Bird By Bird

Bird By Bird is Ann Lamott’s guide to using the power of routine, being yourself, rolling with the punches, and many other principles to become a better writer.

When I began writing, I was really afraid of how I was doing. I even wrote about it multiple times. Reading back through those articles, they were awkward. But I’ve since discovered that great writers don’t care if they’re good or bad, they just write!

Finding the power in this principle can be as simple as just believing that you are meant to write. That will lead to more writing, and as you practice consistently over time, you’ll improve. It’s kind of like sleep, if you think about how you want it, it’ll never come. But the moment you relax and let your mind go with the flow, you’ll get better.

It takes patience and determination, however. You might not actually be good at first, but if you are persistent, that will change. One of the best moments in the journey is when you can feel yourself wanting to just write for the sake of it.

The moment you learn to love the process and not worry so much about the outcome is when things really begin to take off.

A common thread here is the word faith or belief. You’ve got to believe that you can and should write. You get this from an understanding of life, both the good and the bad, the exciting and the boring.

But you also must believe in what you’re typing. Nobody will believe in what you share if you don’t because that will show in your writing.

If you think you’re going to have a writing career by doing it only when inspiration strikes, you’ve got a lot to learn. But don’t worry, it’s a simple matter of creating habits each day so that you allow inspiration to come to you. Your pattern of writing will lead to success through the power of discipline, which is another way of saying deliberate practice. The first step is establishing your writing place and making sure that you are there every day. Do this regardless of how effective you are and you’ll soon be on the way to becoming a great writer. You’ve also got to set a regular time to write each day and stick to it. Because of the way that the brain makes connections, doing this consistently will set you up for creativity by fusing the time and place to your creative habit in your mind. It might be a bit boring in the beginning, but you must persist. Over time you’ll find that these seemingly small habits are making a big difference in…