Anne Veere’s Reviews > Bird by Bird > Status Update

Bird by bird, buddy. just take it bird by bird.

E.L. Doctorow once said that "writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as fas as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." You don't have to see where you're going, you don't have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see 2 or 3 feet ahead of you. This is right up there with the best advice on writing, or life, I have ever heard.

And quality of attention: we may notice amazing details during the course of a day but we rarely let ourselves stop and really pay attention. An author makes you notice, makes you pay attention, and this is a great gift. My gratitude for good writing is unbounded; I'm grateful for it the way I'm greatful for the ocean. Aren't you?

You begin to string words together like beats. You are desperate to communicate, to edify or entertain, to preserve moments of grace or joy or transcendence, to make real or imagined events come to live. But you cannot will this to happen. It is a matter of persistence and faith and hard work. So you might as well just go ahead and get started.