50 Lessons From Writing Down The Bone by Natalie Goldberg

Natalie Goldberg is an American author who has written fifteen books but is best known for her writing advice book Writing Down The Bones. 

In this book, Goldberg gives advice that will not only help the aspiring writers, but the seasoned authors as well. Her practices will give you an in-depth look into her life, and her practices, as well as give you a whole new outlook on different parts of life. 

While this book has many important lessons to be taken from it, here are fifty lessons that stuck out to me and may help you if you need a push in your writing life.

1. Set a timer and write. Keep Your Hand Moving.

2. Write whether you want to or not. Don't wait around for inspiration or a deep desire.

3. Trust in your own voice and be present in the moment. 

4. Trust and believe in the process. 

5. If you are not afraid of the voices inside you, you will not fear the critics outside you.

6. Shut up, sit down, and write

7. Ignore your inner editor– they're a jerk

8. If you want to write a novel, write a novel. You learn by doing

9. Writing is a whole lifetime and a lot of practice.

10. An obsession for peace is good. But then be peaceful. Don't just think about it. An obsession for writing is good. But then write.

11. Use original detail in your writing

12. Writing– is ninety percent listening.

13. Once you have learned to trust your own voice and allowed the creative force inside you to come out… You have the basic tools to fulfill your writing dream.

14. Don't tell readers what to feel.

15. Talk is the exercise ground for writing.

16. We always worry that we are copying someone else, that we don't have our own style. Don't worry writing is a communal act.

17. Writing is not just writing. It is also having a relationship with other writers.

18. Kill the idea of the lone, suffering artist. We suffer anyway as human beings. Don't make it any harder on yourself.

19. Forget yourself. Disappear into everything you look at.

20. You never leave who you are. If you are a writer when writing, you are also a writer when you are cooking, sleeping, walking.

21. Writing is the act of burning through the fog in your mind. Don't carry the fog out on paper. Even if you are not sure of something, express it as though you know yourself. With this practice, you eventually will.

22. When you select a cafe to write in, you must establish a relationship. Go hungry so that you will want to eat.

23. If you want a room to write in, just get a room. Don't make a big production out of it. If it doesn't leak, has a window, heat in the winter, then put in your desk, bookshelves, a soft chair, and start writing.

24. In the middle of the world, make one positive step. In the center of chaos, make one definitive act. Just write. Say yes, stay alive, be awake. Just write. Just write. Just write.

25. If you want to write, finally you'll find a way no matter what.

26. Go further than you think you can.

27. So when we write and begin with an empty page and a heart unsure, a famine of thoughts, a fear of no feeling–just begin from there.

28. If you want to write, write. If one book doesn't get published, write another one. Each one will get better because you have all the more practice behind you.

29. Don't listen to doubt.

30. Let go of all your failures and sit down and write something great. Or write something terrible and feel great about it.

31. Why do I write? It's a good question. Ask it of yourself every once in a while.

32. Writing is deeper than therapy. You write through your pain, and even your suffering must be written out and let go of.

33. We are not writing for money and acceptance– although that would be nice.

34. Let go completely. Let yourself totally be a writer from now on.

35. In order to improve your writing, you have to practice just like any other sport.

36. Don't just put in your time. That is not enough. You have to make a great effort.

37. Writing can teach us the dignity of speaking the truth, and it spreads out from the page into all of our life, and it should

38. Don't set up a system "have to write every day" - and then numbly do it.

39. See the big picture. You are committed to writing or finding out about it. Continue under all circumstances.

40. All writers, at some level, want to be known. That's why they speak. Here is a chance to bring your reader deeper into your heart.

41. We are good, and when our work is good, it is good. We should acknowledge it and stand behind it.

42. You should listen to what people say. Take in what they say. Then make your own decision.

43. Everything you write is fine. And sometimes more than fine.

44. Be willing to look at your work honestly. If something works, it works. If it doesn't, quit beating an old horse. Go on writing.

45. It is a good idea to wait a while before you reread your writing. Time allows for distance and objectivity about your work.

46. Be willing to not be sentimental about your writing when you reread it. Look at it with a clear, piercing mind.

47. You are alone when you write a book. Accept that and take in any love and support that is given to you, but don't have expectations of how it is supposed to be.

48. If they burn to write they also have to find time to write even if it's one-half hour a week they can't put it off until they're 60, they may die at 59.

49. Don't worry about your talent or capability: that will grow as you practice.

50. Pick up a pen and write.

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This story was originally posted on Medium.

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