2013 Book #7: Bird By Bird – Gift It / Shelf It.
I have to thank my writing buddy @chiquipineda for recommending Anne Lamott’s Bird By Bird, the second must-read book about “writing”. The first being Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down The Bones.
This book is very rich with lessons for those who love writing, be it in a journal or a blog or letters to loved ones. One does not need to be an aspiring writer to appreciate this book. After all, the subtitle reads ~ Some Instructions on Writing and Life.
Anne Lamott is warm and funny and generous in her life shares.
Passages that rocked me ~
“You are going to have to give and give and give, or there’s no reason for you to be writing. You have to give from the deepest part of yourself, and you are going to have to go on giving, and the giving is going to be its own reward.”
“Here’s one reason to write. Your child and your work hold you hostage, suck you dry, ruin your sleep, mess with your head, treat you like dirt, and then discover they’ve given you that old nugget you were looking for all along.”
“Try to write in a direct emotional way, instead of being subtle or oblique. Don’t be afraid of your material or your past. Be afraid of wasting any more time obsessing about how you look and how people see you. Be afraid of not getting your writing done.“