Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and LifeNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An essential volume for generations of writers young and old. The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this modern classic will continue to spark creative minds for years to come. Anne Lamott is "a warm, generous, and hilarious guide through the writer’s world and its treacherous swamps" (Los Angeles Times). “Superb writing advice…. Hilarious, helpful, and provocative.” —The New York Times Book Review For a quarter century, more than a million readers—scribes and scribblers of all ages and abilities—have been inspired by Anne Lamott’s hilarious, big-hearted, homespun advice. Advice that begins with the simple words of wisdom passed down from Anne’s father—also a writer—in the iconic passage that gives the book its title: “Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’” |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 40
Page xiii
... everything else , weighed about forty pounds at the time , and was so tense that I walked around with my shoulders up to my ears , like Richard Nixon . I saw a home movie once of a birthday party I went to in the first grade , with all ...
... everything else , weighed about forty pounds at the time , and was so tense that I walked around with my shoulders up to my ears , like Richard Nixon . I saw a home movie once of a birthday party I went to in the first grade , with all ...
Page xxiv
... everything I had ever dreamed of . And I had reached nirvana , right ? Well . I believed , before I sold my first book , that publication would be instantly and automatically gratifying , an affirming and romantic experience , a ...
... everything I had ever dreamed of . And I had reached nirvana , right ? Well . I believed , before I sold my first book , that publication would be instantly and automatically gratifying , an affirming and romantic experience , a ...
Page xxvii
... If people show up in one of my classes and want to learn to write , or to write better , I can tell them everything that has helped me along the way and what it is like for me on a any if daily basis . I can teach them little xxvii.
... If people show up in one of my classes and want to learn to write , or to write better , I can tell them everything that has helped me along the way and what it is like for me on a any if daily basis . I can teach them little xxvii.
Page xxix
... Everything they see and hear and learn will become grist for the mill . At cocktail parties or in line at the post office , they will be gleaning small moments and overheard expressions : they'll sneak away to scribble these things down ...
... Everything they see and hear and learn will become grist for the mill . At cocktail parties or in line at the post office , they will be gleaning small moments and overheard expressions : they'll sneak away to scribble these things down ...
Page xxx
... everything he knew about the holiday . So my Sam told him this lovely Christian - preschool version of Thanksgiv- ing , with the pilgrims and the Native Americans and lots of lovely food and feelings . At which point Big Sam XXX ...
... everything he knew about the holiday . So my Sam told him this lovely Christian - preschool version of Thanksgiv- ing , with the pilgrims and the Native Americans and lots of lovely food and feelings . At which point Big Sam XXX ...
Contents
16 | |
28 | |
School Lunches 33 Polaroids | 39 |
Dialogue 64 Set Design | 74 |
False Starts 80 Plot Treatment | 85 |
Radio Station KFKD 116Jealousy | 122 |
Index Cards 133 Calling Around | 145 |
Letters 172 Writers Block | 176 |
PUBLICATIONAND OTHER | 185 |
Writing a Present 185 Finding Your Voice | 195 |
Giving 202Publication | 208 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
actually agent Anne Lamott Anthony Hopkins beautiful begin believe breathe called characters Demi Moore desk dialogue editor Ethan Canin everything father feel felt finally Flannery O'Connor formula fiction Frederick Buechner funny garden Gary Snyder getting give going happen head hear heart hope index cards inside keep KFKD knew listen lives look lunch mind months morning movie Natalie Goldberg night novel Okay one-inch picture frame Pammy paper parents person Phillip Lopate plot Polaroid probably published quiet remember sense Sharon Olds shitty first draft short assignment smell someone Sometimes sort stare started talk tell there's things thought tiny told truth trying turn voice waiting walking Warren Oates Wendell Berry woman wonderful words worry writer friends writing group written wrote