full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Anne Lamott: 12 truths I learned from life and writing

Unscramble the Blue Letters

writing. Every wreitr you know writes really terrible first drafts, but they keep their butt in the chair. That's the secret of life. That's probably the main deffncerie between you and them. They just do it. They do it by prearrangement with themselves. They do it as a debt of honor. They tell stories that come through them one day at a time, little by little. When my older bteorhr was in fourth grade, he had a term paper on birds due the next day, and he hadn't started. So my dad sat down with him with an Audubon book, paper, pencils and brads — for those of you who have gotten a little less yonug and remember badrs — and he said to my brother, "Just take it bird by bird, buddy. Just read about pelicans and then witre about pelicans in your own voice. And then find out about ccikdheeas, and tell us about them in your own voice. And then gesee."

Open Cloze

writing. Every ______ you know writes really terrible first drafts, but they keep their butt in the chair. That's the secret of life. That's probably the main __________ between you and them. They just do it. They do it by prearrangement with themselves. They do it as a debt of honor. They tell stories that come through them one day at a time, little by little. When my older _______ was in fourth grade, he had a term paper on birds due the next day, and he hadn't started. So my dad sat down with him with an Audubon book, paper, pencils and brads — for those of you who have gotten a little less _____ and remember _____ — and he said to my brother, "Just take it bird by bird, buddy. Just read about pelicans and then _____ about pelicans in your own voice. And then find out about __________, and tell us about them in your own voice. And then _____."

Solution

  1. young
  2. write
  3. brother
  4. brads
  5. chickadees
  6. difference
  7. geese
  8. writer

Original Text

writing. Every writer you know writes really terrible first drafts, but they keep their butt in the chair. That's the secret of life. That's probably the main difference between you and them. They just do it. They do it by prearrangement with themselves. They do it as a debt of honor. They tell stories that come through them one day at a time, little by little. When my older brother was in fourth grade, he had a term paper on birds due the next day, and he hadn't started. So my dad sat down with him with an Audubon book, paper, pencils and brads — for those of you who have gotten a little less young and remember brads — and he said to my brother, "Just take it bird by bird, buddy. Just read about pelicans and then write about pelicans in your own voice. And then find out about chickadees, and tell us about them in your own voice. And then geese."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

Important Words

  1. audubon
  2. bird
  3. birds
  4. book
  5. brads
  6. brother
  7. buddy
  8. butt
  9. chair
  10. chickadees
  11. dad
  12. day
  13. debt
  14. difference
  15. drafts
  16. due
  17. find
  18. fourth
  19. geese
  20. grade
  21. honor
  22. life
  23. main
  24. older
  25. paper
  26. pelicans
  27. pencils
  28. prearrangement
  29. read
  30. remember
  31. sat
  32. secret
  33. started
  34. stories
  35. term
  36. terrible
  37. time
  38. voice
  39. write
  40. writer
  41. writes
  42. writing
  43. young