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Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (平装)
by Anne Lamott
| Category:
Teens, Memoir, Writting |
| Market price: ¥ 158.00
MSL price:
¥ 148.00
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MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
A warm, generous and hilarious writting guide; sidesplittingly funny, patiently wise and alternately cranky and kind. |
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AllReviews |
1 2   | Total 2 pages 12 items |
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Eric Wilson (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-28 00:00>
This is not a how-to book. This is not a New Age manual for freeing your creativity in ethereal ways. This is Anne Lamott, for heaven's sake...and that means it's funny! As in, laugh- till-you-can't-read-the-words-through-the-tears-in-your-eyes funny. (Some call this therapy, and I'm inclined to agree.)
Though aimed at writers, this book is full of sage advice and razor-edged honesty for the average joe. If you're a writer - and I claim to be one--it's more than a few anecdotes and good advice; it's a lifeline in the thrashing seas of rough-draftdom, a foothold on the sands of jealousy and vain ambition. Anne makes it clear that writing must be pursued for something other than mere publication. (Though, to be honest, I know she's just trying to let the majority of us down easy.) Writing is about letting go, growing, facing truths, and holding on.
I'm hooked on Lamott. She slaps me in the face with her startling revelations, nudges me in the ribs with her unpredictable humor, and prods my frozen little writer's hands back into action with warm compassion. This book won't solve the mechanical aspects of my writing, or lead me on the path of structural excellence, but it will spark my creativity, free my characters to be true to themselves, and, ultimately, shake me from my doldrums back into the writing mode.
In a society addicted to mindless facts and information, Bird by Bird reminds us - writers or otherwise - that it's all about heart. Heart and mind and soul dancing together, even if they step all over each other's feet.
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Susan Perry (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-28 00:00>
Anne Lamott writes more eloquently than most on the trauma of writer's block. When a professor of mine spoke highly of BIRD BY BIRD, knowing I was studying flow for my own (subsequently bestselling) book Writting In Flow, I was prepared to dislike it. After all, Lamott's novels are hardly famous, and the book she did begin to get known for is a memoir of the first year of her son's life. Since I started and stopped something similar, I was jealous.
But then I fell under her spell. Bird by Bird is a very funny book, and most of the humor is the endearingly self-deprecating kind. Besides, Lamott speaks openly of her own jealousy of any writer friend who is slightly more successful at the moment than she is. I'm a sucker for honesty.
Don't read this book to be entertained however. Read it to find out something about designing a plot, creating characters, and writing dialogue. Read it to find out how good writing happens. According to Lamott, it happens when "you sit down at approximately the same time every day. This is how you train your subconscious to kick in for you creatively." The honest part comes you stare at it for an hour or so. You begin rocking, just a little at first, and then like a huge autistic child."
This quick-reading book is filled with fresh anecdotes, personal revelations, and practical tips about taking notes, writing groups, and who should read your drafts. You complete it all in a rush ending with the reassuring sense that regular people, like the author and yourself, if you work harder than you expected to have to, can produce something very good. And although Lamott mainly writes about her own individual experiences, her insights and advice coincide nicely with what I found to be true by interviewing 76 top novelists and poets for my Writting In Flow.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-28 00:00>
If there's a better book to read when you're doubting yourselfand your writing ability, I don't know what it is. If You Want To Write by Brenda Ueland may be more profound, but it's not as funny... I don't think Lamott copied Ueland at all. Both books are wonders, Ueland's more spiritual or mystical - i.e. how to express your own unique self and write your truth - and Lamott's more worldy - how to get your rear in gear and start producing copy. Lamott's chapter on crumby first drafts lets you know you must start somewhere and can't do that if you're constantly criticizng and editing yourself. And she is so right--once you have a beginning, you can make it better... and better... and better. She doesn't really tell you how to do that in very specific terms, but for that there's great sourcebooks like Self Editing For Fiction Writers and On Writing Well, which more than cover the job. Bird by Bird may be short on craft, but it's long on motivation, humor, and practical ways to get yourself writing.
