Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

A fun read

Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird initial appeal to me was that it looked like a little book that would be an enjoyable guide for writing. And it IS a very enjoyable read that made me want to grab a pen, or computer, and start writing away. She's wonderful at consoling us all for being regular human beings with all our foibles and quirks, and she has an excellent way of making me feel not quite so neurotic after all. But what she doesn't offer is any particular really helpful writing advice. She's creative and clever, and made me laugh a lot. . . and gave me something to do INSTEAD OF writing. But then, at the end of the book, when I tried to grasp hold of exactly what the solid advice, what the actual recommended writing information might have been. . . . I had nothing. But it sure was fun to read!

5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

A great book for any writer!

I am a college student reading this book for a writing class, and I can honestly say this is one of the best books about writing I have ever read. My entire class loves this book, and we are quoting from it all the time! Lamott does a great job balancing humor and personal advice about the writing process. Experienced writers will be able to relate to the author's opinions about writing, while beginner writers will pick up some great tips on how to improve their writing skills. This is an awesome book for writers at any level, and I highly recommend it!

5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

A Writing Life Exposed

Concerned that my review of Ann Lamott's 1994 book bird by bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life could not begin to do it justice, I kept putting it off. In fact, this book's advice is so excellent and comprehensive, that I sent a copy of it to an actress friend who is facing severe emotional trauma, with none of it having anything to do with writer's block. By page two of the introduction Ann already had me laughing. She claims it was predicted she'd grow up to be a serial killer, while I had a police officer declare that I would surely attain adulthood as either a murderer, or an actor playing a murderer. At page 205 of this 236-paged paperback, she mentions how a writer must be innocent, of which I certainly am. Only after I am once again blindsided I typically label my actions either naive or ignorant and only sometimes innocent. Like me, the 1950s born Ms.Lamott, also felt different from the other kids and also found her refuge in books. While using less precise and far more esoteric thoughts and words, bird by bird, like Making a Literary Life steps the reader through exactly what must be done if she wishes to become a published author. In her book, Ms. Lamott goes from the actual steps of writing the book, to the writer's mindset, to finding free help, to getting published and indeed, why to even write at all. Speaking as a successful, published author, she thoroughly covers the writer's life in both a humble and humorous fashion. In point of fact, I enjoyed this book so much that I transported out of my usual science fiction genre and went and paid full price for one of her down to Earth novels.

4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

Lamott Heartens Writers Bird by Bird

Whether you are an aspiring writer, a published professional, or someone with a sense of humor, Lamott's playful wit will entertain you as she vividly and accurately illustrates the inner workings of a writer's mind. If you are not a writer, yourself, you will identify with the nuggets of wisdom Lamott has weaved into her constructive description of an approach to writing fiction. The main nugget of wisdom - to face overwhelming tasks one step at a time or "bird by bird" - is exemplary of how she takes real life examples and applies her concepts not only to the craft of writing, but also to the art of living.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

The joy of reading about someones life growing up!

The book is about a girl named Anne who grow up living with her mother and father. Her father was a wrtier for a long time and then he developed brain cancer and told her to take notes so that she was able to write about his cancer and what she went through while he had brain cancer. When she became a writer she started helping younger people how to write and told them her experinces on writing. i thought this book was boring in the beginning but then it got better in the middle of the book.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

advice and encouragement entertainingly delivered

This book gives real advice to real people trying to get some air under the wings of their writing. It is not intended as a practical how-to-write-a-novel instruction book. It is a advice and encouragement, and an inside look at the habits and approaches she herself takes to sitting down to a blank piece of paper and getting going.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Good resource for writers

I started off a little discouraged by this book due to the way she immediately grounds you about the reality of the writing world. It frankly was a bit depressing. However, your dreams have not been crushed. Once you check your ego at the door and let yourself in, you will discover a bounty of useful information on writing (plot, characters, research, etc.) Stick with it and you will be rewarded with insightful information, encouragement and a look inside of one writer's life.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Amazing

