To Anne Lamott being a published author is not just another way to bring in income. Lamott thinks that once people start writing to express their feelings they will see the world through new eyes (Lamott xxix). It is more than just another job, it is a therapeutic process. Lamott suggest that writing can help a person with their emotions, get over perfectionism, and help someone get over a hardship in their life.
Lamott also believes writing is a therapeutic process because writing about a person’s emotions can help that person sort their emotions out. It can change a person’s emotion for the better. It can also make them feel better to let out what’s been bottled up inside them out. “Then I started to write about my envy. I got to look in
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some cold dark corners, see what was there, shine a little light on what we all have in common” (Lamott 129). After pouring her envy on to paper she “felt like I was getting somewhere” (Lamott 129). Lamott is not afraid to admit that as a writer she goes through a great deal of jealousy. She says that it is one of the occupational hazards of being a writer. She believes the best way to cope with it is by using it as material (Lamott 124). Eventually all the negative emotions will disappear, and if not than they will get better. Lamott also suggests that writing is a therapeutic process because it lets the writer know that it is completely acceptable to make mistakes.
It reminds the writer that they do not have to be flawless; they just have to be their self. Just like writing, no one has to write a perfect story. Everyone just has to write using their own kind of writing style. “So go ahead and make big scrawls and mistakes. Use up lots of paper. Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist’s true friends” (Lamott 32). Some people may disagree and say that writing is not therapeutic; they may say that writing is stressful. Writing is not always enjoyable and can be stressful at times, but this doesn’t mean that it is not …show more content…
rewarding. Lamott also believes that writing about hardships in life can help people overcome them.
She believes that it can help a person realize why things happened the way they did. Writing made her powerful when she faced death or another tragedy. When she was 23 years old her father was diagnosed with brain cancer. Lamott’s father, being a writer, had a big impact on her life. He gave her advice that would stay with her forever. Lamott started writing about what her father was going through, her father, who was too sick to write his own, loved the short stories Lamott wrote about him (Lamott xxiv). The book she wrote about her father was not only a tribute to her father; it was also a healing process for Lamott. Ever since she started writing about difficult situations, Lamott has been able to help the people around her and herself. Writing about her father’s death eased some of the tension and took Lamott’s mind off of
things. Ever since Lamott was a young child she used writing to express her feelings. “I thought I was a total loser. But one day I took a notebook and a pen when I went to Bolinas Beach with my father” (Lamott xvi). The outcome of Lamott’s writing was extraordinary. She ended up showing her piece to her teachers, who were deeply impressed. Lamott ended up feeling better about herself from getting attention to her wonderful writing skills. Lamott believes that writing can help the average human being in therapeutic ways. Not only does writing make people smarter, it also helps the heart. “Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul” (Lamott 237).
The novel Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott is a book that was written in order to provide “Some instructions on writing and life.” Lamott published the book in 1994 in hopes to share the secrets of what it is truly like to be a writer, as both a warning and as encouragement. Bird by Bird shares with the reader the ironic truth of being a struggling writer through personal experience and humorous stories. Lamott uses memories from her past to help illustrate her points and to help the reader get to know who she is, not only as a writer, but as a person. The author focuses on the true struggles and benefits of being a writer while using metaphors and analogies to express her points, she also wraps her life stories around almost every writing tip.
...s, and why he writes them at all. Instead of judging him, she tries to understand and fix it her own way, and it affects how he sees his writing:
Anne Lamott has an amazing ability to connect with the audience. With use of personal experience and scenarios to be able to connect with the reader using rhetorical techniques such as ethos and pathos. Although her use of vulgar terms may tend to turn off readers, giving her points less impact. Anna opens explaining how everyone has bad first drafts, even terrific writers. It is difficult to be able to sit down and create a perfect first draft.
Anne Lamott comes across as a very smooth and less technical writer, as she starts the prelude to her "Shitty First Drafts". Her humorous tone in the first paragraph really emphasizes the mood for the rest of the article. In the first paragraph she begins to discuss the stereotypes that people may assume to be true about writers. She then
Writing is a type of art because it requires you to think and be creative in the way you want it to be. I have a diary that I wrote almost everyday. They help me think about my day and sometimes turn my bad day into a good day. I write whatever comes into my head at that moment, and reflect on my day. Writing make me think deeper to what happen and help me turn my negative thought to positive. Writing is a very powerful tool. When I write, I have the power to change the story. I am the author of my own story so I can be as creative as I want.
