The other day I brought an audio book by Anne Lamott to my day job for a colleague to listen to. Remarking on the author's accessibility through a mix of self-deprecating humor and just saying it like it is, I wondered aloud if Lamott mulls over every turn of phrase or if sometimes the words just come.
"Oh, writers like her have a gift," my colleague responded.
The implication was that by virtue of being bestowed with brilliance, authors and poets simply channel their passion to the page. No real striving required. Lamott, herself, disagrees. In her how-to-get-off-your-tuchas-and-write classic, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, she says:
