Wild Mind - Natalie Goldberg
If you are in need of a reminder to breathe, sit, and write, Wild Mind is that good reminder.
Tone - Friendly, compassionate, and confident like a good friend confiding in you
What - Short personal anecdotes on writing life with advice and writing prompts sprinkled throughout
Who - Natalie Goldberg is a renowned writing instructor and author of Writing Down the Bones
Read it When - You are trying to balance your writing practice with the rest of your life, you are feeling worn thin and need to reinvigorate your writing.
% on Topic - Medium - Lots of personal anecdotes that wrap back into writing advice
Sitting in the back of a van from the airport to Santa Fe, New Mexico, I told the driver I was there for a writing conference*. “Oh, with the writer. What's her name? The Zen lady? Or the other one who does all the walking?” It took me a moment to connect who he was talking about. The “one who does all the walking" is of course Julia Cameron of The Artist’s Way. And therefore “the Zen Lady” must be Natalie Goldberg. I hadn’t connected that they both live in Santa Fe until just that moment. And having read Wild Mind for the first time just this past week, it is clear how that would be the way people describe her.
If you have had any kind of writing instruction in the past 30 years, you have heard some of Natalie Goldberg’s writing advice. Keep your hand moving. Lose control. Be specific. Don’t think. Go for the jugular. She is not the inventor of the timed writing exercise, but her books are one part of the reason they are so common. The other part is that timed writing just works. Like all writing advice there is something basic and universal about it. And like a lot of “obvious” things it is helpful to have someone point them out to you. Because we all need to be reminded of the basics sometimes.
Wild Mind: Living the Writing Life is Goldberg’s second book on writing after Writing Down the Bones, and it follows closely in form but expands the content into advice and meditations on living a life as a writer. Still present are the almost koan-like short chapters, part memoir, part advice, confessional and confident and salient. This book adds “Try This” sections at the end of each chapter, with specific writing exercises. And while Bones covers topics like getting started, finding your voice, and learning to sustain your writing, Wild Mind takes on the topics of a writer already deep in the work. Finding the time to write. Procrastination. How to read in front of a group and not feel like a ninny. Finding community. What to do when your writer self won’t speak to you.
Goldberg's writing is full of quiet wisdom. Is that a cliché for someone who pactices Zen? Yes. But still, in this case it is true. This book is full of little nuggets you might want to tape to a wall, like:
“It's okay to embark on writing because you think it will get you love. At least it gets you going, but it doesn't last. After a while you realize that no one cares that much. Then you find another reason: money. You can dream on that one while the bills pile up. Then you think: "Well, I'm the sensitive type. I have to express myself." Do me a favor. Don't be so sensitive. Be tough. It will get you further along when you get rejected.
Finally, you just do it because you happen to like it.”
and
“We never graduate from first grade. Over and over, we have to go back to the beginning. We should not be ashamed of this. It is good. It's like drinking water; we don't drink a glass once and never have to drink one again. We don't finish one poem or novel and never have to write one again. Over and over, we begin. This is good. This is kindness. We don't forget our roots.”
As I was reading, straight through with the intent to review the book, it occurred to me that I was not getting the intended experience. This is a book meant to be absorbed slowly. Maybe one chapter a day or whenever you have the time to write. You could use it as a desk companion to your daily journaling, or a set of writing warm up prompts. However you use it, take the time to sit down and do the exercises. They are an intrinsic part of the experience.
If you are a writer just starting out, I would say to start with Writing Down the Bones. Simply because it is that basic starting point. But if you have been writing for a while, and are in need of a reminder to breathe, sit, and write, Wild Mind is that good reminder.
*I was attending the Writer Unboxed Unconference, which was a fantastic experience.
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