Book Choice-Three Big Ideas

Audrey White
July 9, 2010
Reflection on Bird by Bird
First Third: Determine 3 Big Ideas
Identify for each: a comment, elaboration, quote, or example
Short Assignments: Starting small.
Lamott writes of the importance of writing something short, rather than a novel or play.
Quote: “I go back to trying to breathe slowly and calmly, and I finally notice the one-inch picture frame that I put on my desk to remind me of short assignments”. P17
Shitty First Drafts: You have to start somewhere
Here she discusses how to get down to business and start writing.
Quote: “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.”p23
Idea of first draft=the down draft (get it down on paper), the second draft=the up draft (you fix it up), and the third draft=the dental draft (you check every tooth to see if it is loose, or cramped, decayed, etc).
Perfectionism: It will ruin your writing.
You can discover “treasures” in your writing that will take you down another path if you just let them.
Quote: “Clutter is wonderfully fertile ground-you can still discover new teasures under all those piles, clean things up, edit things out, fix things, get a grip.