"Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, in 1994"--Title page verso.
Contents:
Part one. Writing: Getting started -- Short assignments -- Shitty first drafts -- Perfectionism -- School lunches -- Polaroids -- Character -- Plot -- Dialogue -- Set design -- False starts -- Plot treatment -- How do you know when you're done? -- Part two. The writing frame of mind: Looking around -- The moral point of view -- Broccoli -- Radio Station KFKD -- Jealousy -- Part three. Help along the way: Index cards -- Calling around -- Writing groups -- Someone to read your drafts -- Letters -- Writer's block -- Part four. Publication and other reasons to write: Writing a present -- Finding your voice -- Giving -- Publication -- Part five. The last class.
Summary:
"For a quarter century, more than a million readers—scribes and scribblers of all ages and abilities—have been inspired by Anne Lamott’s hilarious, big-hearted, homespun advice. Advice that begins with the simple words of wisdom passed down from Anne’s father—also a writer—in the iconic passage that gives the book its title: “Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It 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 on 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.’” An essential volume for generations of writers young and old, Bird by Bird is a modern classic. This twenty-fifth anniversary edition will continue to spark creative minds for years to come"--Back cover.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.