Natalie Goldberg’s work has spanned various genres of writing, from memoir
writing to strict non-fiction and fiction, but her strongest material is seeped in ability to
connect with the creative process that all writers and artists must struggle through to
produce work. Author of Writing Down the Bones, her book, Wild Mind; Living the
Writer’s Life, is a more intimate guide to writing work that “gets to the jugular,” as my
late teacher and friend, Peter Christopher, used to say. A writer’s job may seem easy to
outside parties, but as Goldberg explains, and anyone who has tried to write anything
more than a letter can tell you, it takes a lot of work to make something that comes from
the mind look like anything more than a garbled mess. Wild Mind is a very structured
guide into developing those raw thoughts into a precise stream of words and work that
serves to connect the writer to whole of mankind.
What is a “wild mind?” Goldberg doesn’t present a short little book with quips
such as “write every day” or “write what you know,” rather, she explores the very raw
material that builds the rough free writes and drafts that are the building blocks of writing.
Her book is a journey, through her mind of course, but also through your own. Through a
series of exercises, writing prompts, reflection, and revisions, she takes readers through
the very fine steps of the creative process. As Yeats proposes in “Adam’s Curse,” the
work of a poet, writer, or artists is a curse similar Adam’s punishment. The artists toils as
does the rest of man, “constantly stitching and unstitching” hours of work because, “A
line will take us hours maybe; Yet if it does not seem a moment's thought,” all is for
nothing.
This is the central theme to Goldberg’s book, and the text itself flies by. The text
is neither long nor complicated, but it accomplishes more in short chapters and brief
exercises than whole volumes of textbooks. Interesting, useful, and carefully constructed,
Goldberg’s book is designed to teach by example. As the author grows as a person and a
writer, changing from student to teacher throughout, the reader grows as well. The book
is meant as an interactive guide, the words are read and then the activities are your own.
The free-writes approach a casual level, but work like keys to the mind, designed to open
specific emotions and memories within the practicing writer, freeing the wild
or “monkey” mind’ that primal and open part of our brain that we all share.
Wild Mind is not a book to pick up and read straight from the shelf, at least not for
most people. The text exists as a guide to improving upon the writing that comes out
from those who already have the desire. Goldberg doesn’t promise to make any writer
great, or to deliver fame, because she doesn’t seek fame herself. Like a character that
appears near the end of her narrative, a large biker who hangs himself from hooks to
experience and share in the pain of childbirth that women feel, Goldberg’s writing, and
the work of those her book will inspire, seeks only to grow in humanity. As she offers,
real writing isn’t meant to be a bestselling book or a quick read, but should approach the
hard edges of our emotions and lives, wear them down, and expose what’s beneath.
Much like Adam and Eve, cursed by their maker to toil and hurt to survive, we all feel the
same range of emotions, pains, and pleasures. It’s these connections that give us power
as a community of humans, and it’s writing’s power to expose those connections that give
it lasting worth in our lives.
http://www.amazon.com/Wild-
I have Writing Down The Bones around here somewhere. It's good. I haven't gotten a new writing book in a long time. Have to check this one out.
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