“Bird by Bird” with Anne Lamott
In 1994, author Anne Lamott published a book of essays entitled Bird by Bird. On the surface, that title sounds like an odd choice from a writer who at that time had written four novels and a memoir about the first year of her son’s life (Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year). The book, however, is not about birds; instead, Lamott was referring to a family story about the writing process, and the essays in the book — subtitled “Some Instructions on Writing and Life” — cover various aspects of writing from “Getting Started” to “Publication.”
The “bird-by-bird” story actually referred to Lamott’s older brother who was facing a writing task of his own. Like many ten-year-old boys, John had procrastinated for three months and, then, panicked the day before the assignment was due. As Anne tells it, “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” (19). Fortunately for the children, their father, Kenneth, was a writer himself, and he had published novels and magazine articles. So, based on his own experience, he remained calm and offered his fatherly wisdom: “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird” (19).
