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| Photo by Sam Lamott |
Tonight, I got to bask in the glow of Anne Lamott’s wise,
self-deprecating humor and the humility of one who always seems slightly
flabbergasted that so many of us have come to worship at her feet. She’s
stumping (somewhat reluctantly because she doesn’t like flying and gets lonely
away from home) for her new book Stitches, which she began writing last
December in a search for meaning and forgiveness after the tragic shooting at
Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.
I have no idea how many of the hordes of people—mostly women—who
came to see Annie tonight at All Saints Church in Pasadena are writers,
but I have a feeling there were plenty of us. We hung on her every word,
leaning in a tad more closely for the nuggets that relate to our craft. Here
are a few…
Write what you would
like to come upon. In other words tell a story that you’d like to read.
Most miracles involve
writing. It seems she, like me, doesn’t
always know what she’s thinking or feeling until she gets it down on paper.
Waiting for
inspiration to write is another way to guarantee you won’t get any writing
done. You can make all the excuses
you want and “the thing is, no one cares, so you’d better... because the regrets
will be heartbreaking."
Writing a novel is
three years of commitment to having terrible self-esteem. Isn’t writing
creative none-fiction torture enough?!
Do it for yourself
because New York publishing isn’t going to save you. In fact, “you’ll be
more mentally ill after publication…”
And she left us with this beautiful piece of advice from the
great E.L. Doctorow:
“Writing
is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your
headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
In other words—in Annie’s words—it’s still Bird by Bird….
Author's note: Click here to read about the first time I saw Annie.
