It is a beautiful warm, sunny day in Hollywood, California, the kind of day that makes the rest of the country want to move here. Standing on the bare stage of the Musicians Institute's recording studio auditorium, a block off Hollywood Boulevard, was Anne Lamott. Microphone in hand, Rastafarian hair framing her small face, she spoke about writing and the creative process to a packed house. The author of eight books, including Bird by Bird and Traveling Mercies , Lamott has already written 90 pages of her new novel.
Writing can go badly and does.
She freely admits that she does not write beautiful first drafts and that the process is hard, making you a little nuts. You have to write a lot just to get to the good stuff. In her fiction and nonfiction, Lamott deals with her family. No one gives a shit whether you write or not, and your family hopes you won't. The story you tell is your story, what you saw happen.