Review: Bird by Bird (by Anne Lamott)

My Rating: 5 stars

Who knew reading about writing could be so fun?  One of the things that sets Anne Lamott's classic writing guide, Bird by Bird, apart from other books on the subject is the honest, down-to-earth, humorous manner in which she conveys both the joys and frustrations of the writing life.  I love how Lamott recounts her experiences with such raw honesty and self-deprecating humor, while at the same time, relaying valuable advice that is both relevant and useful.  The other thing I love about this book is that Lamott's writing is very accessible — she doesn't use flowery, abstract language or wax philosophical about the writing process in ways that make it feel like she is talking down to us.  Rather, it feels like a conversation between friends trading writing advice and telling funny stories about various writing experiences.

Those who've followed my reviews for awhile probably know that I've finally started on the novel writing project that I've been putting off for years.  As part of my "homework" for this project, I've been trying  to read as many books on writing as I can, from writing manuals to memoirs and everything in between.  Many of the books on the subject are relatively cut and dry, and while I usually end up with a few pages of notes, much of the content is largely repetitive, with very little that I feel I can actually apply to my own writing process. Reading Lamott's book was a completely different experience for me — not only did I take pages and pages of notes, I also found a lot of the advice hugely applicable.  

One example of how I've been able to apply Lamott's advice:  Each time I sit down to write, I'm often struck with "the tremendous sense of being overwhelmed" that Lamott describes in this book and if I'm being honest, there have been moments where I've felt like giving up.  Despite the fact that I already have a plot summary and a loose outline of the story's major scenes, I still feel that the task at hand — having to fill in all the details in a way that flows and make sense — is tremendously daunting.  It's during these moments that I usually sit back, take a deep breath, and remind myself of Lamott's advice to "just take it bird by bird" (which, for me, is scene by scene).  I then proceed to utilize her short assignment method of "writing down as much as you can see through a one-inch picture frame" and focus on nothing else at that moment except writing out that one scene. Continuing to apply this method, I eventually start to accumulate random scenes, which I intend to piece together at the very end.

Another example:  I'm a perfectionist when it comes to my own writing.  The novel project notwithstanding, in everything I write — be it emails, reviews, even personal notes that no one is going to see but myself — I'm obsessed with making sure every sentence I put down is perfectly constructed, that I'm using the exact words I need to use to convey the meaning I want to get across, that there is not a single mistake with spelling, grammar, sentence structure, etc.  And when a mistake is found, I tend to beat myself up over it but worst of all, it puts me on edge so that the next time I sit down to write something, I end up paying more attention to HOW I'm writing rather than WHAT I'm writing.  As a result, as much as I love to write, it can be a very draining process for me. In her book, Lamott talks about perfectionism as well as terrible first drafts and knowing what type of writer I am, these sections resonated with me especially deeply.  As it pertains to writing, Lamott likens perfectionism to clearing up clutter, wanting "desperately not to leave so much mess to clean up" later, but all it does is "ruin your writing, blocking inventiveness and playfulness and life force."  She encourages us to leave messes be because "we need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here — and by extension, what we're supposed to be writing."  Related to this, another piece of advice that I found especially useful and resonant is this:  "Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts.  You need to start somewhere.  Start by getting something — anything — down on paper.  A friend of mine says that the first draft is the down draft— you just get it down.  The second draft is the up draft — you fix it up.  You try to say what you have to say more accurately. And the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth, to see if it's loose or cramped or decayed, or even, God help us, healthy."  

After reading this book, I now understand why it is on nearly every recommended list as a "must-read" for writers.  I of course, absolutely agree — this is an indispensable read for writers of all stripes, a writing bible of sorts, but more importantly, it is one of those books that I plan to re-read whenever I feel discouraged or uninspired in my writing. Definitely a wonderful book and a necessary addition to every writer's bookshelf!

Review: The Writing Life (by Annie Dillard)

My Rating:  3 stars

One of my goals this year is to continue my quest to read as many books about the craft of writing as I can.  This month, I decided to pick up Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Dillard's famed book of essays on the craft, The Writing Life, which I had heard many good things about. 

Indeed, when I started the book, it was actually very engaging and I found myself highlighting many insights that resonated with me. Unfortunately though, as the book progressed, it started to become less and less accessible to me.  Dillard's prose is elegant and lyrical and yes, her metaphorical descriptions of things are beautifully rendered — but there was too much of it, in my opinion, to the point that it felt overwhelming, and after awhile, it became harder and harder to pay attention.  My mind started to wander and I ended up having to re-read things several times — putting the book down and picking it back up a few days later did help, but not by much.  Luckily, the book was very short (a tad over 100 pages), so I was able to push through and finish it (though it took me nearly a week to do so, which bothered me a bit).

Overall, I think this book just wasn't for me, especially at this moment in my life.  While I appreciated the insights it provided (I did write down a few things that were helpful and that I definitely want to remember), it came across a little too highbrow and abstract for me in some places — which is why I decided to go with a median rating of 3 stars.  Perhaps if I were to revisit this book at a later time, when my journey as a writer is more mature, I will have a better appreciation for it.

