Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

by Natalie Goldberg

“Beginner’s mind, pen and

paper.” From there, it’s time to push off from the shore. “Keep your hand moving,” she commands. “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.

“Include original detail,” Natalie urges her students. Our lives are filled with details, like the ripe red tomato plucked from the vine. Natalie’s writing is filled with food, and her appetite for life gives us food for thought.

the actual practice: settling in at a coffeehouse, scrawling a topic on the notebook page, and putting the pen into action without stopping to think about what I was saying. At first I would go for ten-minute increments, then twenty or thirty, and then an hour at a stretch.

“Writers end up writing about their obsessions.”

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.

Think of writing as a lifetime relationship.

What crannies of untouched perception can you explore? What autumn was it that the moon entered your life? When was it that you picked blueberries at their quintessential moment? How long did you wait for your first true bike? Who are your angels? What are you thinking of? Not thinking of? What are you looking at? Not looking at? Writing can give you confidence, can train you to wake up.

I was in love with reading and literature. There were stories only I knew about my family,

about my first kiss, last haircut, the smell of sage on a mesa and my kinship with the flat plains of Nebraska. I had to get slow and dumb (not take anything for granted) and watch and see how everything connects, how you contact your thoughts and lay them down on paper.

Accept loss forever Be submissive to everything, open, listening

No fear or shame in the dignity of your experience, language, and knowledge Be in love with your life

Write your asses off.

“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.

THE BASIC UNIT of writing practice is the timed exercise.

Keep your hand moving. (Don’t pause to reread the line you have just written. That’s stalling and trying to get control of what you’re saying.) Don’t cross out. (That is editing as you write. Even if you write something you didn’t mean to write, leave it.) Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar. (Don’t even care about staying within the margins and lines on the page.) Lose control. Don’t think. Don’t get logical. Go for the jugular. (If something comes up in your writing that is scary or naked, dive right into it. It probably has lots of energy.) These are the rules.

First thoughts have tremendous energy. It is the way the mind first flashes on something. The internal censor usually squelches them, so we live in the realm of second and third thoughts, thoughts on thought, twice and three times removed from the direct connection of the first fresh flash.

First thoughts are also unencumbered by ego, by that mechanism in us that tries to be in control, tries to prove the world is permanent and solid, enduring and logical. The world is not permanent, is everchanging and full of human suffering. So if you express something egoless, it is also full of energy because it is expressing the truth of the way things are. You are not carrying the burden of ego in your expression, but are riding for moments the waves of human consciousness and using your personal details to express the ride.

Sit down with the least expectation of yourself; say, “I am free to write the worst junk in the world.” You have to give yourself the space to write a lot without a destination.

One of the main aims in writing practice is to learn to trust your own mind and body; to grow patient and nonaggressive.