In this long-awaited sequel to her bestselling books Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind, Natalie Goldberg, one of the most sought-after writing teachers of our time, takes us to the next step in the writing process.
You’ve filled your notebooks, done your writing practice, discovered your original voice. Now what? How do you turn this raw material into finished stories, essays, poems, novels, memoirs?
Drawing on her own experience as a writer and a student of Zen, Natalie shows you how to create a field big enough to allow your “wild mind” to wander — and then gently direct its tremendous energy into whatever you want to write.
Here, too, is invaluable advice on how to overcome writer’s block, how to deal with the fear of criticism and rejection, how to get the most from working with an editor, and how to learn from reading accomplished authors.
With humor and compassion, Goldberg recounts her own mistakes on the way to publication — and how you can avoid the most common pitfalls of the beginning writer. Through it all there is a deep celebration of writing itself — not just as the means to an end, but as a path to living a deeper, more fully alive life.
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“Guidance and wisdom gathered from more than two decades of firsthand experience.”
— Shambhala Sun
“In her inimitably candid style ... Goldberg coaches us to work despite the ranting of that universal critic inside.... This book is like a good conversation with a writer friend who cares enough to tell it like it is.”
— The Tennessean
“This book is alive and slightly feral at the same time, encouraging and unsettling at once. Whether or not you are a writer ... please read Thunder and Lightning.”
— Inquiring Mind
Look for:
Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life
Long Quiet Highway: Waking Up in America
Banana Rose
Living Color: A Writer Paints Her World
Available wherever Bantam Books are sold
