Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, 2nd Edition Author: Visit Amazon's Natalie Goldberg Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1590302613 | Format: PDF
Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, 2nd Edition Description
Review
"I'm convinced that none of the writers of my acquaintance can go another day without a copy of Natalie Goldberg's magical manual
Writing Down the Bones."—Linda Weltner,
The Boston Globe"The secret of creativity, Natalie Goldberg makes clear, is to subtract rules for writing, not add them. It's a process of 'uneducation' rather than education. Proof that she knows what she's talking about is abundant in her own sentences. They flow with speed and grace and accuracy and simplicity. It looks easy to a reader, but writers know it is the hardest writing of all."—Robert Pirsig, author of
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance About the Author
Natalie Goldberg is the author of ten books.
Writing Down the Bones, her first, has sold over one million copies and has been translated into twelve languages. For the last thirty years she has practiced Zen and taught seminars in writing as a spiritual practice. She lives in New Mexico.
- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Shambhala; Expanded edition (December 6, 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1590302613
- ISBN-13: 978-1590302613
- Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
- Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
I align myself more with the negative reviews of this book. It's easy to get caught up in some of the philosophical warm-fuzzy rhetoric of Ms. Goldberg. Akin to watching Oprah pull at an audience's heartstrings, Ms. Goldberg pulls readers in with story after story trumpeting the same message of writing from the heart. The initial reaction is to feel that there's nothing to question about what Ms. Goldberg says.
When I purchased the book, I saw nothing to indicate that it was specific to one particular form of writing, but after reading it, I feel that the author speaks much more to poetry than other forms of writing. The author on several occasions admonishes us to write in the moment and not dwell on ideas we've had in the past. She relates an experience of one student who had a fully-formed idea while out jogging but couldn't reproduce it when s/he got home to the blank page. Goldberg went into a spiel about how we should just let go of those thoughts that are not inspired or conceived in the moment that we sit down to write. That's where I have a fundamental disagreement with her and feel her philosophy becomes almost destructive to new writers. Perhaps poetry functions that way. Perhaps someone has to have that spontaneous quality about their work in order for it to be fresh and exciting. I don't know. I'm not a poet. However, for novels, short stories, and longer works, you would be a fool to let great ideas get away. Personally, I like to let some of those ideas percolate for weeks and even years. Yes, we mature and our perspectives change, but in a lot of cases that only means that we can approach a subject in a different way as we grow older. It doesn't make the subject any better or worse to write about.
Bottom line: I came away from the book with mixed feelings.
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