How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
You need to trust yourself, especially on a first draft, where amid the anxiety and self-doubt, there should be a real sense of your imagination and your memories walking and woolgathering, tramping the hills, romping all over the place. Trust them. Don't look at your feet to see if you are doing it right. Just dance. (16.4)
Dance is a good metaphor for a first draft because it requires some training, but when things are at their best, a dancer isn't focused on each individual step. Sometimes it's even better to make a misstep but keep the dance going than it is to wait too long figuring out the right next thing. Writing is like that, too.
Quote #5
There may be a flickering moment of insight in a one-liner, in a sound bite, but everyday meat-and-potato truth is beyond our ability to capture in a few words. Your whole piece is the truth, not just one shining epigrammatic moment in it. (15.2)
Maybe this is what Lamott is hoping for, as a writer: the possibility that the work as a whole may embody the truth about something. In fact, as she puts it, that's a requirement if the writing is going to be any good. It's also why you can't cheat the process; just learning the mechanics of, say, plot or sentence construction and applying what you've learned isn't going to give you a worthwhile piece of writing. There needs to be something more, some truth you've really worked on.
Quote #6
And then I tell my students that the odds of their getting published and of it bringing them financial security, peace of mind, and even joy are probably not that great. Ruin, hysteria, bad skin, unsightly tics, ugly financial problems, maybe; but probably not peace of mind. (Introduction.55)
Yeah, writing's not gonna make your life easy or pleasant. But it will make it more meaningful. That's why writing gives Lamott great satisfaction, even under these circumstances.