A guide designed for everyone who writes or wants to write. Goldberg teaches a Zen-like method that aims to take the reader to the source of creative power. Advice includes: finding time to write; discovering a personal style; making statements come alive; and how to overcome writer's block.
Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life
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Wild Mind vibrates with kindness, truth and courage. The words lift off the page. As I read, my world got bigger. Natalie Goldberg is a superb teacher (Laura Davis, co-author of The Courage to Heal )
Wakes you up like a cross between morning coffee and a friendly Zen master (Jack Kornfield, author of A Path With Heart ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Wakes you up like a cross between morning coffee and a friendly Zen master (Jack Kornfield, author of A Path With Heart ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Book Description
Natalie Goldberg's classic book on the techniques, skills and art of creative writing
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
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First Sentence
For fifteen years now, at the beginning of every writing workshop, I have repeated the rules for writing practice. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
For fifteen years now, at the beginning of every writing workshop, I have repeated the rules for writing practice. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
61 of 62 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Natalie brings a unique perspective to the art of writing. If you can get onto her wavelength - and the way she writes makes this spectacularly easy - then this book will open up all sorts of hidden doors and pathways in you that you never even knew existed.
The chapters are very short and snappy - rarely more than 2-3 pages - and each one gives you something to try out, to play with. She mixes personal anecdotes with Zen teachings and a wealth of experience to make your neurons leap and your synapses crackle. A few weeks into regular 'writing practice' I heard a song lyric which reminded me of something I'd heard in the past few days. I puzzled for some time over who on Earth might have said that to me before realising it was one of the characters in a short story I was working on! I've NEVER before had the experience of mixing my own fiction with real life! Could be psychosis, but I prefer to think of it as a deepening of the creative process ;-)
If you're even semi-serious about turning out some great stuff, and breaking out of your fixed patterns of thought and action, go get Wild Mind....and enjoy the ride!
46 of 47 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Goldberg's excercises will introduce a beginner to structured writing practice, and stimulate the jaded or professional writer out of any blocks they may have. Each chapter gives an insight into the writer's problems, routines, habits, and is ended with a practical excercise designed to challenge our imaginations and abilities. Goldberg's practice of Zen Budhism is woven through her text, and used to illustrate ways we can tame our distracted 'monkey minds' and get down to the daily practice that is necessary to produce work of any standard. A must for all writers - anywhere.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Having already read "Writing down the bones" by the same author, which I often return to for ideas for writing and life, I found this second book on the same subject more personal and revealing about the author, but full of the same short, pithy and very usable tips. This time there is much more about not just the mechanics of writing and the thought processes that go into it, but what it has been like for this particular writer, the sacrifices she has made, conversations she had with writer friends and others who followed other diciplines, and the spectacular power which writing and being honest about ourselves can unleash in other areas of our lives. Not only did this book renew my interest in truly creative writing ( as my notebooks were becoming more and more like straight factual journals), it also got me wanting to take up running again after a long interlude, to see if the confidence that came from writing could help me there! I suspect I will be giving this book as a present in the near future, there is something in it for anyone with an interest in any art or discipline.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I love this book and have recommended it to many people. It is an extremely interesting read and the "Try This" exercises really invite you into the writing process.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Mr
Format:Kindle Edition
This is one of the rare books on writing that focuses on the creative process in preference to the editing process. The act of creation is urgent, passionate and messy yet 99% of the writing books out there ignore this and only describe rules on editing.
Editing is like shaping clay but the creative process is about getting the clay out of the ground in the first place by getting knee deep in the mud.
The author challenges you to answer the question: what is it I'm really trying to say? Then she tries to turn you into a writing machine so furious that your inhibitions and ego are torched by the heat of your pen.
The author memoirs her journey of self discovery exploring Zen Buddhism and using writing as a meditative practice. This book helped reveal the greatest lesson about writing I've ever learned: honesty is the key to great writing.
AVOID THE AUDIO DOWNLOAD VERSION FROM [audiobobbly - amazon won't let me write the website in full] : I loved the paperback so much I paid for the audio download and it's the poorest quality recording I've ever downloaded from anywhere. It's like the source was an audio cassette found in the back of a Ford Escort that was awaiting crushing in a junk yard. Lumpy, mushy recording that detracts from the wonderful content. Do yourself a favour and get a quality recording from the author's own website - I did.
Editing is like shaping clay but the creative process is about getting the clay out of the ground in the first place by getting knee deep in the mud.
The author challenges you to answer the question: what is it I'm really trying to say? Then she tries to turn you into a writing machine so furious that your inhibitions and ego are torched by the heat of your pen.
The author memoirs her journey of self discovery exploring Zen Buddhism and using writing as a meditative practice. This book helped reveal the greatest lesson about writing I've ever learned: honesty is the key to great writing.
AVOID THE AUDIO DOWNLOAD VERSION FROM [audiobobbly - amazon won't let me write the website in full] : I loved the paperback so much I paid for the audio download and it's the poorest quality recording I've ever downloaded from anywhere. It's like the source was an audio cassette found in the back of a Ford Escort that was awaiting crushing in a junk yard. Lumpy, mushy recording that detracts from the wonderful content. Do yourself a favour and get a quality recording from the author's own website - I did.
By Jill Brooks
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Use this book to dip in and out of nearly every day. Such wise practical encouraging words to the starting-out writer. Not at all bothered by the odd smudge - feels right that it has passed hands.
By kaz
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is great for dipping into and thinking out of the box. Provides great jumping off points for writing.
By A. Halfacre
Format:Paperback
Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer within is the only writing book I own that makes me want to pick up a pen on reading it. Wild Mind is a good sequel with lots of guidance about the mechanics of writing well and many exercises to try. You'll get the most value from this guide if you experiment with the suggestions she makes. What rings through loud and clear though is 'shut up and write'. Writing problems, she makes clear, are most often solved by writing not by agonising, thinking or worrying but by regular movement of pen on paper. A stimulating guide to keeping on with your writing.
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