Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
by Anne Lamott

Anchor (New York): 1994. Trade paperback: 239 pages. ISBN-10: 0-385-48001-6 ISBN-13: 978-0385480017 Suggested retail price: $12.95 (US) Tags: short assignments; Writing Tactical strength: [7/10]

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Bird by Bird takes a very different approach from standard how-to-write fare. Lamott admits that for most writers, writing will not produce wealth, happiness, or security. Yet, writers keep on writing anyway. Lamott focuses her advice on getting you in tune with your subconscious and on overcoming a lack of self-confidence. She encourages you to set small assignments for yourself: you should only work on as much of your story as you can see through a one-inch picture frame. By achieving assignment after assignment, you will eventually accomplish a great deal of work.

Lamott must also have one of the most self-deprecating brains every to have inhabited a human form. She tells humorous stories of her own continued nervousness about her writing in spite of her established successes. From her own experience, she gives numerous tips on overcoming the inner critic that keeps telling you that forcing your pen through you temple would produce a better result than putting the point to the paper. For on thing, you should allow yourself to write really bad first drafts. No one will see the draft, so you don't have to worry about quality. Later, you can throw away most of the dreck, but you will also want to save the really good parts that you would have never produced if you had tried to produce really good copy from the beginning.

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