A quote of inspiration from one of my all-time favorite books about writing: BIRD BY BIRD: SOME INSTRUCTIONS ON WRITING AND LIFE by Anne Lamont.
“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.”
These are the basic instructions Lamont provides as she encourages you, me, and even herself (I suspect!) to write. Just take that writing challenge . . . “bird by bird.”