informs the reader a great deal about the subject and it helps you make a
Perfection is something unattainable because it is socially constructed; therefore, it is inaccurate to say that there is a “perfect” style of writing. In “Two Questions,” Lynda Barry introduces the two questions that haunt many when writing: “Is it good?” and “Does this suck?” She explains how these two questions are developed from life experience and the need to please others. In relation to Barry’s “Two Questions,” Anne Lamott gives reason and alternatives for dealing with the need to be perfect and why we should not let that need be the obstacle between us and our “Shitty First Draft” in Bird by Bird. Using both texts, I relate their experiences with my own, detailing the common struggle to please others and be perfect. Although people
Literature has long been an important part of human life. We express our feelings with ink and paper; we spill out our souls on dried wood pulp. Writing has been a form of release and enjoyment since the beginning of written language. You can tell a story, make yourself a hero. You can live out all your fantasies!
People write for many reasons. They write to educate, , and to entertain to express
When trying to think of a positive writing experience I have had in my lifetime, particularly as a small child, I could not think of any. So I began to ask myself why is it that I do not like writing, what happened in my life for me to have such animosity towards the act. I was finally able to think of an event and realized that it had all begun in the 3rd grade. One day, as a punishment for talking during class, I was kept inside during recess and was forced to write Wise Old Owls until my hands began to cramp. For 45 minutes, I was only allowed to write the same old phrase over and over again; “The wise old owl sat on an oak, the more he heard, the less he spoke, the less he spoke the more he heard, why can’t I be like that wise old bird”. To this day I can still remember that little rhyme and to this day I can remember that same feeling I felt as a elementary school student. From that point on I have always had an aversion for writing, it always seemed like a punishment. I still do not understand how people can journal. I don’t see how someone can sit down and write an entry or a novel just for the hell of it. It seems unnatural to me, but I guess that all of these feelings are just because I see writing as a punishment, an
2. “Writing autobiography is my way of making meaning of the life I have led and am leading and may lead” (Murray 228). Murray used these words in his article, “All Writing is Autobiography” and they were very eye opening to me as I read about his ideas on autobiography writing. Murray suggests the all writing is an autobiography because it helps us express whats inside even if we don’t necessarily mean to and without directly talking about oneself. After Murrays column , “OverSixty” he says, “I wrote it in part for therapy, and it began as a note to myself several weeks after the experience to help me cut through thr jungle of thoughts and emotions”(228). Murray uses writing as therapy and says that all his pieces are autobiograpical because they sometimes have to smallest glimmer of his childhood or other events in his life but he hides it inside a story. Another way that Murray defends his argument is when he says, “We become what we write” (230). Writng gives one’s self to become who they want to be and express it. Even if you don’t
According to Anne Koedt, she states that frigidity in women is defined by men as, “the failure of women to have vaginal orgasms (100). She claims there is a distinction between the vaginal and the clitoral orgasms, and even goes as far as to assert that vaginal orgasms do not exist- only the clitoris can accomplish that. The problem with Koedt’s assertion is that she does not delve further into explaining and giving credible sources to her claims. Not only that, there are empirical studies that supports vaginal orgasms, though it is important to note that most of these recent studies emerged after she proposed her theory. Though her claims are incorrect, her attack on the foundation of heterosexuality provoked some curious reexamination of what is considered the only area to achieve orgasm.
is used to draw the reader into the same state of mind of the writer.
Most people question the purpose of writing a journal. People who write a journal keep it to fulfill a basic human need – “self expression and reflection” (Sagan 1). Writing is known as one of the easiest ways to express your personality and who you truly are. You can write in a journal without having anyone judging you – unless you chose to have someone else read it of course. You may reflect on your writing while you are writing your journal/diary entries. Then, once you have expressed your thoughts, you can even go back to your past entries to reflect on what you have said before. Reflecting on your writing can help you develop as a person. It helps you think through a situation and possibly solve it. Reflections help generate ideas for how to improve as an individual. But really, it’s entertaining to re-read past memories and see how much...
Susan Cain created the book Quiet to help introverts thrive in a world where extroversion is praised and introversion is criticized. Extroversion has been the preferred personality type in the United States since the country industrialized in the late nineteenth century. Laborers were forced to adopt extroverted qualities in order to get ahead in the urbanized world. Extroversion is still a significant aspect of work environments. Many companies today use open office plans and team building activities to make their employees more productive, but Cain argues that this tactic does not work. Studies have shown that group work is usually less efficient than individual work, because in groups, people who sometimes have the brightest ideas are too afraid to speak up. Cain advocates that for optimal success, businesses should incorporate both private and public workspaces