A review by amymo73
Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg
4.0
It was 2005 when I went to Women's Quest and one of the staff members, Diane, recommended I read this book. I was wanting to write, not just newspaper articles but WRITE stories and novels and poetry and books. I promptly bought the book. It arrived. I put it on my bookshelf. It pretty much sat there ever since.
As I take up new writing project, I've been thinking a lot about that Women's Quest trip and the leap of faith I took that jump started my belief that really, somewhere inside, was an athlete who had a lot to teach me. So as I work on that project, I pulled out my copy of Writing Down the Bones and began to read.
I read straight through although you could turn to any chapter, read it, and use it as a writing prompt. I've combined the notion morning pages with some of her writing prompts as a way to warm up my words each day.
I found myself old-school underlining in the book. Many of the ideas were not new to me, but presented in a fresh way at a time when I needed the reminder.
"Writers, when they write, need to approach things for the first time each time."
"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."
"Stay with the original work. Stay with your original mind and write from it."
"Even miracles are mundane happenings that an awakened mind can see in a fantastic way."
"If we see their lives and festivals as fantastic and our lives as ordinary, we come to writing with a sense of poverty. We must remember that everything is ordinary and extraordinary."
"You never leave who you are. If you are a writer when writing, you are also a writer when you are cooking, sleeping, walking. ... You can't divorce yourself from parts of yourself."
"There seems to be a gap between the greatness we are capable of and the way we see ourselves and, therefore, see our work."
As I take up new writing project, I've been thinking a lot about that Women's Quest trip and the leap of faith I took that jump started my belief that really, somewhere inside, was an athlete who had a lot to teach me. So as I work on that project, I pulled out my copy of Writing Down the Bones and began to read.
I read straight through although you could turn to any chapter, read it, and use it as a writing prompt. I've combined the notion morning pages with some of her writing prompts as a way to warm up my words each day.
I found myself old-school underlining in the book. Many of the ideas were not new to me, but presented in a fresh way at a time when I needed the reminder.
"Writers, when they write, need to approach things for the first time each time."
"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."
"Stay with the original work. Stay with your original mind and write from it."
"Even miracles are mundane happenings that an awakened mind can see in a fantastic way."
"If we see their lives and festivals as fantastic and our lives as ordinary, we come to writing with a sense of poverty. We must remember that everything is ordinary and extraordinary."
"You never leave who you are. If you are a writer when writing, you are also a writer when you are cooking, sleeping, walking. ... You can't divorce yourself from parts of yourself."
"There seems to be a gap between the greatness we are capable of and the way we see ourselves and, therefore, see our work."