Anne Lamott

A brilliant book, full of tips embedded in metaphor and a daily writer's life. Teaches through example as well as instruction, and is open about the insanity of thinking your writing isn't good and dealing with responses to it. Beautifully written, with phrasing that made me laugh out loud. One of the few books on writing that I highlighted throughout so I could go back to it.

Writers write, as they say. That is about the only certain advice one can receive from a book on writing and life and the writing life. With a wry, self-deprecating, brutally honest demeanour, Anne Lamott informs her students that the way to become a writer is to sit down every day at the same time with a clean piece of paper or the file on your computer you’ve been slaving over for more than a year—and write. Only those who have actually attempted this will appreciate, along with show more Lamott, just how difficult it may be to fulfil that simple injunction. She is well aware that you will stare at the page or the screen sometimes for hours on end; that you will reconsider your decision to post-pone the fun you could have had working on your taxes; that the corner of your desk will become endlessly fascinating and just may be the grain of sand in which you will perceive the whole…yes, just about anything is more enticing, at times, than writing.

This book shares a few useful techniques to help your writing process, which I’ll get to in a moment, but what makes it one of the best books on writing that I have read is Lamott’s compassion for others in her situation. Because more than anything else, this is a book about compassion. Compassion for others, certainly, but also compassion for oneself. That, and learning the value of producing an SFD: a “shitty first draft”.

Lamott has a strong belief in the power of writing per se. If you press on, word after damn word, reaching a certain number of words per day (she suggests three hundred as a target), eventually you will complete your SFD. And here is an important tip: don’t show your SFD to anyone. The embarrassment of riches (and the stink) of an SFD should be yours alone. Fortunately, once you’ve got an SFD you can move on to the rewriting stage—because having made something, your job as a writer is to make it better. Of course making it better can take a long time. It may involve sharing your current versions with your writing group, with a trusted but critical colleague, with an editor or your agent, if you have one. The good news is that no matter how bad they think your writing is or how much further you’ve got to go with it, at least you can rest easy that they didn’t see your SFD.

By all means borrow this book from your local public library. And when you’ve finished reading it, go out and find it in a bookshop somewhere. Because you’ll want to have it on the shelf in your office to glance at when you are staring at that blank page (or screen) to remind you that, well, writers write. (P.S. If you think this review is bad, you should have seen my SFD.) Recommended. show less

I so identify with every small feeling and anxiety she has about herself and others that I'm almost ready to sign up for her support groups and church suppers. The insights into writing and ego and truth reflected and articulated here are so authentic that it seems like revealed truth, like truth I already knew. It also made me feel extremely neurotic.

I haven't yet read an Anne Lamott book I didn't love. I was shocked by the slight size of this book when it arrived, but the contents were for me, a sublime distilled and condensed version of everything I love about this author and how she copes with life in crazy times. I could use some help coping in these crazy times, so I am her target audience.

I could have read this book in a few hours, but I took my time, reading in bits and pieces so I could ponder how succinctly she can sum up some show more of life's most heartbreaking scenarios and realities; and how she, and we all stitch together our lives, patching as we go, leaning on others and being leaned on in return. It is a guidebook for getting through life, even when you think you can't bear any more. This tiny book is a lovely sewing metaphor for life, written by a woman who knows well how the fabric of life can wear and tear, how dearly beloved people come and go in our lives, and how we patch and mend and darn and we go on, because that is what we do.

I know I will read this book again. It is full of grand observations, helpful coping hints and surprising optimism. I'm not sure how well this condensed Anne world view will translate for a novice reader. For me, reading more about Pammy, Sam, all main characters who are woven into all her earlier works was like visiting with old friends, and I loved, understood and got every page of Stitches. For the die hard fan, this is a must read and re-read book. show less