Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

by Natalie Goldberg

“Don’t cross out, don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, and grammar; lose control, don’t think, don’t get logical, go for the jugular.” In other words, take the plunge.

“You have to give yourself the space to write a lot without a destination,”

Many people who want to write are unconsciously seeking peace, a coming together, an acknowledging of our happiness or an examination of what is broken, hoping to embrace and bring our suffering to wholeness.

You tell the truth and you depict it in detail:

“Trust in what you love, continue to do it, and it will take you where you need to go.” And don’t worry too much about security. You will eventually have a deep security when you begin to do what you want.

beginner’s mind is what we must come back to every time we sit down and write.

to the place where you are writing what your mind actually sees and feels, not what it thinks it should see or feel. It’s

Why else are first thoughts so energizing? Because they have to do with freshness and inspiration.

“I am free to write the worst junk in the world.”

My rule is to finish a notebook a month. (I’m always making up writing guidelines for myself.)

TAKES A WHILE for our experience to sift through our consciousness. For instance, it is hard to write about being in love in the midst of a mad love affair.

We have to look at our own inertia, insecurities, self-hate, fear that, in truth, we have nothing valuable to say. It is true that when we begin anything new, resistances

It is a good idea to have a page in your notebook where you jot down, as they come to you, ideas of topics to write about.

If you give your mind too much time to contemplate a beginning when you sit down to write, your monkey mind might meander over many topics and never quite get to putting a word on the page.

Don’t be abstract. Write the real stuff. Be honest and detailed.

don’t have to give them any rules about poetry. They live in that place already. Close to things.

Own anything you want in your writing and then let it go.

So just practice writing, and when you learn to trust your voice, direct it. If

They are empty and they run to teachers and classes to learn about writing. We learn writing by doing it. That simple.

Poems are taught as though the poet has put a secret key in his words and it is the reader’s job to find it. Poems are not mystery novels.

Writing is everything, unconditional.

You don’t have to be rigid about original detail.

The one that lives everything a second time. That sits down and sees their life again and goes over it. Looks at the texture and details.

Employers pay salaries for time. That is the basic commodity that human beings have that is valuable.

If you listen totally, your body fills with the music, so when you open your mouth the music automatically comes out of you.

Listening is receptivity. The deeper you can listen, the better you can write. You take in the way things are without judgment, and the next day you can write the truth about the way things are.

Stay on the side of precision; know your goal and stay present with it.

the best art almost becomes sentimental but doesn’t.

Stop! Really stop when someone is complimenting you. Even if it’s painful and you are not used to it, just keep breathing, listen, and let yourself take it in. Feel how good it is. Build up a tolerance for positive, honest support.

Our language is usually locked into a sentence syntax of subject/verb/direct-object.

You might want to take the first half of your sentence from a newspaper article and finish the sentence with an ingredient listed in a cookbook.

“Don’t tell, but show.”

Writing is not psychology. We do not talk “about” feelings. Instead the writer feels and through her words awakens those feelings in the reader.

I wrote “about” the story, secondhand. I didn’t enter it and make friends with it. I was outside it; therefore, I couldn’t take anyone else into it.

A writer is all at once everything—an architect, French cook, farmer—and at the same time, a writer is none of these things.

Talk is the exercise ground for writing.

That’s what being a lover is: stepping out of yourself, stepping into someone else’s skin.

Great lovers realize that they are what they are in love with.

If someone writes something great, it’s just more clarity in the world for all of us.

Let your words come from your belly.

Best come to writing whole with everything in you.

They didn’t just make statements and stand behind them: “This is beautiful.” “This is terrible.” They needed encouragement from outside themselves.

I made myself take out all vague, indefinite words and phrases. It felt as though I were pulling towels off my body, and I was left standing naked after a shower, exposing who I really was and how I felt.

Writing is the act of burning through the fog in your mind.

Only, be aware of your verbs and the power they have and use them in fresh ways. The more you are awake to all aspects of language, the more vibrant your writing will be.

But instead of reducing stimulation, the café atmosphere keeps that sensory part of you busy and happy, so that the deeper, quieter part of you that creates and concentrates is free to do so.

Also, please note: don’t forget to try writing in laundromats.

It is analogous to our mind’s fear of emptiness, so the mind constantly stirs up thoughts and dramas.

Creativity is just the opposite: it is a loss of control.

Underneath, while you write you are a little nervous, not knowing how to get to what you really need to say and also a little afraid to get there. Relax.