Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer's Craft($13.00Value)

Description

In this long-awaited sequel to her bestselling books Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind , Natalie Goldberg takes us to the next step in the writing process: turning our flashes of inspiration—the thunder and lightning of creation—into a polished piece of work. Thunder and Lightning You've filled your notebooks, done your writing practice, discovered your original voice. Now what? How do you turn this raw material into finished stories, essays, poems, novels, memoirs? That is the subject of this unique and inspiring guide, which taps the same rich sources of intuition and individuality that have made Natalie Goldberg one of the most sought-after writing teachers of our time. Drawing on her own experience as a writer and a student of Zen, Natalie shows you how to develop a structure or plot that preserves all the odd, kinky turns of your one-of-a-kind mind and captures the completely authentic way you see the world. She tells you how to "get out of the way" and let your characters take on their own life. She shows you how to create a field big enough to allow your wild mind to wander—and then gently direct its tremendous energy into whatever you want to write. Here, too, is invaluable advice on how to overcome writer's block, how to deal with the fear of criticism and rejection, how to get the most from writing workshops and working with an editor, and how to learn from reading accomplished authors. With a generous helping of humor and compassion, she recounts her own mistakes on the way to publication—and how you can avoid the most common pitfalls of the beginning writer. And through it all there is a deep celebration of writing itself—not just as the means to an end, but as a path to living a deeper, more fully alive life. More musings from Natalie Goldberg on writing as a spiritual path, as "an authentic Zen way." Goldberg has some nice things to say about the importance of the process of writing. She recommends her students spend two years at writing "practice" before undertaking a specific project, so that they can "get in touch with their wild minds." The most inspired writing, she says, comes when one's conscious mind gets out of the way. Still, we are puzzled by Thunder and Lightning : is it really meant to show us how to turn "our flashes of inspiration ... into a polished piece of work," as the book jacket touts? It comes off more as a collection of Goldberg's ruminations on writing and reading. Goldberg tells us about her friend Julie's writing process. Another pal, Kate, talks about plot. We study Styron with Goldberg's workshop students and take a road trip through the South to try to figure out just how some of the poorest states in the union managed to produce so many great writers. There are some good stories here, and it's vaguely interesting to know what Nat likes to order when she does her café writing or lunches with her editors, but we end up desiring a little less wandering and a little more focus. --Jane Steinberg Fans of Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind will appreciate her latest pep talk for aspiring writers. A writing teacher who has a novel and two memoirs to her credit, Goldberg believes that the process of writing, like a thunderstorm, "manifests from nothing, changes everything and then is gone." One wonders how effectively one can teach such a process, and in fact Goldberg serves more as an evangelist for the writing than as a traditional instructor. This book, like the first two, is a collection of short essays interweaving Zen philosophy with the author's experiences as a writer, teacher, and student. She incorporates concepts presented in the earlier books but omits the details needed to implement them. Instead, she offers the standard advice for polishing one's work: use a thesaurus, don't take criticism personally, and find a mentor. Consider for purchase where Goldberg's previous books on writing have circulated.DSusan M. Colowick, North Olympic Lib. Syst., Port Angeles, WA Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. Fans of Goldberg's popular books on writing, Writing Down the Bones (1986) and Wild Mind (1990), will find much of interest in her latest effort. Full of suggestions about the writing life and the wide variety of techniques and strategies that can be brought to bear on the writing process, this book shows once again Goldberg's commitment to "writing practice" and to the value of tracing the diverse ways she and others discover and develop subject matter. She tells, for example, of how she became comfortable writing about sex, after reading passages from Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony : "I'd let sex be ordinary, connected to my life, knowledge and experience." She also tells of discovering the importance of voice, a familiar topic of writing workshops and books she had long avoided because she was afraid it would create an obstacle in her writing. A longtime Zen practitioner, Goldberg sees writing as "a place where we can