Bird by Bird #7

In these chapters, Lamott spoke to my soul, and I was kind of disturbed by how much of her content applied to me as an author. She discussed writer's block (which I have mentioned many a time that I struggle with constantly), finding one's voice, and publication - three of my biggest bones to pick with the craft. 

Writer's block is a natural part of the writing process. Everyone gets it. Some more often than others. All too often an author tries to push his or herself to punch through the wall, to put something down on the paper when it just won't happen. Anne Lamott says you should never do this. I have had people tell me more than once that you can't rush perfection, but I don't exactly seek perfection as I do something I can call a product. Bird by Bird talks about letting the words come to you as they want to. The writing gods, as Lamott calls them, sometimes tell us that we need to stop pushing them (and ourselves) so hard and give our minds a rest; eventually, the pages will fill. The moral of the chapter was basically: be patient.

A minor section of the reading touched on finding your own voice. Lamott describes how a lot of her students try to imitate famous writers, and their work struggles because of this. I think I am guilty of making my pieces too wordy, trying to emulate my favorite authors. I would really hate to go through my book and rewrite it again, but I think I may have to in order to make it sound less...pretentious, I guess.

Finally, Lamott mentions publication. Publication is almost always the #1 goal of most authors. They want to become bestsellers. They want publishing houses to fight over them. Ultimately, though, this is not the final step of being an author. The final step is to write something that makes you happy, makes you feel accomplished, and if other people happen to enjoy it - enough to publish it, even - great! But it shouldn't be a focal point.