Thirteen Tips About Writing From Anne LaMott's Bird By Bird

The more I write, the more I appreciate the advice Anne LaMott shares in her books. Today I’d like to serve up 13 of my favorite tips from “Bird By Bird.”
Anne titled the book after instructions her father, also an author, gave her brother about a bird report he was struggling to write. Her father basically told Anne’s brother to take the report one bird at a time. Anne employs that advice in her book’s structure, delving into areas of writing one step or one subject at a time.

Thirteen Tips About Writing From Bird By Bird

1.) Start writing.
2.) Write something even if it’s mediocre or less than smooth. All first drafts tend to be feeble.
3.) Set a small, attainable goal -- like 300 words. If you write more, great. If you achieve the goal, pat yourself on the back.
4.) Your writing doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, trying too hard for perfection can ruin your writing. Perfectionists can freeze themselves by being too self-critical.
5.) Write about things you know. Tap into your memories. Look back into your life experiences. You actually have far more information in your head than you might imagine.
6.) It’s okay if you don’t know how things will turn out when you start writing. Part of writing is discovery along the way.
7.) Try to know the characters you write about. Think about them when you’re not writing. Ask yourself such questions as, “What would this character write in a journal?” or “What would this character eat?”
8.) Anne says, “Plot grows out of characters.” If you know your characters and you set them in a place and ask them to interact, plot will follow, she says. Things will happen and that can lead to a plot.
9.) If you practice listening to people, your dialogue writing will improve dramatically.
10.) It’s okay to start over.
11.) “Writing is about learning to pay attention and to communicate what is going on.”
12.) Listen to your inner voice. It guides you in knowing what to do.
13.) Jot ideas on note cards. Or find another way to record those brainstorms of yours. Don’t trust them simply to memory. Ideas can vanish or lose their intensity, just as morning’s dense fog dissipates by noon.

If any of these tips sound interesting, check out Bird by Bird. Anne elaborates and expresses these bits of wisdom with more wit and skill than can be found in this blog. And she has the answer to how a writer knows that his or her manuscript is done. I’m not going to share it with you, but it’s in her book. Plus a whole lot more.

In the meantime, this is your chance to pass along some writing wisdom.

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