Bird By Bird Book Analysis

Bird by Bird, well that sounds like word by word, and that’s exactly what this book is about. Anne Lamott is trying to teach future writers, including those just taking an English course, that writing is a process that we can only take word by word. Bird by Bird – Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott was published on September 28, 1994 and was intended for those taking a writing course or those trying to become future writers. Anne Lamott tries to connect to the reader, on a personal level, by sharing personal experiences and life stories to help the reader understand her main point. The book is composed of five parts, and each part has sections within them to better break down the main topic. Within each part, you will see …show more content…
Sadly, this is not the case at all. Lamott gives the reader “the idea of shitty first drafts. All good writers write them.” (21) This sections helped me understand that my shitty first draft is not the death of me. First drafts are meant to be shitty because they help us put all our ideas down on paper and then make the fantastic second draft we can because we already make mistakes and got all our bad ideas out, and now all we must do is reorganize, touch it up, and make it flow perfectly. Lamott makes it clear throughout her book that all great writers are not Gods, they cannot just come up with beautiful work overnight then become millionaires. Lamott explains that to become a good writer, you must put in dedication, hard work, and tears. You are not a god and cannot make perfect stories in one go, we make mistakes, we make shitty first drafts, and we lose hope because we are only …show more content…
By doing so she is showing the reader that she is just an ordinary person who makes mistakes, and not a God who makes perfect works of writing overnight. Lamott not only uses her life experiences to better connect to the reader, but uses these experiences as examples to better understand her point that she is trying to make. You tend to understand her thinking and ideology once she explains it with her own life examples. The purpose of this book is not to serve as a How-To, but rather to teach us new techniques and to better improve our writing. Lamott does an excellent job at telling the readers how writing is. Writing is not something you master in a day, it can take years but with hard work, dedication, the right use of techniques, and the right beliefs we can perform our best as