72 pages • 2 hours read
Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
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Reading Questions & Paired Texts
Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.
INTRODUCTION-PART 1
Reading Check
1. What was Lamott’s father’s profession?
2. To what does Lamott metaphorically compare the scope of a small writing prompt?
3. What kind of narrators does Lamott favor?
4. What famous writer does Lamott say changed the way dialogue is written?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Lamott argue for rambling first drafts?
2. What mental imagery does Lamott use to quiet the critical voices in her head while she is writing?
3. Explain Lamott’s analogy comparing writing to Polaroid pictures.
4. To what revision process in painting does Lamott compare the revision process in writing?
Paired Resources
“Four Ways to Silence Your Inner Comments Section”
- This article from Writer Unboxed offers advice about dealing with imagined bad-faith readings of your writing. (Content Warning: A few comments include brief profanity.)
- This resource relates to the theme of The Practical Craft of Writing.
- This article attempts to update the advice Lamott gives about the inner critic for the internet age. Evaluate the distinction the author draws between the “inner critic” and the “inner comments section.” How does this author’s advice differ from Lamott’s, and how is it similar?
“How to Write a Hybrid Memoir”
- In this article, author Jane Friedman describes learning to write a hybrid memoir and the reasons for the popularity of this kind of genre-blending.
- This resource relates to the theme of Writing as a Comfort to the Self and Others.
- What did Friedman learn about hybrid memoir in the process of writing Wired for Music? What reasons does she give for the popularity of this blending of genres? Does Lamott’s use of hybrid memoir seem designed to appeal to the same reader needs as the ones Friedman identifies in this article?
PART 2
Reading Check
1. What two kinds of compassion does Lamott say are important?
2. During what stage of writing does Lamott see an important role for the inner critic?
3. What two strategies does Lamott offer for turning out egotism and insecurity?
4. What kind of writers’ successes does Lamott suggest can be demoralizing and create jealousy?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What does Lamott believe counters the mind’s tendency to narcissism?
2. What advice does Lamott give about how best to convey moral concepts in fiction?
3. What message about listening does Lamott take away from the Mel Brooks joke she relates?
4. What is Lamott’s purpose in mentioning the Clive James poem “The Book of my Enemy Has Been Remaindered”?
Paired Resources
“Mindful Daydreaming Enhances Creativity, Not Meditation Alone”
- This 4-minute Big Think video discusses the impact of strategies like mindful daydreaming and meditation on creativity.
- This resource relates to the theme of Mindfulness as a Tool for Writing and Life.
- What strategy does this video recommend to increase creativity? How does this strategy compare to Lamott’s comments on mindfulness and her recommendations on blocking out ego and insecurity?
- This Nomi Stone poem celebrates a child’s capacity to be fully present in and feel wonder at the natural world.
- This resource relates to the theme of Mindfulness as a Tool for Writing and Life.
- What is the speaker trying to convey about the child’s experience? What is the speaker’s tone? Why does the speaker mention details about what the child’s family members are doing? How does this poem convey some of the same ideas about wonder and mindfulness as Lamott does in Bird by Bird? In general, which do you think is a more persuasive format for arguing in favor of cultivating wonder--poetry or exposition?
PART 3
Reading Check
1. Whom does Lamott imagine having to eventually deal with all of her index cards?
2. How does Lamott suggest writers conduct research?
3. What term does Lamott use for readers who offer private feedback on a writer’s work?
4. In her discussion of writing letters, what topic does Lamott recall feeling overwhelmed by when a magazine assigned her to write an essay about it?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What exception to staying present in the moment does Lamott make in her discussion of her use of index cards?
2. What led Lamott to begin advocating for offering writing critiques with kindness and respect?
3. For what purpose does Lamott advocate writing letters?
4. What word does Lamott prefer to “block” when discussing a writer struggling to get ideas on the page, and why does she prefer it?
Paired Resource
“Personal Data: Notes on Keeping a Notebook”
- In this essay, author Elisa Gabbert offers her thoughts about her own practice of keeping a writer’s notebook.
- This resource relates to the theme of The Practical Craft of Writing.
- What are some of the reasons Gabbert values her practice of keeping a writer’s notebook? How does this practice compare to the index card system that Lamott describes? Would these two practices be complementary, or is there too much overlap? What effective alternatives exist to these hard-copy versions of taking notes?
PART 4
Reading Check
1. What “first” for her son Sam does Lamott share in her essay about her friends’ baby?
2. When Lamott suggests that writers are searching for “home,” with what does she equate “home”?
3. What are the unpublished pages a publisher sends to an author for review called?
4. Based on her experience, what self-defeating behavior does Lamott say negative reviews can lead to?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What do Lamott’s book Hard Laughter and her book inspired by her friend Pammy have in common?
2. What is the function of Lamott’s metaphor about the cold water under ice?
3. What attitude does Lamott seek to convey when she talks about “sophisticated innocence”? (Chapter 27)
4. What advice does Lamott offer about realistic outcomes of being published?
Paired Resources
“How Much Do Authors Earn? Here’s the Answer No One Likes”
- Author Jane Friedman offers a sobering look at what authors really earn, and how.
- This resource relates to the theme of The Practical Craft of Writing.
- How does Friedman’s perspective on the financial rewards of writing compare to Lamott’s? What has changed in this area in the decades since Bird by Bird was written?
