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Published on 12/11/1995 All articles from this issue

Morning Forum members get instructions on writing and life

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By Clyde Noel / Town Crier Staff Writer

It's been 10 years since writer Ann Lamott addressed the Los Altos Morning Forum. When she spoke last week, Lamott said she didn't remember her last talk because she didn't write it down.

Lamott grew up around a father and mother who read every chance they got and took their three kids to the library every Thursday night to load up on books for the coming week.

"My father was a writer and that taught him to pay attention," Lamott said. "In turn, he taught other people to pay attention and then write down their thoughts and observations and he taught me to write by example."

Today, everything Lamott notices or hears, she writes down on a small index card.

Lamott started to write when she was age 7 or 8. She described herself as shy and strange-looking, but she had feelings, observations, memories and strong opinions. That ability to feel and then describe the human experience in all its complexity and absurdity has turned Lamott into something of a Bay Area celebrity.

In addition to writing six novels, Lamott also teaches creative writing for students in the Bay Area. Her latest book, "Bird by Bird," describes the feelings she experiences about writing.

"The first thing I tell my new students on their first day is that good writing is about telling the truth," Lamott said. "We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. We have so much we want to say and figure out."

Lamott advised those with something to say to put it down on a piece of paper.

"You may wake up some morning and realize you are 80 years old and have never put anything on paper," Lamott said. "Let your sub conscience give in to yourself now and start writing, because you don't have long in this world."

Lamott suggested beginners start writing by assuming short assignments. Often, she said when writers sit down to write, what they have in mind is an autobiographical experience, or a history of something and the idea is often akin to trying to scale a glacier. "It's hard to get your footing, and your fingertips get all red and frozen and torn up," she said. "Then your mental illness arrives at the desk like your sick and most secretive relatives."

What she does at this point is sit for a minute, breath slowly and she lets her mind wander. Lamott said she decides whether to make a few telephone calls, look in the mirror or learn to use makeup. "I notice a 1-inch picture frame and decide to write down as much as I can see through a one-inch picture frame," she described.

Lamott referred to author E. L. Doctorow, who once said, " 'Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you make the whole trip that way.'

"That's about the best advice about writing, or life, I have ever heard, Lamott said. "You just have to see 2 or 3 feet ahead of you.

"You have to keep things small. Like 'Bird by Bird.' You have to use fragments of the whole story."

She observed that creative writing students often like to write like the books they are reading, but Lamott says it doesn't work that way. She noted a beginner's rule: When you start, you write really bad. It's discouraging, she said, but writers have to keep at it. "The students I know are tortured and afraid and start to write badly," Lamott said. "But, if you sit there long enough, something will happen and you can start to focus on what you are writing."