Bird by F-ing Bird

I'm in the middle of rereading Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott's "instructions on writing and life." At two recent book events I attended, the featured authors recommended Lamott's manual to aspiring writers like me. Best advice. Lamott gives practical, and humorous, guidance. One excerpt in particular, on writers' obsessions with getting published, gave me a giggle, and I have to share:

Writing can give you what having a baby can give you: it can get you to start paying attention, can help you soften, can wake you up. But publishing won't do any of these things; you'll never get in that way.

My son Sam, at three and a half, had these keys to a set of plastic handcuffs, and one morning he intentionally locked himself out of the house. I was sitting on the couch reading the newspaper when I heard him stick his plastic keys into the doorknob and try to open the door. Then I heard him say, "Oh, shit." My whole face widened, like the guy in Edvard Munch's Scream. After a moment I got up and opened the front door.

"Honey," I said, "what'd you just say?"

"I said, 'Oh, shit,'" he said.

"But, honey, that's a naughty word. Both of us have absolutely got to stop using it. Okay?"

He hung his head for a moment, nodded, and said, "Okay, Mom." Then he leaned forward and said confidentially, "But I'll tell you why I said 'shit.'" I said Okay, and he said, "Because of the fucking keys!"

Fantasy keys won't get you in.

What a hoot! I highly recommend Lamott’s work to writers and non-writers alike.

Student of writing and life, AES

P.S. As a new mom I loved reading Lamott's book Operating Instructions, a journal of her son’s first year.

P.P.S. A 2018 article on Lamott reveals that she has a West Wing quote tattooed on her ankle. I love this woman.