I first came across
Anne Lamott via a short video that popped up on how she got sober. Who was this
quirky-looking woman with white-girl dreadlocks, who described her past self as
a drunk bulimic Christian and talked about the value of doing things badly
(versus not at all)? I was captivated.
Since then, I’ve read most of her non-fiction titles, which offer slices of life, and typically touch on themes like sobriety and recovery, parenting, mental health, love, loss, faith, friendship, and the various struggles and vulnerabilities that are part of being human. Even when the topics are tough, such as losing a best friend to cancer, her gentle insightful humour often softens the rawness, without minimizing the emotions at play.
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (1994) is her second non-fiction book of many. It’s been around long enough to have a 25th anniversary edition. I thought I would feature this particular Anne Lamott book, as it's stood the test of time, and is an interesting mix of subject matter expertise and her signature story-telling.
The introduction is relatively long and one of the most interesting parts of the book in my opinion. Here she essentially shares how she became a writer. She describes her mother and father as reading every chance they got, taking her and her siblings to the library each week to load up on books. Her father was a writer and writers were revered in their family.
This helped lay the foundation for her future career, as did her early encouraged talent (she won her first writing award in grade two), and her father’s mentoring. Sadly, her father died young. Lamott used writing as a way to help make sense of that dying process and as a collaborative vehicle for him express his experience when he no longer could.
As her career progressed, Lamott began to teach writing classes, and continues to this day. Content consists of “telling [my students] everything that has helped me along the way and what it is like for me on a daily basis. I can teach them the little things that may not be in any of the great books on writing.”
Bird by Bird brings together many of the tips shared with her students. It doesn’t get down to the nitty gritty of writing mechanics, such as The Elements of Style, but it does cover multiple aspects of the writing process at a slightly broader level.
I found her best advice in the first portion of Part One, as it potentially speaks to writers and non-writers alike. How do we start and move forward with a project that seems very daunting? She suggests starting with what you know, as well as breaking work into small assignments or chunks. In fact, the title of this book comes from advice Lamott’s father gave her brother, who had put off a large school project on birds until the last minute: “just take it bird by bird.” Lamott also advises allowing very imperfect first attempts (she calls them “shitty first drafts”), and avoiding the trap of perfectionism. While she’s talking about writing she could be talking about any challenging endeavour where we don’t know how to begin, or don’t feel up to the task.
The rest of Part One gets into more technical information: how to develop a character, plot, dialogue, setting, and knowing when you’re done. The focus seems to be more on writing fiction, which is not every writer’s preference, but it’s worth reading nevertheless. Throughout she offers gentle guidance, borne of her own experience, peppered with anecdotes on writing and life. Bird by Bird doesn’t skimp on the “how to” aspects of writing, but it takes you deeper, and with more heart, into the writing life—or at least into one woman’s writing life.
Part Two deals with the writing frame of mind; Part Three with the value of enlisting help in the writing process, such as: using index cards to organize work, tapping into subject matter experts for facts and story detail, joining a writing group(s), and finding a few trusted readers of your drafts.
Part Four explores the reasons to write, which include publication. This was also a favourite section of mine, as it doesn’t presuppose publication and getting known as a writer are the only worthy goals of writing. Lamott talks about several of her ultimately published works that were initially intended only as presents to a family member or friend. Writing can also help make sense of—or transform—something that feels too hard to fathom or even survive. Lamott’s first novel is based on her family’s experience caring for her terminally ill father. She wanted to create a story about end-stage cancer that illuminated the whole experience, including moments of humour, tenderness, and the survival of those left behind.
And while publication isn’t always the goal, Lamott doesn’t minimize its importance to those who identify as writers. She balances this with the less glamourous aspects of being published, including the inevitable pressures to do it again. She cautions her students that publication (should it even happen) will probably not transform their lives in the ways they imagine, yet encourages them to keep going because writing has the potential to make them “feel better and more alive than they do at any other time.”
