CBR13Bingo – Self-Care
A collection of essays and memoir pieces connected to writing that shares wisdom and thoughts on both writing and publishing. Mostly this collection is focused on publishing fiction, the slight irony being that I would argue that this book, in solitude, and maybe some of the nonfiction recent pieces, are 100% of how people think of Anne Lamott’s writing in general, and not her fiction. That said, the advice is funny and humane and solid throughout.
I wish Anne Lamott would just chill sometimes. I want to use some of these essays with my high school students, but damn if she doesn’t just toss in a little joke about suicide or mental illness (her own, but still) or how God doesn’t like someone etc.
Some choice moments:
“For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.”
“If something inside of you is real, we will probably find it interesting, and it will probably be universal. So you must risk placing real emotion at the center of your work. Write straight into the emotional center of things. Write toward vulnerability. Risk being unliked. Tell the truth as you understand it. If you’re a writer you have a moral obligation to do this. And it is a revolutionary act—truth is always subversive.”
“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report written on birds that he’d had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books about birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”
“Remember that you own what happened to you. If your childhood was less than ideal, you may have been raised thinking that if you told the truth about what really went on in your family, a long bony white finger would emerge from a cloud and point to you, while a chilling voice thundered, “We *told* you not to tell.” But that was then. Just put down on paper everything you can remember now about your parents and siblings and relatives and neighbors, and we will deal with libel later on.”
(Photo: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12543.Bird_by_Bird)