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| Author: Natalie Goldberg
Publisher: Shambhala
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $11.20
You Save: $2.80 (20%)
Rating:  168 reviews
Sales Rank: 3238
Media: Paperback
Edition: Expanded
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.7
ISBN: 1590302613
Dewey Decimal Number: 808
EAN: 9781590302613
Publication Date: December 6, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Review of Writing Down the Bones May 23, 2005
30 out of 34 found this review helpful
Natalie Goldberg's book on writing is more a reflection on her life as a writer, than an advice book for beginning writers. While her observations on her experiences provide an interesting glimpse into her life and the life of a writer, it can become quite irritating for the reader expecting a different type of work. The effect is the same as if one were to confuse say Weekend at Bernie's with Schindler's List. A perfectly enjoyable experience ruined by false expectations. At some point you tire of the hi-jinks.
The first chapter discusses materials to use while writing, but it is the second chapter that introduces the one major piece of advice for writer. "First Thoughts," as she calls what I learned as freewriting, is the process of spending a block of time, ten minutes, an hour, or any length, during which to write without pause, in an uninterrupted stream of consciousness. Ms. Goldberg stresses the importance of these first thoughts as a means of getting beyond the anxiety of writing well by writing anything. By doing so, the writer will create a lot of bad material, but possibly some good, and in any case, will at least have written. I agree whole heartedly with Ms. Goldberg on the importance of such practices, and the advice is well taken.
The problem is that although at some point the beginning writer wishes to advance beyond this stage, Ms. Goldberg's advice never really does. Variations on the theme of the First Thoughts, including where to write first thoughts, why to write first thoughts, and with whom to write first thoughts, fill the majority of the book. There are other pieces of advice, but these are mostly small or, at least in my opinion, pointless. In one chapter, she says to freewrite two or three lines of anything, then, using those words, rearrange them at random until you've filled half a page. Finally, add random punctuation. The purpose is to teach the writer to break out of standard syntax by allowing him to create sentences such as "Write I'm an mouth rather cream. Say eat ice and nothing dry! I an write rather say and; my goes cube because an there's." Call me an enemy of the avant garde, but that just doesn't appeal to me.
However, like I said, the majority of the book does not offer writing advice at all, but rather tells of Ms. Goldberg's experiences and thoughts as a writer. Many of her thoughts on the subject are shaped by her conversion to Zen Buddhism. I have a deep respect for the religion and understand that religion can influence a person's view of all things. I even looked forward to seeing an interesting new perspective on the subject of writing. Unfortunately, this perspective quickly becomes tiresome. The author quotes from her Zen teacher Katagiri Roshi way too much, and often on subjects with only the most tenuous connection to writing. By half way through the work, one gets the feeling that she is mainly interested in flaunting her Buddhism, and takes every opportunity to bring it up. Several chapters devolve from discussions of the writing process to ramblings on the interconnectedness of all things. While this is enjoyable in Transcendentalist poetry, it doesn't transfer well to the realm of writing advice.
To be fair, the book does devote two of the last three chapters to the processes of cutting and rewriting. However, after the rest of the book, they seem to be tacked on, added at the last minute, after the author realized she'd forgotten about them. The advice amounts to reread your notebooks, cut out all the stuff that doesn't have energy, and rewrite the piece. In writing about the importance of rereading your notebooks in their entirety, Ms. Goldberg recounts a time her class asked her to prove to them that she was capable of writing poorly. To do so, she opens her notebook to a random page and begins to read. To her surprise, it is not only not bad, but is in fact a deeply moving poem about leaving, and those who have passed out of her life, no doubt written in iambic pentameter and sonnet form, just off the top of her head. The point of the anecdote is that we often miss what's good in our writing at the time, but it just comes off as boastful, from the start with her students doubting that anything she writes could be less than brilliant. If you cannot freewrite for an hour and come up with two sonnets, four haiku, and a dirty limerick, one infers, then you ought not be writing.
After reading Writing Down the Bones, one is tempted to remark that Ms. Goldberg followed her own advice: she sat down for an hour or two and wrote down whatever came to mind, and, if not producing something brilliant, she at least produced something publishable. I, however, would not think of doing such a thing. Rather, I prefer to assume that the books faults are really her way of telling us that there is no piece of advice that can create good writing, no secret to brilliance. All one really can do is write, rewrite, and hope for the best. Either that, or she realized that if she gave up her secrets, she would be ruined by all the emerging new talents. If the latter is the case, I applaud her brilliant scheme, but declare that her secrets shall one day be mine; if the former, well then isn't she just so clever.