Review: Reading Like a Writer (by Francine Prose)

My Rating:  4 stars

As I mentioned in an earlier review of a different book, I was inspired to finally start my book writing project a few weeks ago and while it's been slow-going (and most likely will continue to be), I'm glad I decided to start working on it rather than continue to hold off until I have "more time."   Because of this, I've been trying to squeeze some books about writing (most of which I've had on my TBR for ages but just never got the chance to pick up) into my reading schedule, as I wanted to keep the momentum going in terms of inspiration.  One of the books that a writer friend pointed me to as a "must-read" is author Francine Prose's bestselling classic Reading Like a Writer:  A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them. I had actually never heard of this book prior to my friend recommending it (and I'm also not familiar with Francine Prose as a writer — I had heard of her, but had never read anything by her), but as soon as I saw that title, I just knew I had to pick it up right away – which I'm glad I did because there were so many insightful ideas in here!  

 

Prose starts her book with a question that has been asked many times over the years and to which there technically isn't a straightforward answer:  "Can creative writing be taught?"  While Prose never attempts to actually answer this question directly (which makes sense because, in my opinion, it's impossible to answer simply "yes" or "no" to this particular question), she does use her own experience on how she "learned to write" to explain her thoughts on it.  I'm not going to even attempt to summarize the entirety of her experience / thoughts (it's not possible to anyway), but I wanted to share a few quotes that essentially form the premise of what her book is about.

 

• "Like most – maybe all – writers, I learned to write by writing and, by example, by reading books."
• "In the ongoing process of becoming a writer, I read and re-read the authors I most loved.  I read for pleasure, first, but also more analytically, conscious of style, of diction, of how sentences were formed and information was being conveyed, how the writer was structuring a plot, creating characters, employing detail and dialogue.  And as I wrote, I discovered that writing, like reading, was done one word at a time, one punctuation mark at a time."
• "I read closely, word by word, sentence by sentence, pondering each deceptively minor decision the writer had made."
• "What writers know is that, ultimately, we learn to write by practice, hard work, by repeated trial and error, success and failure, and from the books we admire."
• "And so the book that follows represents an effort to recall my own education as a novelist and to help the passionate reader and would-be writer understand how a writer reads."

 

In the version of the book that I bought, there is a reprinted interview in the back that Francine Prose did with The Atlantic in July 2006 (around the time the book first came out) where she adds additional insight about why she wrote this book, which  I feel are worth sharing as well (if you do decide to pick up this book, I strongly recommend getting the version that has the interview).

 

• "If I had to really characterize the book, I'd say it's about the pleasure of reading and about learning to write."
• "For me, writing this book was a pretty passionate endeavor.  What I'm hoping is that some of that passion gets through.  Because it seems to me that the most important thing in any discussion of reading and writing is that intense commitment to the whole process."

 

The following is one of my favorite quotes from that interview.  In response to the interviewer's question referring back to another interview that Prose did back in 1998 where she said that she became a writer because she was an avid reader, so she would often get perplexed by the fact that some of her students who wanted to be writers either weren't actually reading or weren't reading passionately:  "That hasn't gotten any better, let me tell you.  In fact, I can look back and identify a few incidents that led up to my writing the book….I don't quite get it.  On a very basic level, I can't figure out why people would want to write unless they like to read.  I mean, what would be the point?  For the incredibly glamorous fast track lifestyle?  I don't think so." (The wit in those last 2 sentences made me chuckle!)

 

One of the things I like about this book is that, despite the title, it doesn't actually read like a "how-to" guide on writing.  Prose doesn't tell the reader how to write or what words to use / not to use, etc.  Rather, she takes some of the basic elements of story writing (i.e. sentence structure, character, details, etc.) and, using excerpts from works by other authors (both classic and contemporary, but mostly classic), illustrates how they utilized those elements in their writing. Personally, I found this method useful, though of course, depending on what you're looking for in books of this nature, this could be a huge turn-off for those who prefer a more traditional "how-to" approach — which is why I feel it's necessary to mention so that if you plan to pick this up, you know what you're getting into.

After showing us many examples of writing that did a good job of demonstrating the particular element the chapter focused on, Prose caps it all at the end with the assertion that there is actually not one "correct" way to write, which I found interesting.  She writes:   "And actually, many things that we ourselves consider indispensable for a work of fiction may turn out, the more we read, to be superfluous.  If the culture sets up a series of rules that the writer is instructed to observe, reading will show you how these rules have been ignored in the past, and the happy outcome.  So let me repeat, once more:  literature not only breaks the rules, but makes us realize that there are none."

 

By now, it's probably quite obvious that I got a lot out of this book.  Having said that, of course the book wasn't perfect and there was definitely room for improvement in some areas in terms making the book more readable and accessible overall — i.e.: some of the excerpts used were a bit too long, and in some cases, a little repetitive in illustrating a particular element; also would've preferred a better balance between excerpts from classic works and ones from more contemporary works — but definitely not a dealbreaker in my opinion. 

Not only did this book provide me with some great reading and writing advice, it was also funny and engaging, which I totally was not expecting.  I actually wish that I had read this book way back when it first came out, as it probably would've motivated me to start my book project earlier.  I especially appreciate the fact that Prose's overall message with this book is so simple (how to read like a writer), yet still tremendously helpful.  Case in point – I don't remember which section I was reading exactly, but as I put the book down for a quick break after finishing one of the chapters, I was hit by a sudden bout of inspiration and instead of picking up the book to continue reading right at that moment (which was my original intention), I ended up spending that time working out a scene that I had struggled with writing earlier.  

 

After reading this book, in addition to inspiring me to want to apply some of these concepts to my own reading and writing life, I'm also eager to check out some of Francine Prose's other works as well!