Featured book:

Goldberg, Natalie, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, Boulder, Shambhala Publications, Inc., 2016. (Original publication 1986)

What this book meant to me as a new writer:

Are your children wild for something to do? When my son was young, we moved and didn’t know anyone, a situation much like today’s epidemic-imposed social isolation. We invented a game using ruled paper, pens, and a timer from the game Scattergories, but any cell phone timer would work. Sitting at the kitchen table, we took turns setting the timer for three minutes and calling out a topic like clouds or juice or music or glass, anything that came to mind. When the timer started, we wrote as fast as we could until the buzzer sounded. The combination of time crunch and random topic was energizing. We surprised each other with the resulting words and stories. It was fun, but it also shook loose the act and the art of writing.

The idea for this exercise came from a combination of suggestions in Natalie Goldberg’s book, Writing Down the Bones. Designed to reach the aspiring writer, her words encourage beginners to try new things to get our stories up and moving. She has many suggestions on how to do this. If you are new to writing or need practice dipping inside and pushing ahead with a story, I think you will find the help you need in Writing Down the Bones.

Goldberg helps us bypass our internal censors and elicit what we truly see and feel. She compares writing to Zen. Meditation involves keeping the body still no matter what emotions rage inside. In writing, we put pen to paper and keep going, no matter what emotions we experience. The writer channels them onto the page.

It’s strange how things come together in unexpected ways. Last week, I took a break from drafting this review to help my husband clear out some boxes in his office. I found the pages my son and I wrote over twenty years ago. A Zen moment?

A closer look at the book:

Writing Down the Bones can be found in numerous places, including Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and www.shambhala.com, as an eBook, audiobook, paperback, or hard copy. On a road trip to Texas earlier this year, while shopping in Southern Methodist University’s Barnes & Noble bookstore, I picked up a 30^th Anniversary Edition in paperback.

The chapters are brief, a few pages each, resulting in a book you can savor over months. Each reading gives new insight, a new way to consider the act of writing.

In the chapter, “First Thoughts,” she says, “The basic unit of writing practice is the timed exercise. You may time yourself for ten minutes, twenty minutes, or an hour. It’s up to you.”

Here is an excerpt from the chapter, “Spontaneous Writing Booths,” regarding bazaars, carnivals, and rummage sales. “Don’t think you have nothing to contribute. Simply set up a spontaneous writing booth. All you need is a pile of blank paper, some fast-writing pens, a table, a chair, and a sign saying, ‘Poems on Demand’ or ‘Poems in the Moment’ or ‘You name the subject, I’ll write on it.’”

I keep a journal, and lately, I write about the things I’m doing for the first time because we are staying at home during the Coronavirus outbreak. Goldberg says to write freely every day. “After you have filled a whole notebook in writing practice (perhaps it took you a month), sit down and reread the entire notebook as though it weren’t yours…Suddenly you are sitting in your chair fascinated by your own mundane life.” Don’t miss this opportunity to write a piece of your own experience during this historic era. In my home, for example, we order groceries to be delivered, something we have never done before. We take lawn chairs to our front yard and chat with neighbors across the street, also out in their lawn chairs. We have an on-line happy hour with friends across town. We put stuffed animals in our windows to entertain neighborhood children out on walks. I am looking forward to reading my own journal a year or two from now, when this will be an amazing memory.

Writing Down the Bones is filled with ideas. If you have a favorite passage or gem of wisdom, something you found especially helpful, please comment and share!