The Writing Goddess : Natalie Goldberg
If there is one book about writing — all kinds of writing — that you should read it’s Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writing Within by Natalie Goldberg.
Don’t worry, it’s short.
When I was in school, reading and writing provided me with the most challenge. Science, Math, Social Studies, etc. all came easy to me. None of those subjects, however, drew my interest. I thought they did at one point because, well, I was good at them — oddly enough especially math.
English class drew my interest — even though it never made me feel successful.
At one point I wanted more than anything to be a Mathematical Engineer because of a survey I took in 8th grade that told me it was my calling.
Surveys can be wrong. I’m now the complete opposite of that “destiny:” a middle school English teacher.
My initial interest in writing and English came to me through journalism. It was logical and appealed to my Math brain. After writing for my city newspaper, I decided that was most definitely not my cup of tea.
That wasn’t until my senior year of high school. That’s when my English teacher turned me towards Natalie Goldberg.
My English teacher showed me a copy of her pocket-sized version of this book. She brought it in from home, and that small gesture meant a lot to me. So, I went out to buy my own copy.
And, well, the writer within me was freed. (Sorry, that was too good an opportunity to pass up.)
I will probably write lots and lots of entries on this blog about Natalie Goldberg, but here are some things that still stick out to me (and that are highlighted and written all over and dog-eared in the copy of this book sitting right next to my desk) that I think matter most to what I am trying to accomplish now for teachers and for students and for writers.
“You should feel that you have permission to write the worst junk in the world and it would be okay.”
Writing isn’t about perfection. Writing is hard enough without the extra pressure to be perfect all the time within writing. Students feel that pressure when they write.
Give them time to make mistakes.
Give them time to vomit their thoughts onto paper without worrying if it sounds good or if the writing is good or if it looks good. Just let it be what it is, which I often aptly call “Brain Vomit.”
I always tell myself and my students that writing is never perfect; it just perfect enough in a certain time. It’s okay — especially at the first draft — if the writing isn’t perfect. It can and will get better.
First Thoughts: Trust them. Let them be what they are. “Don’t think.”
This point goes along with my first one, but this one is more important.
Why isn’t it number one, then? Who knows.
When writing, people — and so, so many students — are often held back from their first thoughts with things like: “it’s bad,” “it doesn’t sound right,” “that’s not what I’m supposed to be writing.”
I’ve heard them all.
You know what the thing is about first thoughts? Once you write them down, they are no longer thoughts clouding up your mind.
Write it down. It doesn’t have to be perfect when it comes out; “doubt is torture.”
Let it be what it is; “simply step out of the way and record your thoughts as they roll through you.”
Free up the space in your mind for better thoughts and write those first sometimes-awful, sometimes-scary, often-ridiculous thoughts down.
Don’t let the first thoughts hold you back. Write them down, move on, and make room for the good thoughts.
And tell your students that. Over and over and over and over and over…and over again.
In this lies my perhaps favorite piece of writing — and life — advice: “Allow yourself to be awkward.”
"The more you do it, the better you get at it.”
Practice makes perfect — even in writing.
It’s like a muscle. You need to train it.
It’s like a sport. You need to practice it if you want to make it into the big leagues.
(Also. It = writing. Sorry for somewhat-indefinite pronouns.)
“I remember…”
This isn’t so much a piece of advice as it is a place to start in all kinds of writing.
This is a sentence starter to use when the ideas aren’t coming, when you have “nothing to write about,” when you can’t nail down your thoughts.
Everyone has a memory.
Start there.
What do you remember?
“You don’t read about exercise to lose weight.”
As ironic as it is to my goals and purposes, you can’t learn how to write better by just reading or just by reading about writing.
You get better at writing by writing; “we learn writing by doing it.”
You can read as much as you want about it, but it won’t take affect until you put those thoughts into practice.
Side bar: One thing I love about Natalie Goldberg is all the references she makes to food. She loves analogies, and she loves food.
We are kindred spirits.
How to tell if your students are engaged in writing, a passage by Natalie Goldberg: “When I look around at people writing, I can tell just by their physical posture if they have broken through or not. If they did, their teeth are rattling around in their mouth, no longer tight in their gums; their hearts might be pounding hard or aching. They are breathing deeply. Their handwriting is looser, more generous, and their bodies are relaxed enough to run for miles.”
And you know what I always love in writing? When, halfway through a paragraph written by a student, I can barely read their writing.
It’s a tiny and beautiful piece of my job.
More life advice, a passage by Natalie Goldberg: “We want honest support and encouragement. When we receive it, we don’t believe it, but we are quick to accept criticism to reinforce our deepest beliefs that, in truth, we are no good and not really writers.”
Receiving compliments is hard.
In students, try to find one good piece of their writing. Boost them up.
Give them the joy of feeling successful in something as challenging as writing.
Try your best not to reaffirm their beliefs that they are bad writers; too many kids already believe that.
“Writing is the act of discovery.”
You don’t have to know how you feel about a certain topic right when you begin to write about it.
Start writing and see what comes out.
“It’s your life, begin from it.”
There’s more to come; I could write a book about what I learned from this book.
Happy writing. (And happy reading about writing.)
