“Thirty years ago, my older brother, who was ten years old, 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 task ahead. Then my father sat beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird”.
This short story tells where the title for this book came and the approach to the book seems to follow the same formula: looking at each part of the whole. The Chapter titles tell how her approach to writing is said.
Getting Started, Short Assignments, Shitty First Drafts, Perfectionism, School Lunches, Polaroids, Character, Plot, Dialogue. Set Design, False Starts, Plot Treatment, How do you Know When You’re Done?
Anne Lamott is a novelist, non-fiction writer, essayist and memoirist. Her nonfiction works are largely autobiographical, mixed with observations about daily life and filled with humor.
Her father was a writer, and her early life accounts and his influence are her unique side. In this book, she transitions into her chapters on writing techniques from her own life story and the advice her father gave her brother. The book took its name from that advice where he counseled him to tackle his story on birds, one bird at a time.
Her writing advice is pretty basic, but it just feels different. She can offer straightforward advice in such an easy-to-read, free-flowing style that is so effective. You find yourself relaxing and just enjoying her language and her perspective on the process.
Some authors seem to put an unusual word or phrase into the dialog to "wake you up,” but Anne naturally evolves from instruction to the language of life itself.
Anne Lamott Quotes
“Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”
