Book Review # 2

Sally Harrold, Oregon Writing Project

Natalie Goldberg. Writing Down the Bones.: Freeing the Writer Within Boston: Shambhala, 1986.

Book's Central Points:

In a series of very short chapters, Goldberg sketches a path to becoming a writer: daily practice, trusting your own voice and perceptions, focusing on the moment and its details, turning off the internal editor--all as ways of freeing the writer within us. Drawing on her experience in Zen Buddhism, she offers suggestions about writing, points out common pitfalls, and gives us permission to write and to fail. Goldberg's writing models what she teaches: it is clear and focused, with a strong voice.

How I'll Use the Book:

1. I'll use the book as a reference book when I teach my autobiographical writing class. I've noted chapters that I have found especially helpful. Although most of the writers are seniors and have come to some of Goldberg's insights, most also are anxious about their writing and probably don't apply these insights to their writing. So this text can be particularly useful, I think, for this audience. I'll use quotes from the book to convey Goldberg's approach and assign specific chapters.

2. In addition, Goldberg has some specific writing topics I'll suggest.

3. I'll also use some of the short exercises Goldberg describes. After we read our papers aloud and respond to each other's work, we also do an exercise in class, to model an invention or revision strategy. Goldberg's will work well here (see pp. 220-22; 61-65; 87-89).

How Others Might Use the Book:

I think others would use the book much as I would, because it is an approach, not a blueprint. It's a good book to have as a reference, as an orientation to writing, and as an illustration of good writing--humane, clear, and humorous.