Bird by Bird

Getting Started

The very first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth. We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason they write so very little. But we do. We have so much we want to say and figure out. Year after year my students are bursting with stories to tell, and they start writing projects with excitement and maybe even joy finally their voices will be heard, and they are going to get to devote themselves to this one thing they ve longed to do since childhood. But after a few days at the desk, telling the truth in an interesting way turns out to be about as easy and pleasurable as bathing a cat. Some lose faith. Their sense of self and story shatters and crumbles to the ground. Historically they show up for the first day of the workshop looking like bright goofy ducklings who will follow me anywhere, but by the time the second class rolls around, they look at me as if the engagement is definitely off.

I don t even know where to start, one will wail.

Start with your childhood, I tell them. Plug your nose and jump in, and write down all your memories as truthfully as you can. Flannery O Connor said that anyone who survived childhood has enough material to write for the rest of his or her life. Maybe your childhood was grim and horrible, but grim and horrible is Okay if it is well done. Don t worry about doing it well yet, though. Just start getting it down.

Now, the amount of material may be so overwhelming that it can make your brain freeze. When I had been writing food reviews for a number of years, there were so many restaurants and individual dishes in my brainpan that when people asked for a recommendation, I couldn t think of a single restaurant where I d ever actually eaten. But if the person could narrow it down to, say, Indian, I might remember one lavish Indian palace, where my date had

Anne Lamott

Superb writing advice. . . . Hilarious, helpful, and provocative.
The New York Times Book Review
 
A warm, generous, and hilarious guide through the writer s world and its treacherous swamps.  
Los Angeles Times

One of the funniest books on writing ever published.  
The Christian Science Monitor

A gift to all of us mortals who write or ever wanted to write. . . . Sidesplittingly funny, patiently wise and alternately cranky and kind a reveille to get off our duffs and start writing now, while we  still can.  
Seattle Times

Bird by Bird would be worth reading just for Lamott s ele- gant, moving, and often-hilarious prose. But the advice she offers is just as fantastic as the style with which it s delivered.
Forbes

Anne Lamott understands better than anyone that writers need help. . . . She writes so well, in fact, that it s hard to believe that she, too, has trouble with writing. That s what s so deeply comforting about this book.
The Wall Street Journal

Deftly and honestly explores the mental challenges of being a writer. . . . Lamott s advice is, simply put, invaluable.
Bustle

[Lamott] uses her writing exercises or lessons as a way to help us more deeply understand ourselves and the human condition in all its messiness. If you re looking for sense-making and meaning during this deeply destabilizing time, this book is timeless.
Elise Hu, TED Talks Daily

Delight[s] with insight and descriptive acumen. This humorous, insightful, no-nonsense approach will remind novices why they are writing.       
Kirkus Reviews

Offers unique inspiration. . . . An honest appraisal of what it takes to be a writer and why it matters so much.
Library Journal