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Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life Paperback – Picture Book, September 1, 1995

4.6 out of 5 stars 8,255

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An essential volume for generations of writers young and old. The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this modern classic will continue to spark creative minds for years to come. Anne Lamott is "a warm, generous, and hilarious guide through the writer’s world and its treacherous swamps" (Los Angeles Times). 

“Superb writing advice…. Hilarious, helpful, and provocative.” —The New York Times Book Review

For a quarter century, more than a million readers—scribes and scribblers of all ages and abilities—have been inspired by Anne Lamott’s hilarious, big-hearted, homespun advice. Advice that begins with the simple words of wisdom passed down from Anne’s father—also a writer—in the iconic passage that gives the book its title:

“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’”

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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.

Review

“Superb writing advice. . . . Hilarious, helpful, and provocative.”
The New York Times Book Review
 
“A warm, generous, and hilarious guide through the writer’s world and its treacherous swamps.” 
Los Angeles Times

“One of the funniest books on writing ever published.” 
The Christian Science Monitor

“A gift to all of us mortals who write or ever wanted to write. . . . Sidesplittingly funny, patiently wise and alternately cranky and kind—a reveille to get off our duffs and start writing
now, while we  still can.” 
Seattle Times

Bird by Bird would be worth reading just for Lamott’s ele- gant, moving, and often-hilarious prose. But the advice she offers is just as fantastic as the style with which it’s delivered.”
Forbes

“Anne Lamott understands better than anyone that writers need help. . . . She writes so well, in fact, that it’s hard to believe that she, too, has trouble with writing. That’s what’s so deeply comforting about this book.”
The Wall Street Journal

“Deftly and honestly explores the mental challenges of being a writer. . . . Lamott’s advice is, simply put, invaluable.”
Bustle

“[Lamott] uses her writing exercises or lessons as a way to help us more deeply understand ourselves and the human condition in all its messiness. If you’re looking for sense-making and meaning during this deeply destabilizing time, this book is timeless.”
—Elise Hu,
TED Talks Daily

“Delight[s] with insight and descriptive acumen. This humorous, insightful, no-nonsense approach will remind novices why they are writing.”      
Kirkus Reviews

“Offers unique inspiration. . . . An honest appraisal of what it takes to be a writer and why it matters so much.”
Library Journal

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; 1st Paperback Edition (September 1, 1995)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0385480016
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0385480017
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.5 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.99 x 5.2 x 0.54 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 out of 5 stars 8,255

About the author

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Anne Lamott
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Anne Lamott is the New York Times bestselling author of Help, Thanks, Wow; Small Victories; Stitches; Some Assembly Required; Grace (Eventually); Plan B; Traveling Mercies; Bird by Bird; Operating Instructions, and the forthcoming Hallelujah Anyway. She is also the author of several novels, including Imperfect Birds and Rosie. A past recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an inductee to the California Hall of Fame, she lives in Northern California.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
8,255 global ratings
Excellent Condition & Signed!!
5 Stars
Excellent Condition & Signed!!
Listed as 'Very Good', but arrived in Like New excellent condition. Shipped with other books, so no problems there. Has slight coloring around the edges of all pages inside, and multiple stickers on the back cover but easily removed. I thought it was a little overpriced for a book published October 1995 and marked "$3.99" on the back, until I thumbed through and discovered Anne's signature on the fly leaf page! VERY pleasantly surprised and happy with my purchase. Read to start writing.
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Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2024
Funny, informative, and motivating, this guide to the writer's life is as important now as it was when first released. A classic work by a terrific writer.
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2024
I loved this remarkable book, so full of insights, guidance, reality, and yes, inspiration. As a retired scientist, and aspiring writer for over a decade, who's experience supports that of John Grisham, that, "It's easier to write a book, than to sell a book," I loved the down to earth stories of this remarkable narrative adventure. I also enjoyed some real belly laughs. A must read for all wannabe writers, seduced by the illusion of financial riches. The rewards of writing are so much more. Highly recommended. Kevin Thomas Morgan
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Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2011
Anne Lamott is not a cheerleader, more like the Burgess Meredith with the water bottle and bucket in Rocky's corner between rounds -- I'm also guessing she wouldn't wilt if she had to slash your eye open if like Rocky it got sealed shut. She knows you are going to get hit hard, and she reminds you that you know it too. She tells you not to get distracted by that which doesn't matter to the process of writing. Much of this she learned from her father, who was also a career writer. He taught her it was the doing that mattered, not the surrounding mechanical functions that seem like they matter.

