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Bird by bird : some instructions on writing and life / Anne Lamott.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Anchor Books, 2019Copyright date: ©1994Edition: Second Anchor Books EditionDescription: xxxii, 222 pages ; 20 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780385480017
  • 0385480016
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Part 1. Writing -- Getting started -- Short assignments -- Shitty first drafts -- Perfectionism -- School lunches -- Polaroids -- Character -- Plot -- Dialogue -- Set design -- False starts -- Plot treatment -- How do you know when you're done? -- Part 2. The writing frame of mind -- Looking around -- The moral point of view -- Broccoli -- Radio Station KFKD -- Jealousy -- Part 3. Help along the way -- Index cards -- Calling around -- Writing groups -- Someone to read your drafts -- Letters -- Writer's block -- Part 4. Publication and other reasons to write -- Writing a present -- Finding your voice -- Giving -- Publication -- Part 5. The last class.
Summary: "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, which 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.'" With this basic instruction always in mind, Anne Lamott returns to offer us a new gift: a step-by-step guide on how to write and on how to manage the writer's life.Summary: Anne Lamott recounts her personal experiences to reveal her writing techniques and how she overcomes obstacles that interfere with the writing flow. She offers concrete suggestions about character, plot, setting, and other topics of interest to writers. She also offers advice about how to navigate through the dark underbelly feelings of self-doubt, inadequacy, and jealousy that are inevitable parts of any writer's experience.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 808.02 L235 Checked out 06/01/2024 33111011189509
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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.'"

Originally published: New York : Pantheon Books, 1994.

Part 1. Writing -- Getting started -- Short assignments -- Shitty first drafts -- Perfectionism -- School lunches -- Polaroids -- Character -- Plot -- Dialogue -- Set design -- False starts -- Plot treatment -- How do you know when you're done? -- Part 2. The writing frame of mind -- Looking around -- The moral point of view -- Broccoli -- Radio Station KFKD -- Jealousy -- Part 3. Help along the way -- Index cards -- Calling around -- Writing groups -- Someone to read your drafts -- Letters -- Writer's block -- Part 4. Publication and other reasons to write -- Writing a present -- Finding your voice -- Giving -- Publication -- Part 5. The last class.

"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, which 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.'" With this basic instruction always in mind, Anne Lamott returns to offer us a new gift: a step-by-step guide on how to write and on how to manage the writer's life.

Anne Lamott recounts her personal experiences to reveal her writing techniques and how she overcomes obstacles that interfere with the writing flow. She offers concrete suggestions about character, plot, setting, and other topics of interest to writers. She also offers advice about how to navigate through the dark underbelly feelings of self-doubt, inadequacy, and jealousy that are inevitable parts of any writer's experience.

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