Letters from the Writers' CLC

Anne Lamott has published seven novels and numerous works of nonfiction over a four-decade writing career, but she is perhaps best known for a single piece of advice: the first draft is not supposed to be good, it's simply supposed to exist. This philosophy is central to her 1994 book Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, which has sold more than a million copies and has become a quintessential resource on the craft of writing.

In her early career, Lamott wrote restaurant reviews for California magazine. Each review took two days. She would go out several times with a few opinionated friends, fill a notebook with everything worth keeping, and then sit down Monday morning at her desk and stir. Even after years of writing, “panic would set in. I'd try to write a lead, but instead I'd write a couple of dreadful sentences, XX them out, try again, XX everything out, and then feel despair and worry settle on my chest like an x-ray apron” (Bird by Bird).

What eventually broke the cycle was “permission”: she gave herself permission to write a terrible first draft that no one would ever see. Those drafts were typically twice as long as they needed to be and nowhere near perfect, but that was the point. Once the draft existed, there was something to revise.

The method became a framework. “The first draft is the child's draft,” she wrote, “where you let it all pour out, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later” (Bird by Bird). The second draft is the up draft, where you fix it up. The third is the dental draft, where you check every tooth. Three passes, each with a different job.

The title of the book comes from a memory of her own family. Lamott's older brother, ten years old at the time, was trying to write a school report on birds that he had put off for three months. He sat at the kitchen table surrounded by books he had not opened. He was overwhelmed by the scale of what he had let pile up. Their father sat down beside him, put an arm around his shoulder, and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird” (Bird by Bird).

The first draft is not supposed to be good; it is simply supposed to exist.

Sources: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, Anne Lamott (Anchor Books, 1994). “Anne Lamott,” Encyclopedia Britannica. “Anne Lamott,” California Museum.

Our May/June session is open for enrollment. Intermediate Novel Writing is a new offering led by Evea Raye, focused on pacing, character depth, setting, and strengthening your writing voice. Six weeks, in-person, starting May 7. First Draft Novel Writing returns with Evea Raye starting May 6, and Introduction to Memoir Writing, a three-week course led by Nancy Parsons, begins May 9. More courses for the session will be announced soon.