One Master Writer

I consider Anne Lamott to be one of the best spiritual writers of our day. Traveling Mercies, Plan B, and Bird by Bird have been great models of spiritual writing done well while avoiding the pitfalls of fundamentalism (that tends to use religious words the way a bowler smokes cigarettes) and liberalism (avoiding sacred words at all costs so that faith becomes the psychological equivalent of "differentiation.")

"I wish I had a secret I could let you in on, some formula my father passed on to me in a whisper just before he died, some code word that has enabled me to sit at my desk and land flights of creative inspiration like and air-traffic controller. But I don’t. All I know is that the process is pretty much the same for almost everyone I know. The good news is that some days it feels like you just have to keep getting out of your own way to write it. It is a little like when you have something difficult to discuss with someone, and as you go to do it, you hope and pray that the right words will come if only you show up and make a stab at it. And often the right words do come, and you—well—“write” for a while; you put a lot of thoughts down on paper. But the bad news is that if you’re at all like me, you’ll probably read over what you’ve written and spend the rest of the day obsessing, and praying that you do not die before you can completely rewrite or destroy what you have written, lest the eagerly waiting world learn how bad your first drafts are." From Anne Lamott in Bird by Bird, pg. 7-8