Bird by Bird

Anne Lamott’s New York Times bestseller, Bird by Bird, is an insightful, motivating gift to all writers. Open and intimate, this honest portrayal of a writer’s life de-mystifies the writing process, while re-enthroning the act of writing and the use of personal experience to inspire imagination.

“Ever since I was a little kid,” Anne says, “I’ve thought that there was something noble and mysterious about writing, about the people who could do it well, who could create a world as if they were little gods or sorcerers. All my life I’ve felt that there was something magical about people who could get into other people’s minds and skin, who could take us back to ourselves. And, you know what? I still do.”

In the competitive world of creativity, crucifixion is commonplace and nurturing a rare prize. Yet, without honest nurturing, creative souls may never taste the sweetness that comes with a manuscript well written or a check from a publisher. Anne Lamott, the daughter of a well-known writer, nurtures the artist within by sharing tales of sorrow and serenity in the voice of one who knows. In simple crisp prose, she talks about plot, how to get started, first draft blues, dialogue, character, publication, false starts and great endings. Bird by Bird is a helpful, hilarious book that is brilliantly written.

“So much of writing is about sitting down and doing it every day, and so much of it is about getting into the custom of taking in everything that comes along, seeing it all as grist for the mill,” Anne continues. “This can be a very comforting habit, like biting your nails…Maybe you never quite get to the point where you say, ‘Ah – so that’s what a gun looks like from this end.’ But, you take in all you can, as a child would, without the atmospheric smog of most grown-up vision.”

When sitting at your desk or kitchen table, feeling like the reluctant compass for the dull point of every pencil, fenced in by blank writing tablets and the troubles of the day, Bird by Bird can free you. Creative work, like birth, demands blood, sweat and tears. To coax something hidden in the heart or mind onto the page where God and your neighbor can read it, calls for a special kind of courage. During times when gloom overshadows your brightest aspirations, a book like Bird by Bird clears the air.