I read this book for my senior year required reading, and I am honestly grateful that my teacher included it on the list. Bird by Bird is full of little jewels of advice that help not only aspiring authors but also the non-writer. Lamott punctuates her points with anecdotes both comical and sobering, relevant analogies, and wonderfully quotable lines, all while injecting humor into a topic that sorely needed it. I even used her ideas about perfectionism to write my college essay. This is one book that I truly think everyone should pick up.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Left Me Pondering

Bird by Bird is a collected reflection on the writing process. Author Anne Lamott begins with a vignette on the origin of the writer within, then discusses writing styles while adeptly weaving in examples, writing in different instances as a child, for a child, and as an adult reflecting on childhood so her students, er, readers experience the affects of character and narrator on a story. One can appreciate the candor with which the author reveals the realities of a writer's life (although it seems more specific, perhaps a middle-class, sufficiently connected writer's life): the bumps, trips, jealousy, depressions and near breakthroughs and almost made its and little acclaim for all that effort. Though the book attempts to defy categorization, this writer has labeled it a narrative lesson plan for a writer's workshop with real life illustrations. Lamott may be a sweet but determined gangsta issuing a thinly veiled warning to aspiring writers that this is tough work and her turf or she may be a writer with a deadline and a drawer full of notes (on writing?) jotted on index cards that, with her insistence, arranged themselves into this book.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Raechel

It isn't hard. Someone needs to teach chu to curse. Dx put < 3 > with no spaces in the middle of a curse word. Then you won't get locked out.

A Handy How-To

Lamott writes a realistic review of the trials of the life of a writer and this book is full of helpful tips. I'd recommend it to anyone with the caveat that Lamott gets in her own way too often. A "how-to" book doesn't have to be that entertaining.

Reviewer

Holy cow! That story is awesome! I love the action and the way your name connects to the story. You are an incredible writer! At first, I was confused with the //, but I then realized that that was thoughts. This story captivated me, start from finish. Do not repost this story because many cats will love to read this!

Goodbye- Contest Entry

I gasped, air rushing into my lungs as I ran. The dark gray, rough rocks hidden in the soil tore at my delicate pads as I fled, but I ignored the pain, knowing if I stopped now, /he/ would take my life.
The moon was shining high in the sky, scattering it's light across the forest floor, but I didn't take any comfort in the fact that I could see. Rustles in the bushes made my already tired, aching heart beat faster; shadows flitted across the ground, each black silhouette looking more threatening than the last.
Just when I thought my torn, bleeding paws would give in, I saw a break in the forest's foliage, revealing a large meadow spread out after it. //Clawstar's afraid of open spaces,// I thought in relief. //If I get there, he'll most likely retreat.// Excitement pumped adrenaline into my legs.
I nearly yowled in triumph when I sped into the field, but I held my tongue. I had to save my breath. In order for Clawstar to back off, I had to get deep into the field. I knew I had to do that, fast. His hot, rancid breath scorched the fur on my neck, and I could feel his razor-sharp claws slicing through the air, just several beetle-lengths away from my body.
I yelped as I saw the ground drop away from me several moments later. Desperately, I skidded to a stop. Tiny rocks rolled off the side of the gorge, bouncing off the side of the deathly ledge. I could not hear them hit the bottom. My heart felt just seconds away from exploding, from coating my insides with grief, anger, and blood. //Oh, StarClan, what have I done to receive such a fate like this?//
"Ah, so we meet again, Chaia." The menacing, dark voice spat the last word out as if he had a piece of crowfood in his mouth.
Shaking with fear, I turned around to look that my pursuer. Muscles rippled across his lean body, and his mouse-length claws raked at the soft, grass-coated ground.
"I-I thought you were afriad of open spaces." I tried desperately to add a note of defiance into my voice, but the results were futile.
"Well, I got rid of that fear." Clawstar's amber eyes glared at me, the red hue around his pupils seeming to spread. He advanced toward me, close enough that I could smell all the horrid aromas in his tooth-cracked mouth. The smell of rotten food. The smell of blood. The smell of death. "Just like I got rid of the remorse for my mate, Nightflower. The cat that you killed."
"I did not kill her!" I snarled, anger finally spreading through my soul.
"Oh, yes you did. And now you must pay. Be my slave, or die a painful death."
My body seemed to go hollow by those words. Fear raced around the emptiness. "No," I finally choked out. "I won't die by your claws."
Without feeling a trace of regret, I let one of my hindlegs dangle over the edge of the cliff. "I'm not scared of you."
My other hindleg hung over. "I'm not scared of the pain. I'm used to it. Both emotional and physical pain." My left paw now began its journey to the bottom. Struggling to stay on, I said my final words in a whisper. "I'm not afraid of death."
The claws that were my only barrier from life and death retracted back into my paws, and I began the long journey down the gorge. Memories flashed before my eyes: Me, playing with my adopted mother, Earthpelt; laughing with my best friend, Glowpaw as we ate prey and talked as the moon shone over us; tears streaming from my eyes as I was exiled from my Clan at a young age of two moons.
"Goodbye," I whispered.
Everything went dark.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Is it good enough

