Subtitle: Freeing the Writer Within
Recommended to me by: finding it in a little free library
Natalie Goldberg combines writing practice and Zen practice in short chapters where she shares about her own writing adventures, and repeatedly admonishes the reader (or herself) to just sit down and write. I appreciated her ongoing willingness to sink into the depths of herself and write whatever showed up. The book veers between writing exercises, Zen wisdom, and her anxiety about eating too many brownies.
“A writer’s job is to make the ordinary come alive, to awaken to the specialness of simply being.”
“If you give yourself over to honesty in your practice, it will permeate your life.”
“We are good, and when our work is good, it is good. We should acknowledge it and stand behind it.”
I wonder if this book would have landed differently for me if I had read it when I was still writing and sending out an article each month. Since writing is not something I’m trying to make a living at, I don’t have the urgency or intensity around it that this book speaks to.
Recommended for people wrestling with being a writer as an identity, a practice, and/or a career.
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