 | An insightful guide written by poet and writing instructor, Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones offers wisdom for living life as well as tips for honing writing skills. It reminded me of The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. Both advocate daily writing sprints, and though I did none of the suggested exercises in either book, I did enjoy many inspirational gems in Writing Down the Bones. |
Some favorite excerpts:
…though death is howling at our backs and life is roaring at our faces, we can just begin to write, simply begin to write what we have to say.
- Don’t worry about your talent or capability: that will grow as you practice.
- We learn writing by doing it. That simple.
- The power is always in the act of writing. Come back to that again and again and again.
- You listen so deeply to the space around you that it fills you, and when you write, it pours out of you.
- Writing is a whole lifetime and a lot of practice.
- Take chances. You will succeed if you are fearless of failure.
- We are carried on the backs of all the writers who came before us.
- Become big and write the whole world into your arms.
- Go further than you think you can.
- You can start writing again at any minute. Let go of all your failures and sit down and write
- Writing can teach us the dignity of speaking the truth
- …when you go over your work, become a Samurai, a great warrior with the courage to cut out anything that is not present.
- See revision as “envisioning again.” If there are areas in your work where there is a blur or vagueness, you can simply see the picture again and add the details that will bring your work closer to your mind’s picture.
…though death is howling at our backs and life is roaring at our faces, we can just begin to write, simply begin to write what we have to say.
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