Writing process

Anne LamottAmerican writer and essayist, author of Bird by Bird, Operating Instructions and Somehow: Thoughts on Love

• Lamott says she never works on a new book until the previous one is published and currently has no idea what she would write next.

  “I never am working on another book until the last one comes out. And I don't have a clue what I would write”

  TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 48:34

• Lamott argues that publication cannot heal a person but the act of writing, like other absorbing practices, can.

  “Just try to bust yourself gently of the fantasy that publication will heal you, that it will fill the Swiss cheesy holes inside of you. It can't. It won't. But writing can”

  TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 11:20

• Lamott says reader feedback taught her that telling forbidden stories is a gift to people going through the same thing.

  “when I tell these stories that you're not supposed to say out loud, it's a gift to people who are going through that same sort of thing”

  TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 7:39

• Lamott argues that the expectation of always knowing what you are doing is a cultural myth, since writers only learn the work by doing it.

  “I mean, the American way is that you should always know what you're doing. You've made a decision and you should stick with it. But the fact is that no writer knows what they're doing until they've done it”

  TED Radio Hour: Addiction, motherhood and Jesus with writer Anne Lamott (Jul 31, 2026) · Listen from 2:23