What’s striking about Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott is her approach to writing. The title of the text stems from the first chapter, where she describes her father explaining to her brother how to work on a last-minute bird report. She compares this to the apprehension one might feel in beginning a piece of work - that the arduous task of writing a piece of work can be alleviated a bit by just starting to write.
Drawing from personal experiences and examples is a consistent approach she uses throughout the text. She lays bare her personal insecurities (such as her orthodontic needs and alcoholism) as reinforcement and encouragement for aspiring writers. I was struck by the way that she uses tragic life experiences to support her writing. From her best friend Pammy’s death by breast cancer, to the death of an infant in the chapter about using viewing as a gift (to self and others), to the recurring theme of her father’s cancer, and the sugar-water lemonade incident, she tells her life’s stories in such a way as to be still hopeful, as though writing has been (and she even comes out with this directly in a later chapter) therapeutic in dealing with these incidents.
I think that I can draw from her work the use of personal experiences to create realism in my stories. I do try to work details of my life’s experiences into them, but I think that I don’t pay critical enough attention (especially to the level of detail that she does) to what is going on around me in terms of interpersonal interaction from the perspective of can I use this in a story. I think I might adopt her note cards approach as well to help me to be more perceptive.
Chuck, interesting post, and I'm curious about the idea of using personal experiences in one's work. So you might remember these things when we get to creative nonfiction and memoir!
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