Twelve and my teacher told me about this book...bcause i love to write...but is it good enough for a twelve year old to read? I really need an answer...so....ppl plz pozt!

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Fun read, not a lot of actual info.

I found other books better, but it was a fun read.

Beyond "Instructions"

The title of this book is slightly misleading. "Some instructions on Writing and Life" is not up to par with Anne Lamott. "Instructions" implies the owner's manual for your toaster. Writing implies storytelling. This book is no toaster manual.

The combination of writing and life is a brilliant one. Lamott does not type up a formula, a diagram of plot development and some quick tips on finding your inner Homer. Rather, she tells her own story, her own experiences and the breathtakingly witty anecdotes that have punctured her existence. Lamott does not preach techniques with text-book style examples, rather she defines habits that have worked for her and real life examples.

The book is like disco ball. It reflects all these different facets that would be messy and overwhelming in any other context. But the sheer genius of Lamott's diction and the music of her language tie them all together. In a half a page she can go from a outrageously hilarious snippet ("For me (publication) has been more like a cross between the last few weeks of pregnancy, when you look and feel like Orson Welles and you are hormonally challenged up the yang, your ankles are swollen and you feel revulsion at the smell of vegetables cooking; and the first day of seventh-grade PE class when they make you line up by size before they hand out your gym uniform. And you're either four feet tall, like E.T., or made to feel like Diane Arbus's Jewish Giant.") to something that is so rawly profound that you have to read it a few times to appreciate it. ("And finally I felt that my jealousy and I were strangely beautiful, like the men in the AIDS movie, doing the dance of the transformed self, dancing like an old long-legged bird.") Reading Bird by Bird is like reading all the reasons you were right to pick the book in the first place. Lamott is self-deprecating enough to be human, confused enough to be classy and just crazy enough to dare to instruct on writing and life.

slightly helpful

Lamott offers little help for practical technical problesm of writing. I was looking for help putting the pieces of a complex novel together into a coherent whole. She gives you a little boost if you have a discouraged attitude. That's about it.

Loved Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott!

I loved this book! As an amateur writer, this book told me it was okay to have the feelings I did about my writing endeavors. It humanized a creative process that can be frightening and exhilarating. Anne Lamott paved the road that many hope to stroll down but are fearful of what may be around each turn. The information was well organized, easy to read and very insightful. It covered the crazy roller coaster of emotions you have about your work from the perspective of someone who has experienced it. She covered the subject matter in a very witty, comfortable, relatable way - like a friend. I would recommend this to anyone that is having doubts about their own writing and want to keep doing it!

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Disappointing

This book got such good reviews but I was very disappointed. Lamott may have some good info to share but the first part of the book is a very self-congratulatory autobiography that is repeatedly punctuated with the assertion the you (the reader) could never hope to be as good or successful a writer as she or her father but you might be able to write something *nice* for your own enjoyment.<BR/><BR/>I don't know if she ever got into any useful discussions of writing; I returned the book.

Hilarious, honest, insightful

This is a great book for anyone who doesn't know where to start with a project. It is hilarious, honest, insightful, and offers great tips for creating the most 'real' novel you can. Highly recommended!