I like a good read; something that stirs me inside and leaves me, in equal parts, exhausted and enlightened. I wish I could say the same thing about my writing! However much I’ve tried, a cut-and-dried method to good writing has eluded me. It looks like there is none! Ergo, I go through writing advice willy-nilly by writers familiar and strange.
Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird was a pleasant surprise. Devoid of incomprehensible argot, she draws from a deeply personal space – through anecdotes and stories of her own struggles – and convinces you that she is here indeed only for you. Her only condition is you believe in your talent whole-heartedly. “If you’re not enough before the gold medal, you won’t be enough with it,” as the coach in Cool Runnings put it. She suggests you “tape this to the wall near your desk” as she does for a few other things in the book. For some of us with brittle self-esteem, and an external locus of control, this may be a difficult one to follow. But there are simpler ones that can be applied in earnest.
You sit down, I say. You 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 your computer and bring up the right file, and then you stare at it for an hour or so.
She, also, early in the book, dispels the idea of a single, guaranteed formula to writing,
I wish I had a secret I could let you in on, some formula my father passed on to me in a whisper just before he died, some code word that has enabled me to sit at my desk and land flights of creative inspiration like an air-traffic controller. But I don’t.
Now you know what not to expect from the book, but if we are anything alike – wishing for quick fixes but willing to take the long road – this hilarious, inspirational, warm reflection on life and writing is a good dose to keep us going.
Anne Lamott has answers for all the regular predicaments that gnaw at an artist’s soul – perfectionism, comparison, or just getting started.
I recommend the book for its lucid writing, practical suggestions, and some advice on life and living to boot.
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, first published in 1994.