Sometimes just showing up isn’t enough. You’ve set time aside for writing and instead of your story unfurling on the page (or screen) other things come out. In this episode, we’ll discuss author Anne Lamott’s struggle and solutions to this problem from her book Bird by Bird. First we’ll tackle the good voice, the inspiration that we keep ignoring, Lamott calls this the “Broccoli” then the bad voice “Station K-FUK” and finally that thing that will tear you apart: jealousy.

And, as a bonus, Kim talks about the highs and lows from her trip to Japan (keep reading for a very scary video of mountain leeches).

We’re onto the second section in Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird — The Writing Frame Of Mind — and it’s getting a bit nebulous folks.

In “Looking Around,” Lamont encourages us to see, truly see, the world. That sounds like mindfulness training to Kim, it sounds like something else to Renee. And then it’s onto “The Moral Point of View” which brings out an even more heated discussion. In the end, we’re not sure if we learned anything, but we definitely got some stuff out of systems.

On a practical useful note, we have a great interview with editor Kristen Tate about how developmental editing can be used to save a novel, with some excellent advice about how she does this with her clients.

Even published authors have problems getting the magical stories in their heads into finished manuscript. But Anne Lamott’s account of how, over the course of three years, she completely rewrote what would be her second novel several times, probably deserves a prize for perseverance (or stubbornness). In this podcast we discuss what was wrong with each of those drafts and the techniques she used to fix them. We even try her idea of writing a plot treatment for our own chapters.

We’re covering two different topics from Ann Lamott’s book Bird by Bird. First off is scene setting, both its importance for your characters and how to get all the details right (quick answer, ask an expert). Then we’re back to finding out what your story is about and how to return to a scene or chapter again and again (and again) until you can finally say, “Yes, that is how it needs to be written.”

Also, following up on last week’s episode about character verses plot driven stories, we talk to three genre writers about their approach.

We’ve gotten to some hearty chapters in Ann Lamott’s book Bird by Bird. First up is plot, which “grows out of characters.” We discuss what this means and if it’s applicable to genre writing. Then we turn to dialogue, and how you distill intent from the rambling conversation of what people say while maintaining their unique voice.

Putting our writing chops to the test, Renee took a hilarious 3000 word monolog by the Afternoon Delight podcast ladies and condensed it down to 600. Definitely worth a listen before you go hiking to the top of Mt Washington.

So you’ve committed to Anne Lamott’s daily writing practice (as discussed in our previous podcast), good for you. Now let’s find out how to turn those embarrassing word scribbles into profound and meaningful insights.

In this episode we start with the Bird by Bird chapters, School Lunches and Polaroids, which, trust us, are about that transformative process. Then it’s onto the Character chapter where we talk about giving the people in your novel their own emotional acre.

Also in the podcast, we interview three authors, Delta Jones, Richard Risemberg, and MJ Brunnabend on how they draft their novels.

How does one write an entire novel? It’s a bit like the advice for eating an elephant, one bite at a time. In this episode we cover Anne Lamott’s novel biting tips from her book, Bird by Bird. First comes her 1-inch picture frame technique, then her most famous suggestion, shitty first drafts. Finally, we tackle the anti-writing mindset, and perfectionism.