Literacy, Week 7, Bird by Bird

Share a quote from Lamott (include page number) and your response.

A recurring theme in Anne Lamott's book, Bird by Bird, that resonates with me, is how what a writer starts with is more than likely not what s/he will end up with. In the chapter on Plot Treatment, she writes about the envisioned climax as a sort of "temporary destination." "So, you write toward this scene, but when you get there, you see that . . . it no longer works" (pg. 85). Lamott says something similar in her chapter titled Plot. She states that "the climax of your story will probably reveal itself to you slowly and over time" (pg. 61). Perhaps my favorite quote so far comes from the chapter called Polaroids. Lamott says that "Writing a first draft is very much like watching a Polaroid develop. You can't . . . know exactly what the picture is going to look like until it has finished developing " (pg. 39).

Lamott appears to be saying that a story, like a life, develops and changes over time. Don't presume to know someone's story, or your own, until it has had time to present itself to you. What I have taken from this is that as I get to know someone, even myself, I need to always be aware that the story - the life itself - is always developing, hopefully into the person, it was meant to be.