Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott is a book on how to write and how to live life. From how to beat feeling overwhelmed when there’s a huge writing project ahead to tackling perfectionism, Lamott knows the struggles that come with writing all too well.
I should probably give you some context for this blog post. I’m a big believer in working on constant improvement. Since we’re both writers and writing tutors, we need to be improving our writing craft and our tutoring practice. Bird by Bird is chock full of writerly advice. Although the book seems to be more geared for creative and professional writers who aspire to make careers out of their writing, I believe this book has plentiful advice on the writing process and craft that can significantly inform our work as tutors and writers.
So, I’m going to break down some of the most significant pieces of advice I believe Lamott gives in her book. If you’ve read the book and believe that I’ve left something of significance out, then feel free to comment below.
On Short Assignments
Writing projects can seem huge. Whether you’re writing a book or a 5-page paper for class that’s due tomorrow, breaking down the seemingly humongous assignment into tiny, manageable tasks can ease your anxiety and burden and help you make progress on your writing. Write bird by bird. One word at a time.
On Crummy First Drafts
Every single first draft is garbage. Get over it. The sooner you do, the faster you’ll get your work done. Whether you have to make small tweaks to turn it in or make significant changes, the first draft you produce is not going to be your best work. When you are writing the first draft, keep going. If you know that you have to come back to revise a sentence or if you’re not sure that word is the right word, just highlight that abomination and keep writing. The more you sit and dwell, the more time you waste.
When you complete your first draft, you may find that you have to delete that sentence you were so worried about because it doesn’t contribute to your argument or it doesn’t fit with the rest of the paragraph. So there’s no point in spending too much time thinking about a certain sentence or word when you may later decide to delete it.
On Perfectionism
There is always more work to be done. Put in the time and effort to revise and edit, but then submit the thing already and move on. Perfectionism keeps you from getting the work done and can destroy your creativity.
On Writing Groups
Lamott focuses on creative and professional writing workshops and conferences in her chapter on writing groups, but I believe that anyone who is interested in peer revision and collaborating with other student writers will gain some insight from this chapter into how they can create and structure their own writing groups.
Although, you can definitely tell this book was published in 1994 because some of Lamott’s students put ads in newspapers to advertise their writing groups. Oh, how far we’ve come!
So, what do I think?
Lamott addresses several struggles that all writers face: writer’s block, getting started, feeling overwhelmed, anxiety, etc. If you’re looking for something that portrays the nature of writing in painfully accurate detail, then look no further. This is a timeless book that writing tutors, students who write for school, and professional or aspiring professional writers will find useful and delightful.
Source
Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird. New York, Anchor, 1994.