January 22, 2004 – Todd McCaffrey

Bird by bird

By Todd | January 22, 2004 | Comments 0 Comment

I’ve mentioned this in “New Stars on the Horizon” already. By the way, we’re going to be renaming “New Stars on the Horizon” some point soon. My proposed name is “Readings and Recommendings” (::rubs hands together with slitted eyes:: “my precious”).

Anyway, when despairing of ever being able to re-write Dragonsblood — shh! don’t tell anyone — I discovered a couple of salutary things:

1) Go to a bookstore and walk around if you’re book’s not going well.

2) Read “Bird by bird” by Anne Lamott. She’s very funny and knows a lot about writers and writing.

I’ll quote a nice bit because I think it explains a lot:

” My writer friends, and they are legion, do not go around beaming with quiet feelings of contentment. Most of them go around with haunted, abused, surprised looks on their faces, like lab dogs on whom very personal deodorant sprays have been tested.”

— from the Introduction, page xxx

Yes, exactly! She’s got it right.

What am I reading now?

By Todd | January 22, 2004 | Comments 0 Comment

Well, I’m on “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” — the UK (Bloomsbury) edition.

I raced through Donna Andrews’ “Murder with Peacocks” and have “Murder with Puffins” — all because I saw her third book on the shelves in hardcover, “We’ll always have Parrots.” I’m a bit of a good when it comes to puns and that one just tickled me the right way.

“Bird by bird” by Anne Lamott is also on my list.

Yes, I’m sorta reading all these at once. Sometimes I like getting back to Mr. Potter and sometimes I like to look at murders and every now and then I wish I could figure how to write perfectly — I’ll never write perfectly, I’ll always be sure that I can do better on the next book.

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

By Todd | January 22, 2004 | Comments 0 Comment

I picked this up the other day when I decided that I just couldn’t get flashbacks straight. Oh, I know how to go into them and how to get out but I couldn’t figure out when to stop using the past perfect tense and just go to the perfect tense.

Anne Lamott’s book is a must-have for writers. She is witty and spot on when it comes to all the despairs that writers go through and how to get around them. I haven’t finished the book but I’ve enjoyed reading so far — and have stopped at several points for an “ah-ha!” moment and at other points for a good laugh.

Oh yeah, don’t despair — I finally figured out flashbacks. I found a really nice one in Donna Andrews’ “Murder with Peacocks” and it completely restored my faith in humanity or writers or… whatever.