Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Lamott recommends calling professionals as part of research for creative writing. She contrasts the solitary nature of writing with the more social aspects of research, such as conducting interviews. One example she provides is calling a winery to discover the name of the wire thing on the top of champagne bottles. When she got busy signals, she imagined life in the winery, wrote a bit about that, and read her work to a friend who happened to call. Eventually, she got through and talked to someone at the winery who told her it was called a wire hood. A few of her readers noted the specificity of the wire hood after her book was published.

Much of the work of writing is solitary, but getting feedback is a social endeavor. Lamott describes the different kinds of people who attend creative writing workshops and classes. For instance, some writers are looking for community, some are looking for critique, and some are looking for conversations about the business of submitting. Others attend her classes or workshops hoping that she will take them under her wing and introduce them to her agent. While she does this occasionally, generally she listens and offers advice.

Lamott warns the reader that many workshops and classes can be rough. She includes an example of a good writer tearing apart the work of a mediocre writer. This, and other experiences, cause her to advocate for offering critiques with kindness and respect. She includes a poem by Bill Holm called “August in Waterton, Alberta” that she wished she could have sent to the mediocre writer in her class. The short poem describes wind trying to blow the leaves off a tree before they are ready to fall, its futile efforts producing nothing but music—“the noise / of failure growing beautiful.” The poem evokes ideas that are central to Lamott’s book—that even writing that fails at its objectives still produces unexpected beauty, and that “bad” writing is only writing that hasn’t yet had enough time (and revision) to become good, as the wind that fails to blow the leaves from the tree in the poem will succeed later, when the time is right.

Writing groups are smaller, less formal groups that tend to branch off from creative writing workshops and classes. These groups are also created by people posting ads looking for other writers. Lamott describes a writing group of four former students who still regularly meet and offer each other feedback. They offer emotional as well as practical support to each other.

Lamott suggests finding someone who will privately offer feedback on your work—a writing partner. This could be a spouse or close friend. Sometimes these people are called beta readers. They see the work before you send it to an agent or a publication. She realizes that it can be hard to accept criticism but recommends having someone who cares about you be the one to offer it before sending your work to a professional.

Lamott’s readers are another writer and a librarian who doesn’t write. She suggests readers try to find writing partners in creative writing workshops or classes. This can involve rejection and can feel like dating. While criticism can be difficult to hear, Lamott insists that it should be given with “kindness and respect” (170). In seeking early readers, the writer should look for those who can offer these qualities and avoid those who cannot.

Lamott suggests writing a letter as a way to jumpstart the creative process. This letter could be addressed to a friend, children, or other family members. One of Lamott’s students used her letter as “a plot treatment for a novel” (173). She gives an example from her own life. Assigned by a magazine editor to write an essay about her love of the San Francisco Giants baseball team, she felt initially overwhelmed by the professional pressure and was unable to begin. In order to overcome this pressure, she wrote the first draft of the essay in the form of a letter to her son—by trying to explain her ideas to someone she loved, she was able to let go of her crippling expectations and access her true feelings on the subject.

Lamott describes how the experience commonly called “writer’s block” grows out of insecurity. When you allow your internal critic too much space in your mind, when you feel that your work is ugly or unoriginal, you become blocked. Lamott prefers the word “empty,” rather than “blocked”—the problem is not that something is preventing the ideas in your head from getting out, but rather that there’s nothing in there. The solution to this problem is to accept that you are drained and try to write 300 words a day about anything at all. Then, seek out things that replenish you, such as reading books or going to the beach. In other words, do things that you would do if you knew you were going to die the next day.

The important thing to do is practice writing. Writers must keep showing up and finish the pieces they start. Lamott talks about her struggles with writing a new novel after getting bad reviews on a previously published novel. She became invested in the characters and stopped believing she was in charge, accepting that some periods of writing are more fruitful than others.

Writing comes from sensory experiences and the unconscious, which can be fickle. When the unconscious is uncooperative, write 300 terrible words just to keep in practice.