Stay Away From Birds

Stay Away !!

Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott

The New York Times says that Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird has “superb writing advice” and is supposedly “helpful and hilarious.” Usually when a book is given such high remarks from a well known newspaper like the New York Times, the book should be amazing. Right? I may just be stubborn-minded, but neither Anne Lamott nor the New York Times convinced me that this book was hilarious or helpful.

          One of my biggest problems with the book was the author herself. Before reading the book, I had done some research on Anne Lamott. I found that she had written many books, many of which focused on single-motherhood, Christianity, and depression (topics that don’t really appeal to me as a reader.) I also learned that Anne was an alcoholic, a drug abuser, and an atheist. (Flanagan). Although these issues are from Anne’s past, I was still discouraged to read the book. Even so, I pushed myself to read it because it had been recommended to me by writers whom I respect.

When I started reading the book, I found that Anne Lamott was a self-deprecating person, filled with jealousy toward others. Anne even devotes an entire chapter in her book to jealousy. She even goes as far to say that she “[has] been the Leona Helmsley of jealousy” (124).  Anne also describes an experience in her life that further shows the reader the amount of jealousy Anne is capable of conjuring. Anne says that while talking to one of her successful writer friends, she “would sit listening to [her] discuss [her] latest successes over the phone, praying that [Anne] could get off the line before [Anne] started barking”(125). Anne later says that she “was literally oozing unhappiness, like a sump” (125).  Now, I understand that jealousy is a common emotion, especially for people that have jobs as competitive as writing, but Anne’s confession was over the top for me. As a child I learned that I should be happy for my friends’ achievements, and that I shouldn’t “ooze unhappiness” when I wasn’t as successful as they were.

I wish I had paid more attention to the title of the book. The book’s title is Bird by Bird: Some instructions on writing and life. Anne Lamott, please re-title your book to: “Bird by Bird .01% Useless and obvious instructions on writing and 99.9% a lot of stories about my boring life.”  The advice that Anne promised on the cover of her book, wasn’t really helpful. Her advice was mostly superficial and lacking originality. For example tells us writers to “know [our] characters as well as [we] can” (45), and to “sit down and write even if it’s for a little bit” (38). Anne also includes advice about taking notes, developing several drafts, and being patient with your writing. The advice seems practical, but the problem is that I’ve heard this same advice too many times in my lifetime. Anne fills up the rest of her book with stories about herself, her child, and her friends.

           Anne’s constant use of anecdotes caused me to dislike the book even more. Now don’t get me wrong, I like anecdotes as much as anyone; I think they’re especially useful in nonfiction works when most of the material is dry. I understand Anne’s need to use them, but many times they made no sense contextually. It's as if Anne was trying to make the book more approachable by throwing in movie quotes or funny sayings, even though they didn’t fit in the text. For example there was a chapter in the book titled “Set Design.” Anne starts off on the right track, telling the reader the importance of having a realistic and meaningful setting, but then she goes off on one of her tangents. Anne suddenly starts talking about how bad she is at gardening and what she did when she got a plant as a gift. She says that she “watered it and cut off its dead leaves” (62). When the plant started dying, Anne compares it to Howard Hughes in his last days. First of all, Anne’s plant story had almost nothing to do with set design; maybe she should have titled it “My awful gardening skills”. Second of all, I don’t know why Anne felt the need to compare a dying plant to a man who died of a kidney failure.

I think I would have disliked this book a little less if I could actually relate to it. Anne tried to aim her advice towards people that want to write a book and get published. I don’t have any plans of writing a book right now, so I probably wasn’t her targeted audience. Also, as a fan of science fiction and fantasy I wasn’t really up for Anne’s confessional writing. Anne also referenced a lot of writers, actors, poets, and characters that I wasn’t familiar with. I constantly had to Google who these people were to understand what Anne was writing about. Partly because of this, I wasn’t able to be inspired by the book.

           If you are a writer looking for inspiration, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK.  Instead of inspiring the writer to achieve the greatest possible thing in their writing  lives, Anne constantly tells writers that “you will probably never get published” (214), that there “won’t be many agents that are going to read your work”(10), and that writing can be dreadful and might make you crazy. I understand that these situations can hold true for writers, but Anne failed to show the bright side of writing. She didn’t say that you could be successful by making writing a career. It’s like Anne was telling someone not to buy stocks because you could lose all your money. Of course that’s true, but there is also the possibility that you could do really well in the stock market. In addition, Anne also makes the process of writing seem treacherous with her concept of “sh*tty first drafts”.

         Anne’s actual writing advice centered around one uniquely-stated idea, her acceptance of "sh*tty first drafts." To me, first drafts are very important; they allow me to get my ideas down on paper. If Anne had said that only her first drafts were "sh*tty" then I maybe could've overlooked her self-deprecation, but when she said that draft upon draft upon draft was terrible, and that she spent numerous days consoling herself like a sensitive person after a disagreeable breakup (24), I couldn’t really respect Anne as a writer. I look up to people that can stand up after they fall. When Anne said that she spent days pitying herself because she couldn’t write a decent draft, she couldn’t be my role model.

If you want to read a book that is less about writing advice, and more about a middle-aged lady’s boring life, I recommend you read Bird by Bird. If anyone has been debating whether or not to read this book, here is Anne’s general attitude in the book: let’s not talk about writing, instead, let me write about the mistakes I have made in life, and you guys act like you’re learning something from me.

Works Cited

Flanagan, Mark. "Anne Lamott." About.com. Accessed November 20, 2013.

Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. New York: Anchor Books,

 1995. Print.