Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Really loved the beginning with the small assignments, shitty drafts. Would be best to read when you're in the process of creative writing. In the struggle. I found the latter parts about publishing not relevant to me and tedious. ( )

Everyone and their teacup has told me this is one of the best books on writing ever, in the whole world. So I read it, and … it sort of isn’t? Like, Lamott captures the Life of the Creative very well, from nerves and procrastination to those random bouts of inspiration and the need to Work At It, and she does so with candour and warmth and some absolutely gorgeous (and hilarious) turns of phrase. But I was reading for the concrete advice she’d surely be giving out (I know all about the nerves already) and it’s mostly stuff like “index cards” and “research” and “base characters on your observations” which isn’t exactly new or earth-shattering. Perhaps it was in the early ‘90s, when this book came out? In the days before mass internet? So I wound up disappointed. That said, I can absolutely see this book being life-affirming for a lot of people—just people who aren’t me.

6.5/10 ( )

Just finished re-reading. Honest, funny, encouraging, discouraging, and accurate advice about being a writer. ( )

Phenomenal.
Funny. Forthright. Tender. Snarky. Wonderful.

Of all the craft/advice books I have read, this one stands apart. The advice is thorough and well contextualized and written with careful thought. She writes like a mentor. She writes like a teacher. She writes like a friend.

So good. Recommend. ( )

*Bird by Bird* is Anne Lamott’s book of helpful nudges for writers or people who want to write but need a little help. And it’s an entertaining and well-written book with a couple of good tips and illustrations of those tips used to further one’s writing. But it’s also this catalogue of hypochondria and neuroticism that I just don’t understand. I think there was a kind of literary humor in the 90s and early 2000s that this is part of, where the self-deprecation, the running of metaphors of self-defeat and insinuations towards suicide and murder, played out in the mind of the author, staring daggers at you, someone else, herself in the mirror, all works at cross purposes to what they really want to do, which is motivate you to write. Maybe it’s because I’ve written a dissertation already, and maybe it’s because I’ve been in the throes of deep depression in the past, but I’ve never felt anything like the illustrations of suffering she describes from someone critiquing her work with constructive feedback, or an editor telling her to revise her work and resubmit it. And at one point I think these illustrations might be cute or encouraging for people who feel kind of bad, but then see this and think, “Well, at least I’m not like that lady!” then continue to write with a little more enthusiasm and vivacity. But I’m not really sure it’s for me. But it’s well-written and good! And literally everyone in the goddamn world talks about it, so I’m glad I’ve finally read it. But I think what I wanted to read was *Writing Down the Bones* by Natalie Goldberg or something, and got my wires crossed with this. All of these kinds of books fall into the category of “shit Merlin Mann read and talked about in the 2006-2013 era” for me.

All that said, the book does come together pretty well in the last third, and does access some core bits of the human soul’s relationship to expressing itself through writing and description. ( )