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
- young
- write
- brother
- brads
- chickadees
- difference
- geese
- 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
- audubon
- bird
- birds
- book
- brads
- brother
- buddy
- butt
- chair
- chickadees
- dad
- day
- debt
- difference
- drafts
- due
- find
- fourth
- geese
- grade
- honor
- life
- main
- older
- paper
- pelicans
- pencils
- prearrangement
- read
- remember
- sat
- secret
- started
- stories
- term
- terrible
- time
- voice
- write
- writer
- writes
- writing
- young