Fiction Scribe

Hello everyone, and welcome to the very last discussion of Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. We have been having these discussions since August and it has been a wonderful experience.

I have revisited things I’d learned and forgotten, and I have learned new things. I have new techniques to approach my writing with, and I am very happy with the overall experience I have had reading this book.

We are now reading the last section and chapter of the book, the appropriately named The Last Class.

I hope you’ll join me today in discussing this last section of what has been a wonderful book.

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Hello everyone, and welcome to the book discussion before the last book discussion. We’ll be finishing the book soon, so feel free to drop in and talk about the chapters were reading. Also feel free to go back to past discussions and comment there.

Last week we talked about Writing a Present and Finding Your Voice. Today we’ll be discussing Giving and Publication.

This was an interesting chapter, to say the least. Like Lamott, I tried to find loopholes in it even though it made sense. It still went again my basic instincts about ‘preserving the best’ for a later date.

She’s right, though, in that you should treat your story like your child. Or a loved one. Give all you have right from the beginning. You may make mistakes, but you’ll learn from them and become a better person – a better writer.

I long ago forgot what it’s like to completely give to the stories I write, and I’m glad to have found this book that mentions it.

I love the story she tells of the little boy, by the way. How utterly cute and amazing is he?

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The Bird by Bird book discussion will be continuing tomorrow, don’t forget!

Remember to have your copy of Bird by Bird and have read “Giving” and “Publication”.

Thank you to all who participate. Feel free to jump in at any time on the discussions.

Would you believe we’ve already been discussing this book for about three months already? Wow! Welcome to another discussion.

Last week we finished up part three by talking about Letters and Writer’s Block. This week we start part four: Publication – and Other Reasons to Write. We’ll be starting with Writing a Present and Finding Your Voice.

Some of us write purely for the pleasure. Some of us to be heard. And some – or maybe there’s a little bit of it in each of us – write for immortality.

I love this chapter because it not only touches on Lamott’s efforts to turn bad situations into something more than just bad situations, but it also touches on the basic human wish to influence something. To be remembered in some way.

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The Bird by Bird book discussion will be continuing tomorrow, don’t forget!

Remember to have your copy of Bird by Bird and have read “Writing a Present” and “Finding Your Voice”.

Thank you to all who participate. Feel free to jump in at any time on the discussions - especially now that we’re starting in on Part Four: Publication - and Other Reasons to Write.

We’re drawing nearer to the end of the Bird by Bird discussions. This has been a great book so far, and I want to thank everyone who has taken part in one or more of the discussions.

Last week we talked about Writing Groups and Someone to Read Your Drafts, both of which inspired me to get out and meet other authors. This week we’re talking about Letters and Writer’s Block.

This chapter may be short, but it’s certainly just what I needed to hear. Writing letters to someone you know can be such a lovely and intimate experience that it’s no wonder all writers don’t start out their story ideas as a letter.

I have many projects going on right now and one of which that I don’t know where it’s going or what it’s doing, and I’m not feeling it at all. I think the letter technique would be a great way to explore the possibilities. I also have a biography of sorts going that I think would be great to address to my future daughter.

This is such an awesome yet simple idea, and I wish I had thought of it.

“There are few experiences as depressing as that anxious barren state known as writer’s block…” – Anne Lamott

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The Bird by Bird book discussion will be continuing tomorrow, don’t forget!

Remember to have your copy of Bird by Bird and have read “Letters” and “Writer’s Block”.

Thank you to all who participate. Feel free to jump in at any time on the discussions.

Last week we talked about Index Cards and Calling Around. While I don’t like the telephone, even I had to admit Lamott had a point - people are wonderful tools for research.

This week we’re talking about Writing Groups and Someone to Read Your Drafts, both of which I found extremely useful. I hope you’ll join me in discussing them.

This chapter was very enlightening for me because I have never been part of a face-to-face creative writing class or writing group. Yes, I’ve done both online, but it’s not entirely the same. There’s something about sitting there with your notebook of odds and ends that makes the situation unique.

At least, I believe there would be.

I liked this chapter because it was something writerly that, unlike many of the other chapters, I didn’t have a lot of knowledge about or experience in. However, it did inspire me to think about starting up a group here in Australia sometime after Christmas.

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Hello once again everyone! Last week we didn’t have a discussion because I was ill, setting us a week back, but I’m almost 100% well again and ready to discuss.

The week before that, we discussed Broccoli, Radio Station KFKD, and Jealousy - the first two being my favourite out of the book so far.

This week we’ll be discussing Index Cards and Calling Around.

(Please don’t let Calling Around be about the phone…

This was the chapter I was waiting for, in which Lamott reveals herself to be a list and note taker. I, being someone who is addicted to lists, post-it notes, and index cards, was hoping she say she was even the tiniest bit similar.

I agree with Lamott in that knowing you had heard or seen a wonderful something, something you knew you should remember for later, but only remembering you forgot that wonderful something later on. It’s something I think a lot of writers learn the hard way until they start carrying index cards/notepads/note keeper of choice.

