43 pages • 1 hour read
Annie DillardA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
The opening chapter of The Writing Life focuses on general advice Dillard has for the aspiring writer. She addresses the writer directly, urging them to use a line of words like a laborer uses a tool. The writing process is like the demolition of a house, wherein the writer will have to get rid of the earliest foundational passages if there are structural faults. Dillard explains the necessity of revision with anecdotes about a novice photographer and a songwriting cab driver. Both artists were so attached to the difficulty of their artistic process that they didn’t have the courage to throw out poor-quality pieces. Dillard returns her earlier construction metaphor with another anecdote: A building crumbles because workers refuse to acknowledge the cracks in the foundation, despite warnings from someone with an outside perspective. Dillard advises writers to seek out any fractures in the foundation of their own work and to not be afraid if they must start over from scratch.
Dillard delves into the concept of following a work wherever it leads through several anecdotes about courage and fear. She observes a timid but stubborn inchworm moving blindly from grass blade to grass blade, and she recalls stories of a rabbi and butcher both praying for mercy before beginning their work.
By Annie Dillard
An American Childhood
An American Childhood
Annie Dillard
For the Time Being
For the Time Being
Annie Dillard
Holy the Firm
Holy the Firm
Annie Dillard
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Annie Dillard
Teaching a Stone to Talk
Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters
Annie Dillard
Total Eclipse
Total Eclipse
Annie Dillard