What struck me repeatedly in Lamott's mini-lessons was her deep understanding of process -- that output of a work is not so much the full work itself, but an assembly of building blocks, one at a time, each a commitment, and only in totality something more. She does not advocate bonehead process or ridiculous formulaic mandate - this is not a how-to manual -- she just wants us to care about what we are doing and accomplish it in a series of heartfelt steps. There are no shortcuts, it's a little more each day, a continuum that adds up to a satisfying and cohesive whole. This is not breakthrough thinking, but it's a lesson we need to learn over and over, and it's not just about writing. Creative process is the heart of innovation. Think of all the elements that make the iPad great. If all the elements weren't great, it would not be great. Same with a restaurant menu and wine list. Same with an office skyscraper or memorial monument. Same with a short story, same with a novel. Summary impression rests in the details, all the many tiny parts or moments -- and all those details require hard thought and careful design.

Lamott is smart about this, she tells you that getting it right is not going to happen out of the gate and unnerving strides at perfection can be your worst enemy. She has an excellent descriptor for the real quality of the first drafts to which we aspire. I'll let you discover that on your own so the word does not get scraped here. Her point is, just get the words out, work on making them better later, a layer at a time.

She also allows us not to obsess unnecessarily with locking the full road map before we explore, because again that can impede our work. How far do we need to see ahead? "About two or three feet ahead of you" is plenty she tell us, quoting E.L. Doctorow: "..writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." She says this is "right up there with the best advice about writing, or life, I have ever heard." I tend to agree.

There is tremendous empathy in Lamott's world view, she offers a sense of shared experience that is reinforcing and comforting. Lamott talks about the imaginary radio station playing in your head -- another colorful descriptor I will let you discover -- that tells us over and over again why we can't do something, why the work we are doing is neither good nor worth doing. Learning to turn off that radio is our key to moving forward, we all hear it from time to time, but when it becomes perpetual, that is when our ability to create interesting work stops completely.

Lamott is just so honest and clear about all the factors that stop us from moving forward because she not only has experienced them, she continues to experience them. She does not position herself as a guru or weekend seminar success evangelist, but simply as someone who can reflect on problems of creativity because she deals with problems of creativity endlessly in her own life. She is even more honest in telling us that no one can make these problems go away once and for all, certainly not with any form of temporal success. All we can do is know that these obstructions will always be there, so we must embrace confronting them. Sometimes it really is good to know that none of us are experiencing roadblocks on our own, the fact that someone like Lamott tells you she is experiencing what you are experiencing is precisely the empathy that builds strength and resistance because the experiences are shared, bad and good. Her humility is reinforcing and refreshing and uncompromisingly inspiring.

"Bird by Bird" is not a long book, it can be read if you wish initially in a single sitting, but it is the kind of book you will find yourself coming back to for this chapter or that, this phrase or that. Lamott writes with good humor, even when she tackles very difficult and personal matters of her own life and those around her. The more I think about her framework, the more I am convinced it is much more broadly applicable then perhaps she even considered. I see the guidance as useful in company life, in financial life, in family life, in political life, and in government life. All of these require effective process to get them right, there are no shortcuts, and the rewards can be the smallest where the challenges are the greatest. That does not mean the rewards aren't meaningful, but it is the context of those rewards and the expectations that one sets for success that truly inform us when we are steering toward a final draft.

Review excerpted from my blog:

[...]
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Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2023
Great insight into the mind of a writer. Enjoyed the ideas and processes discussed. Written in a intelligent and conversational manner, like having a friend who just lays out the bottom line..
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Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2011
There seem to be as many books about how to write as there are actual writers, yet Anne Lamott makes a solid if not altogether inspiring contribution to the collection. Also known for her non-fiction books dealing with depression, Christianity, and alcoholism, in Bird by Bird author Lamott turns her humor and autobiographical lens toward offering sage advice and inspiration for writers of all levels. While far from Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, and mute on the meter of poetry and the tropes of science fiction, Lamott instead focuses more on psychological issues that confront and haunt writers from all genres, such as defeating the blank page, avoiding perfectionism obsessions, cranking out that first draft, and writing for the right reasons.

