Greg Cantwell

OWP July 2001

Book Report #4

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

"A writer's job is to make the ordinary come alive, to awaken ourselves to the specialness of simply being." (p.99) The main messages of this book apply to many different things in life. In my art lessons, I endlessly try to get students to concentrate on a specific part of a scene and explore it. The tendency is to look at a still life and draw every part of it in the very center of the piece of paper. I try to get them to look at the still life in a new way- choose just a part of it and have that part fill the entire piece of paper. That way, they can explore that piece in detail and really understand what is going on there. The results are sometimes successful, however, many students still try to squeeze everything they see on the piece of paper and do not resolve any of it very well. They do not see the relationship between objects and light and the world. This will come with more careful teaching and practice. Natalie Goldberg uses her book to show that the writer can learn to view the world in a new and more careful way through practice and dedication.

She is a poet and the emphasis of her book is how to be a poet. You must have many notebooks and free write in them every day. You must not slow down or edit, but just write. This is at the expense of all other things: relationships, work, and children. The drive to create must come from inside and the artist must be completely dedicated so that a bunch of junk can be written, which will allow for great things to grow out of the compost of the pile. This is fine for those who enjoy suffering. Others can pick and choose from the many ideas in her book and apply them as the individual sees fit.

The main thrust of the book that can be taken to the writing desk or to the classroom is that to write well, one must practice. Just like for a football game where a team practices many days for a single game, so too must a writer practice the craft of writing. From honest expression, a writer can extract honest writing, which will have value. Being an artist is a struggle, but the struggle, she argues, is worth it.