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Betti Trapp (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-28 00:00>
This author is a new find for me, but I will surely read much more of her. She is fabulously funny, incredibly informative, and absolutely generous with her thoughts and feelings and expertise on writing. The book warmed me, and made me feel that I could continue my writing with a stronger and better perspective. For aspiring writer's everywhere, and for writers published and not, this book will take you on a journey and offer invaluable advice for your hard work. It will help you revive that natural urge to write and keep you plugging away at the keyboard during the very worst of slumps. You will also laugh with Anne Lamott, the author, who is hilarious and honest and very witty. The practical and real life advice will stay with you as you struggle to become the writer you already are.
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Carolyn Howard (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-28 00:00>
My godness! Who would have guessed that one slim little volume could cause so much controversy!
Anne Lamott's National Bestseller, Bird by Bird, does not promise a complete course in advanced writing. The subtitle says "Some Instructions on Writing and Life." What you see is what you get.
This book is a perfect introduction to writing for beginning writers just as, I suspect, LaMott's courses are. More advanced writers should get out their Hi-liters and pay attention not so much to what she says but how she says it. It also wouldn't hurt to look at her self deprecating humor (I don't see where these readers are seeing all that self-absorption stuff - I truly don't!) and her honesty.
Could some of this be professional jealousy? This is a book that gives what it promises and more! And yes, some of the advice is similar to advice that has been given by others. Writers' books are sort of a genre of their own - in the vein of King's and others. A little memoir, a little humor, a little advice. How much new can be said about how to write anyway?
Writers or wanna be writers should find this a nice, savory little book to be read a little at a time, bird by bird.
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This is the Place.
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Charles Day (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-28 00:00>
If you've ever thought of signing up for one of those writers workshops with some successful wordcrafter but were put off by the price or the possibility of somebody asking, "What are you doing here?" this is your chance to do a test-run on what it might really be like.
If Anne Lamott's workshops are anything like her book Bird by Bird: Instructions on Writing and Life, then whatever the cost - dollars or pride - it will be worth the price of admission.
Lamotte is funny - poking fun at herself as well as doing a running, withering commentary on society and human nature. No thought is too important to permit a digression which is part of her style of writing (and speaking?). On the other hand, no thought is too trivial to put on a 3X5 card for possible intrusion (not a Freudian Slip, thank you!) in something she is writing or saying. Her philosophy of life and writing seems to be: If the shoe fits, it probably isn't yours, but wear it anyway. Whoever left it for you should have been more careful where they leave their shoes.
Besides the fun, no there's nothing besides fun in life - except despair and you don't want to go there - the fun in no way takes anything away from Lamott's sound advice for writers, especially those with low self-esteem, poverty status, lack of writing skills, and nagging in-laws who wonder why you don't get a real job.
Her practical advice includes: getting started (sit down everyday, same time, same place, quiet your mind, and start writing until you "get to that one long paragraph that was what you had in mind when you started, only you didn't know that, couldn't know that, until you got to it"); try doing short assignments ("... writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." E. L. Doctorow); developing characters ("Just don't pretend you know more about your characters than they do, because you don't. Stay open to them. It's teatime and all the dolls are at the table. Listen. It's that simple."); and plot (Plot grows out of character. If you focus on who the people in your story are, if you sit and write about two people you know and are getting to know better day by day, something is bound to happen.").
One of my favorite chapters is "Broccoli" which begins with Mel Brooks' old routine in which a psychiatrist advises a patient, "Listen to your broccoli, and your broccoli will tell you how to eat it." Don't try to find out who that psychiatrist is - she's booked up 'til January 3000! Lamotte is affirming the shy attribute of intuition - trust it, tease it, test it, listen to it, get to know it. There is a gentle, tender, wondrous part of each of us that aches to be honored and invited to tea with our other toys, but like E.T., it has the right stuff to transform our lives and awaken the dolls.
Bird by Bird offers the pat on the back and kick in the pants every aspiring writer needs. Lamott does not think everybody who writes should publish . But she does believe everybody who wants to write should do it! There are characters in each of us just waiting to enter the stage of our minds and come to life. So, what are you waiting for? Get started all ready! They may not wait for ever.
