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Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
 
 
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Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (Paperback)

by Anne Lamott (Author) "The very first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth..." (more)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (198 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 18.95
Price: CDN$ 13.83 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details
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Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life + Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within + On Writing
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  • This item: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott

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Product Description

From Amazon.com

Think you've got a book inside of you? Anne Lamott isn't afraid to help you let it out. She'll help you find your passion and your voice, beginning from the first really crummy draft to the peculiar letdown of publication. Readers will be reminded of the energizing books of writer Natalie Goldberg and will be seduced by Lamott's witty take on the reality of a writer's life, which has little to do with literary parties and a lot to do with jealousy, writer's block and going for broke with each paragraph. Marvelously wise and best of all, great reading.


From Publishers Weekly

Lamott's ( Operating Instructions ) miscellany of guidance and reflection should appeal to writers struggling with demons large and slight. Among the pearls she offers is to start small, as their father once advised her 10-year-old brother, who was agonizing over a book report on birds: "Just take it bird by bird." Lamott's suggestion on the craft of fiction is down-to-earth: worry about the characters, not the plot. But she's even better on psychological questions. She has learned that writing is more rewarding than publication, but that even writing's rewards may not lead to contentment. As a former "Leona Helmsley of jealousy," she's come to will herself past pettiness and to fight writer's block by living "as if I am dying." She counsels writers to form support groups and wisely observes that, even if your audience is small, "to have written your version is an honorable thing."
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
The very first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth. Read the first page
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Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
83% buy the item featured on this page:
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life 4.5 out of 5 stars (198)
CDN$ 13.83
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On Writing
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Customer Reviews

198 Reviews
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4 star:
 (27)
3 star:
 (8)
2 star:
 (7)
1 star:
 (11)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (198 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Boring Beginner's Stuff, Jun 22 2004
By Sunnyside "Sunnyside" (Astoria, NY United States) - See all my reviews
I'm trying to return this book right now...it's not bad, and certainly has its audience, but I'm not it. It's your basic beginner's guide to creative writing, unique for its alternately folksy and sassy tone. A certain kind of beginner will find it encouraging -- typically young and female, I suspect. It's like having your own encouraging single mum! But for anyone who's got past their own precious egos (enough to progress beyond hand-holding and back-patting, anyway) and has the minimum intellectual insight required of a would-be writer of "literary fiction" (as opposed to "genre fiction"), this book's likely to be only amusing at best. I myself cannot recommend it as being helpful to anyone writing at an advanced, pre-publication level, for which I maintain that John Gardner's "Art of Fiction" and "On Becoming A Novelist" remain the most useful of all such books, intellectually rigorous (even if it sounds elitist here and there) and spiritually uplifting for being more "formal" and "classically-minded." As it stands, "Bird by Bird" is a good enough preamble for its implicitly intended market of young female beginning writers (and sensitive "Young Werthers," for that matter). As a nice counter-weight to Gardner, I'd recommend "Self-Editing for Fiction Writers."
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Maybe it's sacrilege but..., May 25 2004
By TheCafeWriter (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   
I don't really care for this book. With all the hyperbole about it, I really expected it to be the Holy Grail of inspirational writing books.

Instead, it's very heavily laden with metaphors and similes where writing and related topics are compared to all manner of things, and a lot of self-indulgent autobiography that I found more off-putting than inspiring. In just one short chapter on "giving" she presents these:

* "shot my literary creative wad every day"
* "like Zorba the Greek at the keyboard" (Huh??)
* "I'm a wired little rodent squirreling things away"
* "like patients in an emergency room"
* "like you violated some archaic law in their personal Koran"
* "like a single parent of a 3-year-old"
And *that* simile then compared to "like a doting grandparent."

I found that kind of style tedious after a while. I've tried repeatedly to get through this book - even getting it on tape (and the author reads the entire thing in a monotone).

The overall tone is depressing (unless you really want to hear about cancer and cocaine abuse), and the points can be frustratingly contradictory. For example, she exhorts on writing your truth and pain, but at the same time quotes an editor who told her "you assume everything that's happened to you is interesting." This is like telling new writers to dig deeply within their own memories/experiences and write about them honestly, and then chiding them for writing "what really happened."

I only found a couple of useful tidbits, but with so many other books on this subject that say the same things more concisely and directly, this one just isn't worth it. If you really want to read it, check it out of the library instead.

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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Streaker's Delight, Jul 1 2004
By Lisa Filadelfia "Lisa Filadelfia" (Temecula, CA.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Anne Lamott is always a brave and honest writer, but in "Bird by Bird" she streaks through your psyche, leaving her self evaluations and confessions burned into your mind like the image of the naked stranger you walked in on by accident in the dressing room. You get the feeling you should look away, but you can't help taking a peek. Often funny, sometimes uncomfortable, but always, to the last page, authentic. If you're a writer, I bet you'll read it more than once.
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Bird by Bird
This is an excellent book about the writing life and secrets of successful writing. I like especially the humor in it.
Published on Jun 24 2004 by Angshuman Das

4.0 out of 5 stars not for writing teachers---
This is really a quick, easy book to fly through. It has a lot of funny tidbits about the process of writing. Ms. Read more
Published on Jun 11 2004 by David M. Lovin

4.0 out of 5 stars Take it from someone who knows
I loved this book. It was full of life lessons that you can use whether or not you ever write a book. This author is so wise and so funny. She has been there...done that... Read more
Published on Jun 2 2004 by L. Dunn

5.0 out of 5 stars this book flies
This is the best book on writing that I've read. Witty enough to leaven any hints of self-pity, and compulsively quotable, I would recommend it to anyone struggling with their... Read more
Published on May 30 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Holy Grail? Secrets come from ordinary experiences.
Writing can be magical -- to be a conduit of the voices, to be merely the typist, to get out of the way of your characters, and to see the story develope like a Polaroid. Read more
Published on May 29 2004 by Michael Milford

3.0 out of 5 stars Not exactly universal
I recognize that Lamott, unlike me, is a published author, so I hardly have the right to critique her methods. Read more
Published on May 7 2004 by Henry Platte

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Advice for Burgeoning Writers in America
The writer's life isn't always glamorous, but there is usually never a dull moment(OK maybe a few). LaMott tells it like it is. Read more
Published on May 7 2004 by J. McAndrew

4.0 out of 5 stars nuts
This woman is crazy...but she knows how to inspire creativity. If you need some encouragement and ideas about how to start writing and get over the small trials that come with... Read more
Published on April 9 2004 by Bigdaddy

5.0 out of 5 stars Not for the Self-Centered or Weak
This book-on-writing is one of the best I have ever read. Lamott manages to be blatantly honest about your likelihood of getting published (something missing in most of these... Read more
Published on Mar 10 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Useful and Funny!
I found this book to be very inspiring. Ms. Lamott gave suggestions on writing and shared her knowledge, and I found it very useful. Read more
Published on Mar 6 2004 by Steph

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