Writing Down the Bones

I've just finished the assigned reading Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, first half of our first assignment, and  I have to say it evoked some strong negative feelings in me. I quickly got tired of her cosmic point of view, quotes from her Zen master and, what I felt, was a somewhat presumptuous attitude toward how other people conduct themselves (particularly in the instance of the fat friend buying exercise books or the speculation on alcoholic writers).

With all the negativity I'd been building up squared away I can say that the advice was very good and much of it rung true with me and, as Goldberg says in the beginning of the book, can be applied to nearly any pursuit, not just writing (though I'll discuss it from that perspective). Writing what you know and love, learning not to censor yourself, practice, focusing on detail; all are just a few of the simple points we often forget to exercise.

I particularly liked the passage on artistic stability where she discusses the piles of notebooks, filled mostly with junk writing, and the neighbor who finds confidence through reading them. It's about recognizing your flaws and insecurities, coming to terms with them, and using them to make our writing that much better. I've spent time recently trying to deal with my flaws, particularly involving depression and low self esteem. Seeing that other people, my close friends and people I admire, have similar or even identical problems filled me with the confidence to believe I could overcome my own flaws. I hope to apply such lessons to my writing.