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
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Page ix
... , Marin City , California . Sam said to me the other day , " I love you like 20 tyrannosauruses on 20 mountaintops , " and this is the exact same way in which I love him . I grew up around a father and a mother who ix.
... , Marin City , California . Sam said to me the other day , " I love you like 20 tyrannosauruses on 20 mountaintops , " and this is the exact same way in which I love him . I grew up around a father and a mother who ix.
Page xi
... father's writer friends were over . My father was a writer , as were most of the men with whom he hung out . They were not the quietest people on earth , but they were mostly very masculine and kind . Usually in the afternoons , when ...
... father's writer friends were over . My father was a writer , as were most of the men with whom he hung out . They were not the quietest people on earth , but they were mostly very masculine and kind . Usually in the afternoons , when ...
Page xii
... fathers and sat in a little office and smoked . But the idea of spending entire days in someone else's office doing someone else's work did not suit my father's soul . I think it would have killed him . He did end up dying rather early ...
... fathers and sat in a little office and smoked . But the idea of spending entire days in someone else's office doing someone else's work did not suit my father's soul . I think it would have killed him . He did end up dying rather early ...
Page xv
... father's study and write my poems while he sat at his desk writing his books . Every couple of years , another book of his was published . Books were revered in our house , and great writers admired above everyone else . Special books ...
... father's study and write my poems while he sat at his desk writing his books . Every couple of years , another book of his was published . Books were revered in our house , and great writers admired above everyone else . Special books ...
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 |
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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