Anna Kendrick struggled to write positive stories about herself

Anna Kendrick couldn't bring herself to write stories which showed her in a positive light in her new memoir Scrappy Little Nobody.

The Pitch Perfect star covers topics such as dating, the Oscars, her family and her childhood in her collection of personal essays, which is released on 15 November (16). The actress admits her mom Janice wanted her to write anecdotes which presented her in a more positive light but Anna couldn't bring herself to do it.

"I’m sure that once or twice in everybody’s life they’ve done something so angelic and sweet and selfless, but when you say it out loud it sounds so pathetic and braggy,” Anna explained to Redeyechicago.com. “I would feel so embarrassed if I were ever like, ‘Well, there was this one time when I was the most amazing, generous creature.’

"I tried to think of a way to give an example in the book without sounding like a jerk but I just couldn’t do it. Every time I tried to write one of the stories she was thinking of, whenever I tried to write one of those down, I was like, ‘This is so creepy. Ugh.’ ”

In the book, Anna also revealed she dislikes being described as "nice" because she thinks the word doesn't mean anything and she'd rather be seen as brave, passionate or intelligent. However, she does try to be nice to people and that clashes with trying to get what she wants.

"Because asking for what you want is seen as not nice, which is so bizarre," she said. "Because in theory that means that nice people - in particular, nice women - don’t need anything, don’t want anything. ‘I’m fine, I’m fine.’ So sometimes I’m like, ‘I think you’re confusing nice with low-maintenance.’ I’m definitely not low-maintenance. I have (stuff) that I want.”

Anna spent 45 days trying to write at least 2,000 words a day to get the book finished with very little outside input and she admitted some days it was refreshing to be alone at home but on others she felt she was going crazy, adding authors must be "clinically insane".