Soul-Nuggets: Writing Down the Bones

Emergent thoughts on Natalie Goldberg´s "Writing Down the Bones" and some exercises to become a better writer.

Just finished “Writing Down the Bones”. And there´s a little voice in me wanting to share the ‘soul-nuggets” the book offers.

---

The Skeleton of Writing

Published in 1986, when most writing was still done using a pen. This is an invitation to do that. Explore yourself using a pen and pad.

Today writing is mostly done using a keyboard. Before getting into poetry, the last time I used a pen was in school. The only writing we did was constrained, which kept me from experiencing the magic of true emergent writing.

The First Bone to Set

Pick a pen and a pad and go. Try out different ones until you find your perfect ones.

How to choose a pen and pad?

The Pen

• Should be fast-writing - thoughts are much faster than a hand, the faster you can write the better.

• Should allow for feeling the pads texture through it.

The Pad

• Different size and price → different purpose.

  • Small ones → can be bought anywhere, but limit expression.

  • Big ones → allow for more creative expression.

  • Too fancy → might create extra resistance to write.

Of course you can use a computer or smartphone. But every medium you write with brings out a different writing voice. Be sure to experiment.

“Writing is physical and is affected by the equipment you use. In typing, your fingers hit keys and the result is block, black letters: a different aspect of yourself may come out.”

Emergent Writing

“The basic unit of writing practice is the timed exercise”. - Natalie Goldberg

It´s not about how long, but that you commit to it full when you do. In this period follow the basic “rules” for writing:

1. Keep your hand moving - don´t reread or pause.

2. Don´t cross out or correct - the editor and the writer are separate entities.

3. Don´t worry about grammar - be creative

4. Lose control

5. Don´t think or get logical - you don´t need you head to write

6. Go for the jugular - the “bloodier” the better

Sticking to these rules allows you to cut through the bullshit your mind will try to fabricate. Don´t write with your head, read your heart-scriptures and write from there.

True writing is emergent and capturing the essence of your momentary expression. Natalie calls these the ‘first thoughts’, which are normally hidden by inner censorship. Writing will let you move and see beyond these adaptions.

Writing as a Practice

The more you write the better you get.

Have discipline. Don´t skip the writing workout - even when you have a bad day.

Resistance is invitation to the place where growth happens. Befriend it and you will love it. Let it into your writing. Let it talk to your voice that wants to write

Kill your inner perfectionist. Write whatever comes up. Write without knowing your destination.

“You must journey without agenda or concern for the result.” - Jeff Brown

The ‘goal’ of the writing practice is simply getting to know you and learning to trust your whole being.

You aren´t what You Write

What you think, say, or express on paper is but a momentary expression of your being. It cannot frame you. Your true self changes every second.

Some writing will feel very close to you.

You may get emotional as you capture a moment. Let it happen, but don´t identify with it.

“I live on Earth at present, and I don’t know what I am. I know that I am not a category. I am not a thing — a noun. I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process – an integral function of the universe.” - Buckminster Fuller

Fantasy

Ever read a fantastic story? I´ve read many.

A story about a living treasure chest becoming a super-villain. One about a rock killing the whole world and becoming enlightened. Another one about a sentient teddy-bear. There´s stories and articles on anything.

Creativity knows no boundaries. Go crazy, don´t judge. Stepping in-sanity is part of being a good writer..

“There´s no separation between writing, life and the mind. If you think big enough to let people eat cars, you will be able to see that ants are elephants and men are women.” - Natalie Goldberg

Metaphors only happen naturally - true from the perspective we create.

Step out of your logical mind and fall in love with expression.

Bake a Cake

Writing is like baking a cake. One your bake out of the details of your life.

It´s not enough to just list them. You have to mix them, make dough, form it and bake.

Only then it becomes edible. But you are eating with your eyes too. Decorate it.

You won´t know how it tastes before you finish.

Adding Details

“Use original detail in your writing” - Natalie Goldberg

More fancy words, more juicy writing. Try using names and details of plants, animals and things.

Write about a black ash, not a tree. Smell roses and tulips, not flowers. But don´t get lost in it.

Don´t Tell, but Show

Don´t tell the reader how to feel. Show him.

The reader feels by experiencing the situation through your writing. You awaken the feelings that you had while writing in the reader.

For this you have to be in connection with your experience and senses.

Don´t write “This story is about…”. Simply begin writing from your senses and the reader will know - by feeling - what you write about.

Writing is Co-Creation

Don´t worry about copying someone. Most combination of words have been written already? Who cares? Shut up your mind.

This piece, based on a book, resembles it. Not a bug, but a feature. Writers influence each other.

The same goes for the world at large. Every expression gets synthesised into a more true, go(o)d and beautiful form.

“Writers are great lovers. They fall in love with other writers. That´s how they learn to write.” - Natalie Goldberg

Writing is more than just writing. It´s having a relationship with other writers and the world.

Writing in a Restaurant / Teahouse

Writing outside of your home can make it easier to focus.

Right now I´m sitting in the Tushita - a teahouse also serving food.

Good that Natalie set up rules for writing in restaurants, or any other place you use for writing.

1. Establish a Relationship

   1. The first time go in hungry and order something to eat.

   2. Show them you appreciate the place and time you spend there.

2. Don´t Show Up in the Rush Hour

   1. The waiters will really appreciate it

3. Leave a Bigger than usual Tip

   1. Especially when you occupy a table for multiple hours

   2. Waiters make money on table-turnover)

Once you established a relationship, you can change that and order just a drink and stay.

A Place to Write?

Believe you need a special place or space to write?

Simply set up a little room or something, but don´t make it a big deal.

Set it up and write. No perfectionism. The perfect place to write can become a way of run away from actually writing.

