Using Lamott 's "Bird by Bird" to evaluate "Wreckage of Reason"

For this blog post I will use Anne Lamott's book "Bird by Bird" to evaluate the short stories in "Wreckage of Reason".

The first major point is plot. According to Lamott, "drama is the way of holding the reader's attention" p 59. Many of the stories such as "Ten Birds", "Black Wings", and "They Come From Mars" lacked holding the readers attention. For example in "Ten Birds" by the third "When I woke up" I wanted to literally throw the book across the room. In my opinion, the author lost my attention. Lamott said on p 59 "why are we here anyway? To me when I read "Ten Birds" I asked myself this and could not come up with a logical answer. This tells me that the drama she used to help described the plot and push it along was inadequate.

Next, Lamott talks about developing the characters throughout the story. I think that every story does this to one point, but the all seem to leave you on the edge of actually knowing the character. It feels like the authors want you to get to know the characters, but do not want you to know what they are exactly about. This is frustrating yet appealing to me because i think a good character is one where the reader enjoys the characters no matter the ups and downs.However, there will always be those few qualities that are hidden. Which is similar to each and everyone of else. There are select things we do not tell anyone and I think this is how the authors portray their characters.  In "Black Wings" we are able to gather a sense that the character is confused about her sexuality and who she actually is. This was accomplished in a rather interesting yet emotional way. But, we still do not exactly is she leans one way more than they other about her sexual orientation.

Finally, I think dialogue really helps describe a character. In "Bird by Bird" Lamott describes how it is easier to described the different qualities of a character through dialogue (Not sure exactly which page). In another words instead of saying "she was a creepy child", have another character say "man, that girl is always peaking around the corner spying on us". This describes bother characters  in one sentence. First the girl is creepy by peering around corners looking at people, and secondly, the other girl finds it weird that another person would act is such a manner.  The reader is able to make inferences about the characters which makes the story more enjoyable. An example of dialogue further developing a character is shown in "Black Wings". In this short story, the reader is able to gain a further understanding about the character without the author actually telling us. On page 276, they talk about how they see each other and you can infer from the dialogue that the characters are very conservative with each other. They ask leading questions so that they do not offend each other or take the question the wrong way. '"How do you see me?' I asked her, What do you mean? [she said]".