Death to the Bones

Today, we say good-bye to Writing Down the Bones, and I must say that I am sad about it. I know that I did not read most of it somedays (more like skimmed), but it was still very helpful to read. I will be talking about my last three favorite chapters. I found that within this section I liked more of the chapters, and I am not sure why (I have an idea as to why, that will come later though). Natalie Goldberg goes through what she has been doing, though it is more for after the fact that you finished writing something, but continues to give you more ideas to keep those creative juices going.

In "A Meal You Love", she talks about writing about a favorite food that you love. Where were you eating it? Were you with other people? Describe that situation and the people you were with and just let free. Since you are writing about something you love, and not something that is forced, you will notice how much more carefree it is to write about. She also mentions in the next chapter "Use Loneliness" that you should embrace the loneliness and write about it. For me, when writing, it is an escape from that loneliness that I face a lot during my major droughts of it. I feel like I have met someone new, and that we will be close friends when writing from the loneliness, and I know that I connect more to the characters that I am writing about than if I was happier and writing that way.

One more chapter I liked (though I will talk about another one after this) would be "Writing Marathons." I have never experienced one before though, but a day of writing and sharing with people that you like and are in your own particular group of writing friends seems like a day I would like to go with. It makes no sense, I have weak wrists now so writing with pencil or pen tends to hurt after a while, but the reward is best. After a set time you read aloud what you have wrote, and no one says anything. No one critiques it (they might in their own set of writing), but you get to let your guard down and focus on just writing it all out. Have a topic of swimming (example from the book), I would write about the first time I swam completely, or maybe during the swimming conditioning during middle school and how the coach believed I could make it all the way to the olympics. It was empowering to hear that, and it is something that some writing lacks. The love of the piece, the way that you are writing about something that you know and continue it.

The last one I will write about will be "The Samurai" and how it is taking out whole pieces that just suck and "samurai" it out. While you let other people read your work, you will notice how many different opinions come about (which Ms. Goldberg talks about nicely in a different chapter, I believe), the point of the samurai is to be tough towards your work. You have to work through the parts that suck completely and find those pieces of gold. I think writing should do that at one point, which parts worked better with other parts, etc. The most important thing is to always claim your writing that you have completed.