A breadth of writing advice, Bird by Bird gets its title from wisdom Lamott's father once gave to her brother, incapacitated by the task of writing a school essay on birds. The senior Lamott advised the younger to break the assignment down into manageable chunks: "Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird." Divided into five parts, in part one Lamott first addresses writing itself -- getting words onto the page. Lamott starts by giving the aspiring author permission to write and then by encouraging the author to just get the words onto the page. Go ahead, just create that first, messy draft: "Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere." She then suggests focusing more on creating compelling characters than worrying about plot: "If you focus on who the people in your story are, if you sit and write about two people you know and are getting to know better day by day, something is bound to happen." She even discusses a short story template -- action, background, development, climax, ending -- that can be used as an initial story structure. Dialog is important too, and compelling dialog can be influenced by real-life encounters, but the main goal is to get that first draft written, in short steps, a little each day.

In part Two Lamott talks about the writing frame of mind -- about how authors can psyche themselves into writing using rituals at the beginning of each writing session and by believing in the stories they are telling. Part Three presents specific tools authors can use to help recall memorable quotes and scenes, how to collect new material, and how to gain feedback on drafts, such as using index cards on which to jot down ideas, joining or forming writing groups and sending drafts to a short-list of people an author trusts to give honest and useful feedback, and overcoming writer's block by refilling the author's emptiness through short exercises just to get the fingers moving. In part Four Lamott talks about the publication process and why an author simply giving herself to the writing act in and of itself is often the best reward: "There is no cosmic importance to your getting something published, but there is in learning to be a giver." Part Five contains final words of wisdom and encouragement for the budding author. For example, an author should not hesitate to use experiences from their childhood (and tips are given on how to avoid libel when using autobiographical material).

Overall, rather than being the strict writing schoolmarm, Lamott is more like a writing companion. She chats over your shoulder with you at the end of the day, sipping a glass of wine, reflecting on her own experiences in the writing trenches, and sharing what worked for her in achieving success. Her advice is true and her voice is encouraging -- she uses self-deprecating humor to convince any reader that their writing anguish is neither new nor unique since Lamott herself has likely already confronted and conquered those same demons. She persevered and achieved success, and the reader of her book too shall overcome and get their story onto the page. She mentions God throughout, but she does not come across as preachy. Again, she's relating what worked for her, using anecdotes from memorable episodes in her life. There's no magic and no divine inspiration to solve writing problems--she uses real techniques and encouragement to help confront and conquer the blank page.

Indeed, we can all use encouragement and insights from someone who's already been there. Like the oft-repeated "Practice, practice, practice" response by legendary pianist Arthur Rubinstein when he was stopped on a street in New York and was asked, "Pardon me sir, how do you get to Carnegie Hall?", Lamott's response to writers in Bird by Bird is just as wise and true, but perhaps even more motivational due to her humor and honest expression from the trenches.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2024
This book was an eye opener. I could relate with some of the author's challenges,and how she never gave up on her dream is an encouragement.
Great book

Top reviews from other countries

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Sheldon Kotyk
5.0 out of 5 stars awesome
Reviewed in Canada on April 10, 2024
Great advice on writing and made me laugh as well. Highly recommended for anyone that needs to tell a story.
Madhuri
5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring
Reviewed in India on November 17, 2023
Writer’s block, slump, depression, self doubt or just starting to write? This book helps you find your rhythm and begin. Funny with great ideas and interesting anecdotes from the author’s large makes this an enjoyable non fiction. To be re-read repeatedly.
Antonia Benet Badia
5.0 out of 5 stars Precioso
Reviewed in Spain on September 29, 2023
Un muy buen libro, sobre todo para los amantes de la lectura.
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Simple, concise, funny
Reviewed in Germany on May 11, 2023
Such an easy read! So practical and heartfelt. I recommend it for lifting your spirits and not give up on writing.
One person found this helpful
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César Alejandro Martínez Ortíz
5.0 out of 5 stars It's a good book (:
Reviewed in Mexico on October 25, 2020
It's a sincere essay on why we may find it hard to write some times. Sincerity is really valuable in a book on a topic like this, it means that even if you can't relate to everything that's written on it at a literal level, it will connect with you through your feelings as a struggling human being in front of a daunting task, which in this case, is writing something. It's an enjoyable read and by no means it has made me an expert writer, but I'm sure I learnt something and you don't get to say that every day.
3 people found this helpful
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