Anne Lamott & Neil Allen: Write Toward the Really...
What if the secret to better writing isn’t more technique—but more truth?
This week, Tami Simon speaks with Anne Lamott—beloved author of Bird by Bird, Traveling Mercies, and more than twenty books—and her husband Neal Allen, writer and spiritual coach, about their new collaborative book, Good Writing: 36 Ways to Improve Your Sentences. Together, they unpack the craft of writing as both a technical discipline and a deeply human practice.
Join Tami, Anne, and Neal to explore:
- The three-draft process: from the “child’s draft” to the “dental draft”—and where the real work of writing begins
- How to find your natural writing voice and stop trying to sing someone else’s song
- Writing as melody, rhythm, and harmony—and what the Beatles can teach us about our own creative strengths
- Why the rules of good writing are really about respect: for the reader, for truth, and for your own story
- The power of writing “toward the really real”—and why plain-spoken, heart-centered writing connects more deeply than literary pyrotechnics
- Rule 33: writing the hard stuff—life, death, mystery, and the things that are difficult to say but essential to try
- Why writing is collaborative, not solitary—and how talented editors and trusted readers can save your work (and your skin)
Whether you’re a lifelong writer or someone who has always wanted to tell your story, Anne and Neal offer practical tools and generous encouragement to help you get your words on the page—and make them matter.
Listen now and start writing toward the really (really) real.
This conversation offers genuine transmission—not just concepts about awakening, but the palpable presence of realized teachers exploring the growing edge of spiritual understanding together. Originally aired on Sounds True One.
