Bird by Bird Lesson #5

Our last BBB gathering!

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

How time flies. When I first announced this class, I hadn’t yet gone to England, and the end date—June 27, this Friday—sounded very far off. And now it is upon us. And our task for this last week is to read the last segment of the book, from page 173—220. So let’s dig in.

Writing a Present

First of all, I want Ann’s agent.

It’s the one she talks about in the chapter Writing a Present. The one who she sends random scenes and anecdotes to, and gets in return, I presume, a boatload of encouragement.

Anyway.

At first I thought this chapter was kind of dumb. But then I got to the part where she wrote about the Brice, the baby who died, and read this and just gasped at how wonderful it was:

“Brice looked like a small, concerned angel from someplace snowy. None of us, including Sam, could take our eyes off him. He looked like God.”

And then this:

“Toni Morrison said, ‘The function of freedom is to free someone else,’ and if you are no longer wracked or in bondage to a person or a way of life, tell your story. Risk freeing someone else.”

I kind of feel like I can leave you all with that because wow, what an amazing lesson that is. If you’re free, free someone else. I think that in small ways and medium ways and sometimes even in big ways that’s what we do when we go to the page.

But how do we get there? We write a shitty first draft, she reminds us:

“…an incredibly shitty, self-indulgent, whiny, mewling first draft. Then take out as many excesses as you can.”

Okay, deep breath and we shall move on.

Finding Your Voice

Voice is when writing grips you in a certain way and you think, yes, that’s exactly what life is like, Ann says.

And I add: or you think, yes, I know a person just like that character but reading about them makes me understand them in a new way. Or, I’ve been to a setting like that but never quite seen it so beautifully. Or, I feel that way, too.

And we find our voices by writing. Even when the writing is clunky and awkward, like, say, in a shitty first draft. It is my belief that true voice comes out when you’re letting it all out onto the page, even the crap. Not when you’re trying to be precious and perfect.