Title: The True
Secret of Writing: Connecting Life with Language
Author: Natalie Goldberg
Review: At first I thought this book was a bit to
new-age zenny for me…was I wrong. The
author talks about meditation, reading workshops, walking, sitting, authors she
has worked with and everyday folks like you and me. She talks about writing and how it is in you
and you need to get it out and write.
Writing can be therapeutic and cathartic. I feel that way about writing and was
surprised how much I enjoyed reading about what another writer thinks and
feels. You do not have to be published
to be a writer. We all have something to
say and even if we are the only ones who read it….write it….write it and love
what you wrote. Write about life, love,
hurts, dreams, whatever you want.
I think anyone who writes will love this book. So much information and so much to love about
this book and writing, if you want to write…read this book. If you do write…read this book. I plan to share this book with other writers
I know and I hope they enjoy it as much as I did.
“Basically, the most raw, deep truth is shut up and write,” she says. “There’s no such thing as a writer’s block. If you’re having trouble writing, well, pick up the pen and write. No matter what, keep that hand moving. Writing is really a physical activity.” Natalie Goldberg
“Basically, the most raw, deep truth is shut up and write,” she says. “There’s no such thing as a writer’s block. If you’re having trouble writing, well, pick up the pen and write. No matter what, keep that hand moving. Writing is really a physical activity.” Natalie Goldberg
Published: Expected publication: March 19th 2013 by
Atria Books
ISBN: 9781451641264
Pages: 256
Quick Rating: 5
out of 5 stars
Where I got the book:
Sent from the publisher for review.
Synopsis: Sit.
Walk. Write. These are the barest bones of Natalie Goldberg’s revolutionary
writing and life practice, which she presents here in book form for the first
time. A whole new slant on writing that she developed since the publication of
her classic Writing Down the Bones, True Secret workshops have been limited
until now to small, intensive groups at a remote center in the rural Southwest.
In The True Secret of Writing, Goldberg makes this popular seminar available to
any reader. The True Secret is for everyone, like eating and sleeping. It
allows you to discover something real about your life, to mine the rich
awareness in your mind, and to ground and empower yourself. Goldberg guides you
through your own personal or group retreat, illuminating the steps of sitting
in silent open mind, walking anchored to the earth, and writing without
criticism. Just as Goldberg cuts through her students’ resistance with her
no-nonsense instruction—“Shut up and write”—the True Secret cuts to the core of
realizing yourself and your world.
The capstone to forty years of teaching, The True Secret of
Writing is Goldberg’s Zen boot camp, her legacy teaching. Stories of Natalie’s
own search for truth and clarity and her students’ breakthroughs and insights
give moving testament to how brilliantly her unique, tough-love method works.
Beautiful homages to the work of other great teachers and observers of mind,
life, and love provide further secrets and inspiration to which readers will
return again and again.
In her inimitable way, Goldberg will inspire you to pick up
the pen, get writing, and keep going. The True Secret of Writing will help you
with your writing—and your life.
Author Bio: Natalie Goldberg lived in Brooklyn until she
was six, when her family moved out to Farmingdale, Long Island, where her
father owned the bar the Aero Tavern. From a young age, Goldberg was mad for
books and reading, and especially loved Carson McCullers's The Ballad of the
Sad Cafe , which she read in ninth grade. She thinks that single book led her
eventually to put pen to paper when she was twenty-four years old. She received
a BA in English literature from George Washington University and an MA in
humanities from St. John's University.
Goldberg has painted for as long as she has written, and her
paintings can be seen in Living Color: A Writer Paints Her World and Top of My
Lungs: Poems and Paintings. They can also be viewed at the Ernesto Mayans
Gallery on Canyon Road in Sante Fe.
A dedicated teacher, Goldberg has taught writing and
literature for the last thirty-five years. She also leads national workshops
and retreats, and her schedule can be accessed via her website:
nataliegoldberg.com
In 2006, she completed with the filmmaker Mary Feidt a one-hour
documentary, Tangled Up in Bob, about Bob Dylan's childhood on the Iron Range
in Northern Minnesota. The film can be obtained on Amazon or the website
tangledupinbob.com.
Goldberg has been a serious Zen practitioner since 1974 and
studied with Katagiri Roshi from 1978 to 1984.
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