Blog Post 4

           Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott is a book about writing and the struggles writers have. It gives tips and lessons, all based on Lamott’s experiences as a successful writer. It took a tremendous amount of work for Lamott to get where she is; it was certainly a bumpy road. Lamott takes it upon herself to spread the lessons she learned along the way. Many of the lessons are tremendously helpful, a multitude of which I plan on continuing to use in my writing in the future. Although almost all of them were beneficial, there was most definitely one lesson that stuck out the most to me.

            “ 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.’”

            Lamott’s father was talking to her brother about a school project. Her brother was having trouble, so the father gave him simple yet profound advice. He essentially said to take the project one small step at a time. Lamott uses this quote as the title of the book and as a tribute to her father.

            This advice is extremely helpful in writing, and Lamott backs that up in the book. She tells writers to start small by thinking about simple events, but explaining them with vast detail. This helps open up your mind and keeps writers from being too intimidated. I had never thought to do this before. When I read that Lamott said to write about school lunches I thought to myself, “wow that’s stupid.” I did not have faith until we were assigned to write about school lunches for a blog post. Writing with detail can be very difficult, but writing in detail about such a simple task like school lunches was easy. The story just flowed, and I believe it helped me in learning to write with vast detail. Taking things one small step at a time also means being patient. Good writing takes time. Your rough draft will be exactly what the title says, rough. Don’t get frustrated or overwhelmed, that leads to voices in your head and bad writing.

            A lot of Bird by Bird is about writing and only writing. This piece of advice from Lamott really hit home with me because it doesn’t relate only to writing, but to life in general. People get overwhelmed in life, just as Lamott’s brother did, for all sorts of reasons. Being a freshman in college, this advice pertains to my life currently. I am meeting hundreds and hundreds of new people, I have boat loads of homework, I have to find my way around a huuuuuge campus, I’m currently rushing many different frats, and I’m on my own for the first time without the comfort of family or old friends. To say things can get overwhelming from time to time is an understatement. Taking things “bird by bird” sounds so simple, but it is extremely effective. Now when I start to become overwhelmed, I just take things slowly and do/think about tasks one at a time. It has reduced stress tremendously. This advice by Lamott has not only helped with my writing, but with my stress and life in general.