Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within"Hundreds of books are around that tell how to avoid bad writing. Here is one that tells how to create good writing. What a pleasant surprise. The secret of creativity Natalie Goldberg makes clear, is to subtract rules for writing, not add them. It's a process of "uneducation" rather than education. Most people are baffled at how to teach this, since teaching and "uneducation" appear contradictory. But Natalie's experience in Zen meditation, which is essentially a subtractive process, has provided her insights. Proof that she knows what she's talking about is abundant in her own sentences. They flow with speed and grace and accuracy and simplicity. It looks easy to a reader, but experienced writers know it is the hardest writing of all. It's the simple style of a Zen archer who looks like he's not even aiming, yet sends arrow after arrow to the bull's-eye time after time."--Back cover. |
Contents
Beginners Mind Pen and Paper | 5 |
Writing as a Practice | 11 |
A List of Topics for Writing Practice | 19 |
Copyright | |
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alive Allen Ginsberg become begin booth breathing café cake Chögyam Trungpa color deep dreams energy everything feel felt Gerald Stern give haiku hand moving heart hour inside Jack Kerouac Katagiri Roshi Keep your hand Kinhin Lama Foundation listen lives look Louis Sullivan marathon Mexico mind Minnesota Minnesota Zen Center minutes morning Natalie Natalie Goldberg need to say never notebook novel obsessions Okay once ourselves Owatonna paper piece poem poet poetry R. H. Blyth remember reread restaurant Russell Edson sauté sense sentence short stories someone space stay step stop street talk teach tell there's things thoughts told topic trust truth voice walk want to write week whole William Carlos Williams wonderful words worry writing group writing practice written wrote zazen