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Wynelda-Ann Shelton

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

I had this fantasy of the life of a published author. The author would sit down, and the story would flow onto the page without much pain. It would be sent out with the utmost confidence, be snatched up by a top editor and published and then hit the best-seller list. Then the cycle would repeat. There was no way, I thought, that published writers could possibly be as insecure as I was.

Boy, was I wrong.

In Bird by Bird, Anne talks of days when you sit at the computer staring at the screen, nothing being written. She also talks of ways to get around it. A whole chapter is devoted to the concept of giving ourselves permission to write a really horrible first draft. Another way of getting the story out is writing what can be seen in a one-inch picture frame: paint the picture with words. Maybe it’s an image of the hero standing on the front porch. Whose home is it? Why is he there? Are his eyes squinting at the sun?

The advice and commentary of Bird by Bird went far beyond writing advice for me. The Seattle Times called the book, "a gift to all of us mortals who write or ever wanted to write… sidesplittingly [sic] funny, patiently wise and alternately cranky and kind…" It was the cranky and kind that held the key for me.

Anne Lamott is kind enough to talk about the cranky times. She talks of times of insecurity and jealousy in Bird by Bird. Things you couldn’t get many to admit to without some sort of threat. Some may see jealousy, insecurity or even crankiness as pettiness, but what is pettiness if not the ability to see and notice the small things? Suddenly, in this funny book with real advice, I found out that I was not alone. I was not the only one in the universe who so wanted to fit in but never quite did. I was also not the only one to have to bite my tongue when one of my friends called every day with even better news about her life than I could ever hope to have. I was, well, sort of normal.

The concept of not being alone in the world is one of the best gifts I’ve ever received. After receiving it, I took F2K (the free class sponsored by WVU) and loved it. So I joined WVU and I haven’t felt alone in my writing since.