Chapter 1 Summary and Analysis

This short book by renowned novelist Annie Dillard explores her perspective on the practice of being a writer. Commentary on the craft of writing is juxtaposed with narration of the author's personal experiences, all of which are grounded in the extended metaphor that creating a literary work is, essentially, following "a line of words." The themes of the book are also grounded in that metaphor, specifically in their investigation of the contrasting natures of that line and the simultaneous effortlessness and hard work that go into following it truthfully.

Chapter 1

This chapter begins with the metaphoric suggestion that a piece of writing is a line of words that a writer (can? must? will?) follow to its end (see "Quotes," p. 3), and ends with a different metaphor reiterating that suggestion (see "Quotes," p. 21).

Between these two images, the author explores various metaphoric...