, even with the most hysterical part. She just expresses it so beautifully. And her words give me strength to write, and to believe in my writing.

A book that will make you laugh and cry at the same time.

Highly recommended for anyone who wants to be writer and wants to ...more

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Jan 26, 2012 Jeanette "Astute Crabbist" rated it really liked it

Shelves: four-star-nonfiction, how-to, booky-books, scribblery, reference

I'm glad I finally got to read this in print. I had previously only listened to the abridged audio version a couple of times.

Anne Lamott is a great cheerleader for would-be writers. I was surprised at how entertaining she can be. She has a gift for dryly delivered overstatement that had me sniggering and laughing out loud.

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Mar 12, 2018 Lili Marcus rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2018-reads, nonfiction

I was inspired to read this when I saw Anne Lamotts' TED Talk where she talks about 20 (maybe) things she'd learned in life so far. She referenced something about his brother and Bird by Bird.

if you're looking for a step-by-step procedure on writing, this is NOT your book. For this is just some kind of a PEP talk. Yeah like a TED Talk too. This is definitely inspiring but truthful too. I liked it that Lamott didn't hide the facts, especially the hard facts, about writing and publishing. I love t ...more

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Nov 26, 2008 Dorothy rated it liked it

Shelves: on-writing

Lamott takes the title for her book from a piece of advice that her father, a writer, once gave her brother. It seems the brother, a school-child at the time, had to write a report for class about birds. He had waited until the last minute to do it and was despairing of being able to complete it on time. His father told him just to write "one bird at a time." It seems like pretty good advice for any writer.

The book is full of observations like that. Observations that may seem self-evident - like ...more

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May 05, 2010 Yelda Basar Moers rated it it was ok

Shelves: memoir

I'd heard great things about Anne Lamott and her spiritual style of writing, but was disappointed by this book. I supposed I was expecting a memoir of writing akin to those by Stephen King, Norman Mailer and Natalie Goldberg. Parts of the book dragged, and its style was wrapped in a sarcastic, negative view of life, and an even darker view of the writing life. Her voice is also off the wall kooky, and to me, borderline weird, though I'm sure others would beg to differ. Nevertheless, Lamott has i ...more

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Feb 19, 2015 Melanie rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, piece-of-shit, school-reads, read-2015, so-boring

The problem with this book is that it's a piece of shit.

Let the record show that the only reason I picked up this pathetic excuse for a book is because I needed to read it for class. I'd love to shove this book up the crack of she-who-shan't-be-named's ass, because I cannot believe I've spent nearly a month reading this garbage.

Lamott's voice is terribly detached, to the point where I couldn't ralate at all, ever. The book could have been rewritten word for word in third person, and there liter ...more

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Jul 04, 2016 Nicole Schrag rated it it was amazing

Shelves: writing

I love this book like I love coffee and good hikes and friends who say the right thing at the right time.

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Apr 25, 2012 Schmacko rated it it was amazing

Anne Lamott – author of Tender Mercies – has plenty to tell her students in this book about the writing life. Sometimes, she presents rambling monologues about how all writers are paranoid creatures with perilously low self-esteems, wracked by writers’ block. Authors who look for glory and vindication through publication are going to be severely disappointed, Lamott says. The act of finding images, creating stories, and even hacking through draft after draft – that is the joy to be found.

We get Anne Lamott – author of Tender Mercies – has plenty to tell her students in this book about the writing life. Sometimes, she presents rambling monologues about how all writers are paranoid creatures with perilously low self-esteems, wracked by writers’ block. Authors who look for glory and vindication through publication are going to be severely disappointed, Lamott says. The act of finding images, creating stories, and even hacking through draft after draft – that is the joy to be found.

We get it. I thought she might have written about this too much, until I looked back at my journals and found very similar, handwringing writings. Maybe I get her viewpoint so quickly, that I thought these sections went on a little long. Pot, meet Kettle.

However, when Lamott gets down to stories – great stories she’s collected – she shows us why she’s an amazing author. Her ability to combine the experiences and the detritus of her life into these tales is a blast.

I’m going to write a longer review than I normally do, because something here deeply affected me as a playwright. This book was a gift from actress Elizabeth Murff on my fortieth birthday; there is one thing in here – something I’ll share later – that will make me keep this book till I die.

I’m also going to share one story; this is how she compares the fantasy of a writer’s life with reality. Her son Sam was about four, attending a polite little Christian preschool in the northeast around one particular Thanksgiving:

A friend of his, who is also named Sam but who is twelve years old and very political, asked my Sam to tell him everything he knew about the holiday. So my Sam told him this lovely Christian-preschool version of Thanksgiving, with the pilgrims and the Native Americans and lots of lovely food and feelings. At which point Big Sam turned to me and said, somewhat bitterly, "I guess he hasn’t heard about the small-pox-infected blankets yet."

It’s a very funny metaphor; Lamott occasionally throws out these and other lovely stories to talk about writing. When she does – effectively breaking up her panicky rants – this book is an example of what can be accomplished with words.

As a playwright, I have a different panic than Lamott’s. She tells of the frustration of people not knowing her name or her work. I feel that if we are playwrights (or screenwriters), most people will NEVER remember our names. We will fade. Only our characters and our stories have the SLIM potential of remaining; the actors will maybe get more fame in the moment. Only a very few playwrights and screenwriters are famous, and they’re only famous to a very small subsection of culture. Ask any person on the street who even Edward Albee is, and you’ll get a blank stare returned to you. Have that person watch “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” and you will likely get an entire different reaction – one primarily tied to Taylor and Burton and their horrible, lovely dysfunctional marriage. That’s what being a playwright is about to me.

As a playwright, I have voices and characters and stories in my head. I have deep, complex, worrisome and funny things I want to get out of me. I hope that the director and the actors understand my love of humanity, of character, and I hope they empathize with my questions, my comedy, and my worries. I also hope that, while in the dark at the back of the theater, I will feel that the audience connects, too – that they want to go on that journey, into that story. Then, I will not worry and laugh and love and cry alone.

To that end, one chapter in Lamott’s book affected me deeply – the one on perfectionism; I’ve read it four times. I overwrite. I spend tons of time editing back. I share bits and pieces of my overwriting with David Almeida, but otherwise, I keep it to myself. I keep almost all of it to myself. (I have shared messy first drafts or partial writings with a couple others, but I never got anything back – perhaps out of politeness, or maybe they’re too busy to work with ugly first drafts.) Otherwise, I don’t want to send it out there until it’s perfect to my eyes. I fret about the lack of collaboration, because I know theater is collaborative, and I have no idea if the vision in my head – the one I’ve worked on for months or years – has been communicated on the page for others – actors, director, audience – to get.

I long for the freedom of the first draft that Lamott talks about. I am somewhat envious – but also worried – about how she uses others early on to make sure she’s “on the right track.” That seems selfish, until I realize I long for the same thing.

Do I have a fix from her book? Nope. Because even though I feel all writers have similar experiences – Pot, have you met Kettle? – we still get there in our own fashions, in our entirely individual ways. To borrow and bastardize from Tolstoy (“borrowing” is also something all writers do), all happy people are alike. Writers, on the other hand, are unhappy in their own ways. Sometimes, though, I hear a voice that’s close enough to my own that I can continue.
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About Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott

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Anne Lamott is an author of several novels and works of non-fiction. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, her non-fiction works are largely autobiographical, with strong doses of self-deprecating humor and covering such subjects as alcoholism, single motherhood, and Christianity. She appeals to her fans because of her sense of humor, her deeply felt insights, and her outspoken views on topics such ...more

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“For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.” — 2012 likes

“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. I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it.” — 1103 likes

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