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Greg Garrett (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-28 00:00>
I've been a publishing fiction writer for over twenty years and been teaching fiction writing for almost twenty. When I discovered this book ten years ago, I seized on it as a work to use in class, but it's become increasingly important in my life and work as well. When I teach, I ask my students to read it the first week of class so that they can hear the things I want to tell them in a funnier and more congenial voice than I can muster, and we refer back to it all semester long. Whenever we talk about it, I'm reminded not only of the great lessons about writing Annie has enclosed, but about the truths about the writing life we find here: the act of writing is more important than publishing, and striving to be a good person is more important than either.
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Emily (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-28 00:00>
Anne Lamott makes her guide to writing, Bird by Bird, personal, effective, and endearing by sharing embarrassing stories--everything from her three and a half year old son's cussing habits to her own struggles with writing to her debilitating bout of jealousy after the tremendous success of a writer friend. From her unabashed openness, the audience comes away with a good sense of Lamott's personality, and her humor makes it easier for the reader to accept her advice. Lamott does an excellent job of keeping the writing style conversational, which reinforces the book's personal quality. The writing is eloquent but simple, insightful but interesting. "Me, I'm a nice Christian girl, and while I wish I could quote something kicky and inspirational that Jesus had to say about writing, the truth is that when students ask me for the best practical advice I know, I always pick up a piece of paper and pantomime scribbling away" (37). From the first line of Bird by Bird the reader can tell that Lamott's voice is consistent; she is a caring coach, comic, and expert who offers sage and useful guidance. Her wit and wisdom capture the reader's interest; her practical counsel and experience build the reader's ability and boost his motivation.
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Western Reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-28 00:00>
I can honestly say that this is the best book on writing that I've ever read, and yes, it's also the only book on writing that I've ever read. But what a way to start. I've avoided the genre because I've wanted to figure things out on my own, but this book is more like a conversation with a writer than a tome on how to write. She's talks about how she started, what keeps her motivated, what she does when she gets stuck, and how she deals with various writer anxieties (re: publication, rejection, validation).
Above all, this is a very funny, laugh-out-loud book. Lamott has a quirky sense of humor and a refreshing, spot on ability to create memorable pictures. Despite writing of her own spirituality, Lamott doesn't get preachy or smug or self-righteous, and so her stories end up being truly inspiring. She talks about giving as a writer, and I found in her stories many gifts.
A couple of gems that I've tucked away:
- One-inch picture frames: big ideas can engulf you; write about a moment in time, one short scene, something that would fit into a one-inch picture frame.
- Writing is putting down one word after another (the best advice for a writer is to... write).
- You have to give your best stuff to your current project (she references Annie Dillard for this idea) and not try to save it or hoard it; sort of a 'use it or lose it' attitude.
- The myth of publication: if you weren't enough before publication, you're not going to be enough after publication.
Lots to digest, and worth rereading.
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Peggy Vincent (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-28 00:00>
Here's the thing: I Know Anne Lamott loves writing fiction, and she's helluv good at it. But I swear she's at her best when writing nonfiction. Afterall, it was Bird by Bird and Operating Instructions that put her over the top; then she followed up with Traveling Mercies. The quality and longevity of her fiction pale by comparison.
Bird by Bird is simply one of the three best books on the angst of writing and being a writer that's ever been written. The other two are Writing Down the Bones and S. King's On Writing. But the three books are very, very different. King's is actually pretty weird in spots, as he is, but for the most part it's all about philosophy. Natalie Goldberg's 'Bones' is very instructional and inspirational.
But Lamott! Oh, Annie's book is just as outrageously honest and funny and true and painful in the telling as it is in actuality to be a writer.
Wonderful, wonderful book; highest recommendation.
Read it.
If you're a writer, you'll get some advice from a master on how to cope with (or not) self-doubt, writer's block, and jealousy. But read it anyway, even if you're not the least bit interested in being a writer but just happen to like her other books; you won't be disappointed.
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1 2 | Total 2 pages 12 items |
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