TED distilled fourteen writing tips from an interview conducted with novelist Anne Lamott. Her 1995 book Bird by Bird (Amazon) has become an essential guide for aspiring artists of all types.
My favorite snippet from the interview appears when she’s asked to give her younger self some writing advice:
“I’d teach my younger self to stare off into space more often. I would tell her to waste more paper. I would tell her she doesn’t need to stick to a decision; she can change her mind.”
Anne Lamott
Daydream. Plan unscheduled time. Get messy! There is no such thing as the perfect time to start anything. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “This ‘Wait!’ has almost always meant ‘Never.'”
The vocation chooses you. Do the work in despite the resistance.
Read 14 writing tips, from beloved teacher Anne Lamott