Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1995) talks about "life being a recycling centre." It's true, isn't it? Everything has happened before.
Don't you love it when suddenly you recognize your own life in something you are reading? You know exactly what the author is saying. He's been there, done that.
That's something we writers should strive for -- that ability, as Lamott calls it, "to turn on the light for the reader."
Write on!
Showing posts with label Bird by Bird. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bird by Bird. Show all posts
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Saturday, September 26, 2009
True Confessions
I'm working on a talk I have to deliver next week. Until that is behind me, I'm not ready to get back into the novel-in-progress. I need to keep writing, though, and so I'm taking Anne Lamott's advice.
In her book, Bird by Bird, Lamott says that you should write short assignments. It's important to get something down, she says, and to finish it. Write about your childhood; write about birthdays, school, family members, (even) school lunches. There may be only one usable sentence in the piece, she says, or there may be nothing. But it could reveal something interesting about you, your family and the times in which you live.
This is what I wrote yesterday:
My mother didn't like to make school lunches. She never said as much, but all these years later, I know it to be true. I cannot remember her ever suggesting we make our own.
Mom refused to buy sliced bread but preferred hearty loaves which she sliced herself, calling anything like "Wonder Bread" soggy and devoid of any nutrition. "You might as well eat the wrapper it comes in."
No crust was ever removed from Mom's sandwiches, and the margarine would be applied so sparingly that the sandwiches were often dry. How I envied my friend Marja's pretty lunches: sandwiches made of thin slices of roasted chicken breast on crustless, soft white bread. No great leaves of lettuce hanging out anywhere. And real butter!
I especially hated to open my waxed paper wrapped sandwich to discover today's surprise was egg salad. Mom never let the eggs boil long enough to become hard, and there was always some runny yolk inside.
Anne Lamott was right. That piece did reveal something about myself: I too hate making lunches. While I sit scribbling at the kitchen table, the pages of my novel stacked in front of me, my husband quietly makes his own sandwich.
Pity the writer's family!
In her book, Bird by Bird, Lamott says that you should write short assignments. It's important to get something down, she says, and to finish it. Write about your childhood; write about birthdays, school, family members, (even) school lunches. There may be only one usable sentence in the piece, she says, or there may be nothing. But it could reveal something interesting about you, your family and the times in which you live.
This is what I wrote yesterday:
My mother didn't like to make school lunches. She never said as much, but all these years later, I know it to be true. I cannot remember her ever suggesting we make our own.
Mom refused to buy sliced bread but preferred hearty loaves which she sliced herself, calling anything like "Wonder Bread" soggy and devoid of any nutrition. "You might as well eat the wrapper it comes in."
No crust was ever removed from Mom's sandwiches, and the margarine would be applied so sparingly that the sandwiches were often dry. How I envied my friend Marja's pretty lunches: sandwiches made of thin slices of roasted chicken breast on crustless, soft white bread. No great leaves of lettuce hanging out anywhere. And real butter!
I especially hated to open my waxed paper wrapped sandwich to discover today's surprise was egg salad. Mom never let the eggs boil long enough to become hard, and there was always some runny yolk inside.
Anne Lamott was right. That piece did reveal something about myself: I too hate making lunches. While I sit scribbling at the kitchen table, the pages of my novel stacked in front of me, my husband quietly makes his own sandwich.
Pity the writer's family!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Writer's Block
I think we all have our own ways of dealing with writer's block--those dry periods when we wonder if we'll ever again be able to write anything worthy of publication. I wholeheartedly subscribe to the tips for handling writer's block that Anne Lamott gives us in Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life--one of the best books for writers that I have ever read.
Lamott suggests:
Until then,
Peggy.
Lamott suggests:
- Write small pieces (even one paragraph, she says, but finish it. Don't be overwhelmed by it.)
- Be good to yourself.
- Read (of course. Relax and enjoy).
- Live as if you were dying; live every moment.
- Write down your memories about your family.
Until then,
Peggy.
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