Anne Lamott (in her Bird by Bird book) says the dreaded writer’s block isn’t about being blocked, it’s about being empty. In today’s podcast we discuss Lamott’s approach to writer’s block, as well as her technique of letter writing to get at the heart of your story. We also have an insightful conversation on exactly why memoirists (or at least Renee) want strangers to read about their lives.

But before that, we have an interview with Kerry Muir from the The Writing Salon on what makes a workshop successful.

Behind most successful authors there is a writing group (at least according to their novel’s acknowledgment section). But how does one find a writing group, and how do you get the most of out of one once you’re in?

In todays episode, we discuss the chapters “Writing Groups” and “Someone to Read your Drafts” from Anne Lamott’s book Bird by Bird. We also recall some WTF moments from our own writing workshops and address the dangers of toxic beta readers.

Want to hear more of our exercise workshop? We post the bonus podcast, SnarkNotes, and detailed write up of the exercises on our Words to Write by Patreon account.

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Some advice is timeless, some is not. In this episode, we evaluate writing techniques from Anne Lamott’s book Bird by Bird and see if they still have value in our current Information Age.

Specifically, Lamott writes about capturing one’s thoughts on index cards, and how to use a telephone to get information and also, to get a larger sense of people’s views. Although we now use our phones for much more, there’s still some nuggets of inspiration in these chapters of the book.

Want to hear more of our exercise workshop? We post the bonus podcast, SnarkNotes, and detailed write up of the exercises on our Words to Write by Patreon account.

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.