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Let the 11th edition of the Bird by Bird discussions commence!

(Isn’t that better? You know you were getting tired of the ‘hello and welcome’ introduction.)

I am thinking about discontinuing this discussion (but in all honest, likely will keep it going simply because I’ll keep reading) due to lack of responses. If you’re reading along or even if you aren’t reading but have an opinion on something I’ve said, please do leave a comment to say hello. (We bloggers are a bit of a fussy lot and get nervous when we don’t know if anyone is reading.)

Last week we had a lovely assignment of “Looking Around” and “The Moral Point of View”. This week we’ll be talking about the interestingly named “Broccoli”, “Radio Station KFKD”, and “Jealousy”. I’ll try to keep things concise and to the point, so if there is anything I miss that you’d like to talk about, you know what to do…

Now to the discussion! (more…)

Hello once again Fiction Scribe readers. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Bird by Bird discussions. Last week we talked about “False Starts,” “Plot Treatment,” and “How Do You Know When You’re Done”. While I had expected them to go differently, I wasn’t in the least disappointed in the content. Once again, Lamott presented valuable lessons in a simple but effective way.

This week we’ll be talking about “Looking Around” and “The Moral Point of View.” Please join me in the discussion – even if you disagree. I’d be happy to hear from you.

I started this chapter slightly confused, admittedly, about what she was talking about. It took me reading a few things twice to grasp what she was trying to talk about – and that is a number of different things.

The first message is one of reverence. Writers need to look at people not so much with their own eyes, but with the detached eyes of someone who realizes everyone is struggling through their own huge piles of crap – self-made or otherwise. It is in realizing that and applying it when you look at people that you lose some of the predispositions that could get you in trouble in your writing.

“Anyone who wants to can be surprised by the beauty or pain of the natural world, of the human mind and heat, and can try to capture just that – the details, the nuance, what is. If you start to look around, you will start to see.”

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Fiction Scribe discussion of Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird. Last week I got a pleasant surprise with finding that, even though I am a dialogue-focused writer, I thoroughly enjoyed the chapter “Set Design”.

This week we will be discussing three sections: “False Starts,” “Plot Treatment,” and “How Do You Know When You’re Done”. I’ll try not to babble on too much for each of them.

This chapter didn’t quite go the way I thought it would go, but it was good nonetheless. Once again, Lamott presents easily understood metaphors to help us to realize what getting to know our characters is all about. I’ve heard this advice before - take everything away from your character and see who is left - but this was presented in a better way.

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Hello everyone! Welcome to out weekly Bird by Bird discussion. I hope you’ve been enjoying the book so far. It’s definitely given me a bit of a boost in my writing.

Today we’ll be discussing Dialogue and Set Design.

I love the way Dialogue starts because it gets right to the heart of the matter - dialogue can be a wonderful, wonderful thing, and it can also kill or nearly kill your story. It can be such a pleasure and a really big pain.

Lamott also touches on something I’ve mentioned before in a podcast (but has since blissed off from the 451 main page and disappeared): read your work out loud.

I can see the surprise on my students’ faces, because the dialogue looked Okay on paper, yet now it sounds as if it were poorly translated from their native Hindi. The problem is that the writer simply put it down word by word; read out loud, it has no flow, no sense of the character’s rhythm that in real life would have run through the words. - Dialogue, Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott

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Hello everyone! I hope you week is going fabulously so far. Mine has been interesting, that’s for sure.

This week we’ll be discussing “Character” and “Plot”, two sections I’ve been eager to read, as I’m still in the beginnings of my current work in progress.

Lamott starts out the Character section with an image that doesn’t quite work for me, but it is plain enough to understand what she is saying. We all have inside spaces all our own that we get to do with as we wish. Your task as an author is to find out what the spaces inside your characters are like because if anyone should know your characters inside and out, it should be you.

I think one of the most important things Lamott points about character is this: “As soon as you start protecting your characters from the ramifications of their less-than-lofty behavior, your story will start to feel flat and useless, just like in real life.”

Exactly right. I’ve seen this a lot, especially in younger writers. You have crafted this character you absolutely love. Perhaps he or she is the person you’d like to be someday. It’s natural to want to protect yourself and those you love from everything bad…and that makes for bad stories.

If a character gets the best by giving the worst, your readers are going to stop caring, stop reading, and move on.

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Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the Bird by Bird book discussion. Last week we discussed “Shitty First Drafts” and “Perfectionism” two subjects close to my heart and often close to each other - as strange as that may seem by the title.

This week we get into “School Lunches” and “Polaroids” (despite my chapter mistake yesterday).

I’m honestly not surprised Lamott chose to talk about school lunches. Was there ever a time in life when life was more dramatic every day? And school lunches. As Lamott says: “The contents of you lunch said whether or not your family were Okay. Some bag lunches, like people, were Okay, and some weren’t.” Not only were lunches secret codes for your family, but where you sat, who you talked with, and where you ate were all pieces determining your status on the social ladder.

Talk about a complex society to write about - and I didn’t even have Body-Snatcher Jam.

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