Every so often you come across a book that inspires you. While reading it, you keep thinking of people you want to share it with, people you know would enjoy and benefit from it. Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg, is such a book.

Goldberg, an accomplished poet, has distilled her experience both as a writer and teacher of writing into short, well-defined snippets of advice. Each chapter is a succinct essay that can stand on its own. You can read them consecutively or jump around from topic to topic. Unlike many authors of self-help writer's books, she does not focus on ways to avoid bad writing. Rather, as she puts it, "Everything I say as a teacher is ultimately aimed at people trusting their own voice and writing from it." This goal rings through loud and clear right from the start. The result for me was a tremendous feeling of freedom--freedom to try new approaches, freedom from grammatical constraints, freedom to ignore my inner censor (or as she calls it, "the editor").

Goldberg starts with fundamentals: finding the tools that work for you, writing practice, and composting (allowing time for an experience to sift through your consciousness). She offers specific tricks that help her get back to writing when she is resisting it. She also provides concrete examples of how to make your writing better: "Original Detail," "Don't Tell, but Show," "Be Specific," "Make Statements and Answer Questions," "The Action of a Sentence," "A Large Field to Wander In," and "The Samurai" are some of the chapters in which she addresses the mechanics of good writing. She even discusses what makes a good restaurant for writing and the etiquette of writing in cafes and restaurants.

These tips and techniques are all valuable advice, but what really makes the book special is Goldberg's philosophy about writing. Interspersed throughout are anecdotes from her own experience and quotes from her Buddhist mentor that encourage you to find your own road and follow it, give up the "goody-two-shoes" approach to writing and trust yourself. For example, in "Tap the Water Table," she quotes Zen master, Katagiri Roshi:

Katagiri Roshi said, "Capability is like a water table below the surface of the earth." No one owns it, but you can tap it. You tap it with your effort and it will come through to you. So just practice writing, and when you learn to trust your voice, direct it. If you want to write a novel, write a novel. If it's essays you want or short stories, write them. In the process of writing them, you will learn how. You can have the confidence that you will gradually acquire the technique and craft you need.

In a later chapter, she writes:

Basically, if you want to become a good writer, you need to do three things. Read a lot, listen well and deeply, and write a lot. And don't think too much. Just enter the heat of words and sounds and colored sensations and keep your pen moving across the page.

On other topics such as jealousy, loneliness and engendering compassion, you'll find her advice beneficial whether you aspire to be a writer or not.

Although Writing Down the Bones was not written specifically for young people, Goldberg has taught writing to a variety of groups, including juvenile delinquents, nuns, third-graders, college students, and Sunday-night writing groups. No matter what your age or station in life, if you have ever wanted to be a writer, Writing Down the Bones will help you get there.

* * *

Publisher:

Purchase Writing Down the Bones
from your local bookstore,
or order it from Powell's Books or Amazon