Write Owl: Word by Word

So after reading various excerpts from this book around the web, I finally sought out a copy of Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott and decided to read it in its entirety. It's a good read and a quick one. I think I blazed through it in about a week, reading in the evenings? for an hour each night. She's based this book to some degree on her lectures from creative writing courses that she's taught.

Part of the reason this is such an easy and quick read is that the book is very conversational in style, as if you were sitting in class and she was speaking directly to you. It makes the context feel more like an informal conversation than a regiment of "must-do's" for "good" writing.

Instead, it makes you think. A lot. About your own abilities: where you excel, where you fall flat, and where you can bridge the gap between the two. Anne spends a lot of time talking about her own writing and development, and it is so refreshing to have someone else share their story with me; to know that I am not alone in my self-induced psychosis in the process of spinning stories. There is a lot of great advice in this book. Some of it is tried and true, others maybe not so obvious. I'll share some of my favorite passages in detail in the next few blog posts.

And maybe you've heard them before or already get it. But it's good to remind ourselves, I think, as to why we've chosen this path, this lifestyle choice of observation, commentary, and creation.

The one thing that she reiterates over and over throughout the book is that like all things, great or even good writing takes practice. One of the first parallels she makes is practicing scales on the piano. And it's completely true; I'll share my own experience with you. Myself, I have been a musician for 20 years (Holy crap, has it really been that long?). I adore playing music. But I'm no prodigy, I merely play for fun. As a kid, I was pretty good when I played flute and then eventually transitioned over to bassoon. And the only way I was ever accepted for various orchestral groups was because I practiced. There were days that I hated it, I won't lie. I remember begging to my mother, not to make me practice today. But I still did it. I was pissed off mad on those days, but I did it. And there were other days that I felt like I could take on John Williams and his whole posse. My fingers were nimble, quick. The music came easier over time. And through it all, I loved it. I stopped for a few years after school because bassoons are ridiculously expensive and as I had borrowed the one from my school all those years, I now found myself without the right tools. And at first I didn't mind but then I missed it. Fast forward, I now have a used instrument to call my own and a great group to play with. And the first time I played, I felt like I was trying to climb a mountainside while wearing a blindfold, juggling a myriad of chefs knives, all while trying to climb in a pair of stilettos.

Sure, the fundamentals were the same and were still there...somewhere. But it took some time. A lot of time. And I'm nowhere near the natural that I once was. I have to work at it again. Writing is of a similar learning curve.So I'll say it again: Great or even good writing takes practice. Anne means it. And so do I. It doesn't mean you'll be perfect from the get go. Mistakes are part of the process and color your experience. But if you ever want to make some beautiful music, you've got to bleat those scales out first.

Source: http://writeowl3.blogspot.com/2012/08/word-by-word.html

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