Review: Writing Down the Bones
Review of Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg (30th Anniversary Edition)
Some books deliver their value in one reading. Others are more like tuning forks - you return to them periodically to recalibrate something.
This was my first reading, but I suspect that Natalie Goldberg’s “Writing Down the Bones“ belongs to the latter category, and the fact that it’s now in its 30th anniversary edition suggests I’m not alone in thinking so.
This is a book about writing as a practice. Not in the sense of “practice makes perfect,” but in the Zen sense of practice as a discipline, a meditation, even as a way of being.
Goldberg draws explicit parallels between writing and Zazen; both require showing up, staying present, and getting out of your own way. The monkey mind that really wants to chatter during meditation is the same one that tells you your writing is garbage before you’ve finished a sentence.
The repeating ethos of the book is just to get you to write; the practical heart is Goldberg’s “timed writing” method: keep your hand moving, don’t cross out, don’t worry about spelling or punctuation, lose control, don’t think, go for the jugular.
These rules sound simple, almost trivially so, until you actually try to follow them and discover how desperately your internal editor wants to intervene. The method is designed to bypass the censor and access what Goldberg calls “first thoughts” - the raw, unfiltered material that emerges before self-consciousness kicks in.
This does not mean that the raw material would necessarily be ‘good’ in any real sense of the word; but it does provide the raw ore to mine and refine from.
There’s something almost embarrassingly obvious about many of Goldberg’s insights, like writing about your obsessions, giving things their proper names, trusting your own weird mind - yet they’re the kind of obvious that needs periodic reminding.
We know these things, and then we forget them, and then we need someone to say them again in a way that makes us actually feel them. This is where we get to the ‘repeated exposure needed’ hunch of this book.
The book’s structure mirrors its philosophy: short chapters, loosely connected, more like a collection of dharma talks than a systematic treatise. This makes it easy to dip into but also means it lacks the cumulative argument-building of more structured works. This is not a highly structured “How to Write Great” manual with clear steps and a guaranteed process for excellence. Some readers will find this freeing; others may want more scaffolding.
For anyone who writes, or wants to write, and has ever felt paralyzed by their own perfectionism, this is essential reading. Not because Goldberg has magic answers, but because she has the right questions and gives, explicitly and repeatedly, the permission you didn’t know you needed. It’s also arguably a classic that I am way late in discovering, but better late than never!
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Dog-ear index: 10
Who is it for: Writers. If writing doesn’t interest you, skip it - unless you want to understand how to support the writers in your life. For those who do write: this is for anyone who needs permission to write badly on the way to writing truly; anyone who suspects writing might be a spiritual practice but hasn’t found the language for it; perfectionists who need to be told, repeatedly, to just keep the hand moving.
[reminder: I highlight important parts of the books I read, and dog-ear the really important pages. The dog-ear index is simply the average number of dog-eared pages per 100 pages]
Product link for reference only; please support your local bookstore where possible: https://www.amazon.com.au/Writing-Down-Bones-Natalie-Goldberg/dp/161180308X