- In this essay for the Paris Review, Elisa Gabbert explores her own and other writers’ motivations for writing.
- This resource relates to the theme of Writing as a Comfort to the Self and Others.
- Gabbert mentions many famous authors and their stated reasons for writing. How do their thoughts about their writing compare to Gabbert’s own motivations? How do they compare to Lamott’s motivations?
PART 5
Reading Check
1. What fear does Lamott say is productive?
2. To what temporary building project does Lamott compare creating art?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What is the purpose of the last chapter?
2. What point is Lamott making when she compares writing to singing during a storm?
Recommended Next Reads
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
- King’s hybrid memoir offers both insight into his own practice of writing and practical advice for other writers.
- Shared themes include The Practical Craft of Writing and Writing as a Comfort to the Self and Others.
- Shared elements include hybrid memoir; shared topics include writing as a response to trauma and death, the importance of truth in writing, addiction, and wonder at the natural world.
- On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft on SuperSummary
Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg
- In this highly regarded book about writing, Goldberg encourages the reader to view writing as a kind of Zen practice that can liberate the authentic self.
- Shared themes include The Practical Craft of Writing, Writing as a Comfort to the Self and Others, and Mindfulness as a Tool for Writing and Life.
- Shared topics include the universal benefits of writing, expressing your authentic self in writing, writing as spiritual practice, the importance of truth in writing, and personal experiences with writing.
Reading Questions Answer Key
INTRODUCTION-PART 1
Reading Check
1. Writer/novelist (Introduction)
2. A “one-inch picture frame” (Chapter 2)
3. Likable and reliable (Chapter 7)
4. Hemingway (Chapter 9)
Short Answer
1. Lamott feels that waiting for inspiration interferes with fluent writing and suggests instead that writers allow themselves to use first drafts to discover what they really want to write about. (Chapter 1)
2. Lamott imagines her critical inner voices as mice, and then she imagines putting them in jars where she cannot hear them. (Chapter 3)
3. First drafts are like undeveloped pictures when they first come out of the camera, and as a writer researches, thinks, and revises, the full picture takes shape in the form of a more complete draft. (Chapter 6)
4. Lamott compares writing and rewriting to a painter using white paint to cover over a first attempt and then repainting the picture on top of this. (Chapter 11)
PART 2
Reading Check
1. Compassion for the self and compassion for others (Chapter 14)
2. Editing (Chapter 16)
3. Ritual and prayer (Chapter 17)
4. Terrible writers (Chapter 18)
Short Answer
1. Lamott believes it is important to focus outward and to appreciate how wondrous the world really is. This, she suggests, will counter a natural tendency toward narcissism. (Chapter 14)
2. Moral concepts being conveyed in fiction should be revealed through character and action, not through exposition or authorial intrusion. (Chapter 15)
3. The joke is that if the patient listens to his broccoli, it will tell him how to eat it. Lamott interprets this to mean that listening is a creative or imaginative act rather than a rational one. (Chapter 16)
4. Lamott uses this poem as an example of the insights she has gained into her own jealousy from reading others’ writings on the topic. (Chapter 18)
PART 3
Reading Check
1. Her son (Chapter 19)
2. Talking to experts (Chapter 20)
3. Beta readers (Chapter 22)
4. The San Francisco Giants (Chapter 23)
Short Answer
1. Although Lamott advocates staying present in the moment, she makes an exception for writing ideas down as soon as they occur to her, even if it temporarily interferes with her engagement in the moment. (Chapter 19)
2. Lamott experienced a good writer giving a scathing critique of an average writer’s work during one of her classes. (Chapter 21)
3. Lamott feels that writing letters can jumpstart creativity by offering a non-threatening way to explore ideas and order one’s thoughts. (Chapter 23)
4. Lamott prefers the word “empty” because she believes that the real problem is not that ideas are blocked from flowing but that the writer actually has no clear ideas. (Chapter 24)
PART 4
Reading Check
1. It was Sam’s first time seeing a dead person. (Chapter 25)
2. Truth/The present moment (Chapter 26)
3. Galleys (Chapter 28)
4. Drinking and overeating (Chapter 28)
Short Answer
1. Both books are about a loved one’s terminal illness. Lamott feels that writing a book about someone who is dying is a way to reassure them that they will live on in some way. (Chapter 25)
2. Lamott uses this metaphor to describe a writer’s personal “pool” of darkness which, she argues, must be explored in order to write effectively about the hard truths of life. (Chapter 26)
3. Lamott is arguing that writers need to fully engage with the world, simultaneously feeling a sense of awe and wonder and passionately committing to revealing truth in their work. She believes that apathy about life is the enemy of good writing. (Chapter 27)
4. Lamott counsels that although publication can increase a writer’s prestige and make a writer feel that there is some purpose to their writing, it is unlikely to lead to wealth or fame and will not create a lasting sense of validation—because this has to come from inside a person. (Chapter 28)
PART 5
Reading Check
1. Being afraid of not getting your writing done (Chapter 29)
2. Building sandcastles (Chapter 29)
Short Answer
1. Lamott uses this chapter to summarize the key points she wants her reader to remember and to offer concluding thoughts about what it means to be a writer. (Chapter 29)
2. Writing is like singing during a storm because, like singing, writing does not actually change the larger and sometimes frightening circumstances of life—but it can encourage a sense of connection and create comfort in trying times. (Chapter 29)
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