Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird is almost like a collection of quotable lines and interesting conversation starters. She has a way of portraying so much of her personality (voice) in her writing in an utmost honest way. Just as her story starts off, good writing begins with telling the truth. Lamott illustrates this within her own writing page after page. She also has a wonderful knack for creating colorful ways of describing her concepts of good writing.

This is particularly true on page 110-111, where Lamott recalls an old Mel Brooks routine where a psychiatrist tells his patients, "Listen to your broccoli, and your broccoli will tell you how to eat it." She continues to explain how she would retell this to her students to help them reclaim the innosence and freedom of the childhood mind. She asks them to listen real closely to hear the faint voice of their character and listen to what they want to do next, what they want their next adventure to be.



I think this is a very important concept for young writers to be aware of. As students attempt to write a fictional story they often ask you as a teacher, "What should come next?" It is important to encourage them to push their minds further-- to continuely think of more detail and creativity. The idea of "listening to your broccoli" is a cute way for students to visualize this concept. By taking the time to stop and really just think about what the character would want to do or how they would do it, our writing takes on a life of its own. It is at this point that writing turns from well writen to wonderfully illustrated prose.


Lamott's ability to take extremely vague concepts and approach them with very concrete images is the ultimate key to being a good teacher. In this way she is able to effectively show her students how good writing is achieved.