 Obvious "ten" for creative writing or even personal musings. October 29, 1997
27 out of 44 found this review helpful
Question for Ms Goldberg: I've gone through hundreds of ink cartridges to write pounds of scribbled text. Most of it is plain old junky practice writing which was the initial objective. But reading back through these rambling, Shaeffer-inked creations, I've found nuggets of inspiration. I mine my own gold to form short stories, essays and even the family Christmas letter. Your advice has allowed me to become a dedicated writer, but there is just one thing: When I spoke with Tobias Wolff at a recent book signing - his, not mine - he said that writing longhand definitely puts me into the minority. I know that using my computer would save a lot of time in transcribing, but it just doesn't seem to let the juices flow. The machinery interrupts my writing process, which ends up being a thinking and editing session. Natalie, why is this so? I guess I'll have to read it again to find out why, but that will be with pleasure. I remember gold on every page. It's simply the best book out there, teaching how writing can be as timeless and basic as meditation and prayer.
a guide to releasing your soul August 23, 2002
27 out of 28 found this review helpful
I bought this book on recommendations from other writers and journal keepers, but I was openly apprehensive that it would be just another "you can do it" or worse another pontification on the divine art of writing. I couldn't have been more wrong!Of all the how-to writing books I have read, all the while looking for that one filled with honest, practical advice to help shake loose my creativity free from the confines of English class rules and order, this is the best one out there. Natalie starts out telling you that it isn't an ordered process that fuels creativity. She lets you know up front that all those rules and "regulations" that you learned in every English class you ever took don't apply in real creativity. She takes you step by step, holding your hand thruout, thru a creative storm complete with exercises designed to frighten and enlighten. In the end you realize that you are, indeed, a creative person when not confined to the traditional definitions of creativity and art. I felt I could do anything, write anything, and create anything when I was done with this book. I read it straight thru in an afternoon and then went back over the period of a week and did the exercises. I still go back, months later, re-working the exercises, reading favourite chapters, and reminding myself of the wonderful wellspring of creativity in all of us. I highly recommend this book to anyone frustrated with the traditional "this is how to be creative" books that so many of us have trudged thru in desperate hopes of finding a single grain of enlightenment. Natalie gives it to you in page after page of insight, comfort, and freedom. You won't be disappointed - unless, of course, you really do like all those ridiculous rules and regulations.
 Unctuous drivel! April 28, 2001
22 out of 32 found this review helpful
Having actually been a part of a writer's workshop where "Bones" was prominently used, each workshop group had to two boxes of kleenex on the table--this is expressive writing gone amok--writing as therapy taken to a level of parody. "so it is good to be a little dumb when you want to write. You carry tha slow person inside you who needs time..." Not much different from "breathe deep the gathering gloom, watch lights fade from every room..." Hey, expressivism has it's place, but this kind of psycho-babble-new-age-mumbo-jumbo does little or nothing to build critical writing-thinking skills. Believe me, I know. Now, begin to write! Explore the little muchkin between your chakras and let go....PAH.
One more tool to get you writing December 24, 2000
19 out of 22 found this review helpful
The Artist's Way, Bird by Bird, and Writing Down the Bones all cover much of the same territory -- tell your truth; don't edit yourself silent; write for the joy of writing and not to become rich and famous; write every day; make time and space for yourself, for your writing. Anne Lamott and Natalie Goldberg are more earthy and witty about it than Julia Cameron is. I don't think that jealousy toward other writers is spiritually advanced, and I don't indulge it -- but occasionally I feel a twinge of it. Julia Cameron has some very useful ways of exploring that jealousy and learning from it. Anne Lamott and Natalie Goldberg make antic jokes about the horrible people who write when you can't, acknowledging the jealousy and defusing it. Natalie Goldberg also has a number of real writing exercises in her book, like "describe your relationship with inanimate objects." She has a wonderful way of leaving you at the end of every chapter firmly placed at a table with your pen and paper, eager to write.
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