The truth is you can write anywhere - even in the most chaotic place.

While focusing may be harder, there´s beauty in finding it there. Might be a good challenge?

Again. Step through your Limit

Often our best and most meaningful writing happens right after we wanted to stop and pushed through. Don´t listen to resistance.

Don´t let Duty be the End

Many follow the rule: “Write every day”. That´s not enough. Great writers go beyond discipline.

You have to put your whole life on the line to become a master and advance your skills. Let your heart do the job.

You can´t force teal writing. It´s emerging when you drop into your heart - the feelings, the pain, the beauty of existence.

The person who picks up the pen, is not the same person who puts it down.

Act your Way into New Clay

Your writing might feel boring after a while. There´s an easy solution for new inspiration?

Try out something new (Natalie used to put on blue lipstick and a cigarette into her mouth (without lighting it). Open up to new experienc and potential.

Try experimenting with different things and ways to act. Wear something you wouldn´t normally wear and / or do something you don´t usually do.

Claim your Writing

Judging your own writing? Thinking it sucks? Claim your confident writing voice.
How?

• Share your poetry - they see it in a different light

• Allow yourself to receive their blessings.

Any feedback can be used to become a better writer and more confident. You also learn how your writing affects others.

Take in the feedback, but make your own decisions. In the end you are the one writing.

Time does the rest. It may take a while, but we all have a voice inside of us that can share authentic experience with love and confidence.

Rereading and Rewriting

Rereading and rewriting is part of the whole writing process.

Not immediately but after some passed. This allows for some distance and objectivity about your work.

Get some old writing and read it like you would read a good novel.

“What did this person want to express?”. Become curious.

Seemed boring while writing? Now you see patterns and rhythms you haven´t seen before. An invitation to see how your mind operates.

Tip: Use a marker and pencil when you reread and mark the things that you liked. You might wanna use them as inspiration for future work.

As Natalie says:

[…] become a Samurai, a great warrior with courage to cut out anything that is not present. Like a Samurai with an empty mind who cuts his opponents in half, we willing to not be sentimental about your writing when you reread it. Look at it with a clear and piercing mind.”

Little Writing Hacks

1. Have a list of topics (and obsessions) to write about (whenever you find a topic (or obsession) to write about write it down. You can use them for later writing.)

2. Ask yourself: “Why do I write” from time to time (not to find the final answer, but to see how writing permeates your life. Be creative. This will keep you going. Collect the answers in some place.)

3. Write everywhere (there´s no right place to write, even when you don´t have anything to write on you can use your phone. Assuming you have one. Otherwise borrow a pen and something to write on.)

4. Story Circles (meet with your friends and exchange stories; listen to one another; light a candle in the middle and go round and round; this is a great way to find new inspiration to write.)

Writing Exercises

Syntax

1. Choose three of four lines of something you´ve written.

2. Write them at the top of a blank piece of paper. (I´ll use a few lines from a poem I wrote.)

   1. “Wanna talk to you in verse,
      sit in silence with the hurt,
      let´s look into what we´ve become,
      let´s feel the sting that makes us numb”

3. Each of these words now becomes a ‘wooden block’, the same size and color. No noun or verb has any more meaning than an ‘in’ or ‘the’.

4. Now for about a third of a page scramble them down as though you were moving wooden blocks around. Don´t make sense of what you write. Hold back the urge of your mind to construct meaning.

   1. Talk verse silence hurt let´s look feel sting numb in feel makes hurt silence into we´ve wanna talk feel sting what silence hurt verse to you walk in sit into what sting makes numb look become in sit sting the that in silence verse you in to wanna sit hurt look sting what sting feel let´s hurt the verse numb in silence.

5. Now, if you want, arbitrarily put in a few periods, a question mark, an exclamation mark, colons or semi-colons. Don´t think about it, just do it.

   1. Talk verse silence hurt let´s look feel sting numb? in feel makes hurt silence into we´ve wanna talk feel; sting what silence hurt verse to you walk. in sit into what. sting makes numb look become, in sit sting the that in silence verse you in to wanna sit! hurt look sting what sting feel let´s hurt the verse numb in silence.

6. Now read it out loud as though you were saying something. Fill your voice with expression and inflection.

This exercise invites us to leave our standard syntax of writing. Normally our language is locked. Opening up to a new way of forming sentences opens us up to see the world in a completely new way.

The Action of a Statement

1. Fold a sheet of paper in half the long way. On the left side of the page list ten nouns. Can be anything.

2. Now flip the paper over to the right column. Think of an occupation; for example a gardener, a scientist, a pilot, a singer. Write it on top of the right column. Under it list fifteen verbs to go with the position.

3. Open the page. You got nouns (on the left) next to verbs (on the right). Try joining them and see what combinations you can get. Then finish the sentences. You can use the verbs in past tense if you need to.

Writing Marathons

1. Meet with someone or multiple people and set a timeframe. Could be two hours, but more is better. Everyone has to commit to the full time.

2. Set up a writing schedule. Could be a ten-minute session, another ten-minute session, a fifteen-minute session, a twenty minutes session, and then to finish with a half-hour round.

3. Then you start with the first session. Everyone writes for the whole ten minutes. After everyone finishes you read what you have written one by one with no comments by anyone. (If there´s too many people you can alternate the people who read each round.)

4. Go one with the next round and repeat. Until you´ve finished all of the round. (Remember no talking is allowed. Just reading what you have written.)

People are allowed to pass if they don´t want to read. If someone wants to pass every time that´s fine. What usually happens is you stop thinking. You write; you read; you write; you read. Meanwhile you become less and less self-conscious. Because no comments are made you feel freer to write whatever you want with each passing round. After a while your voice may begin to feel disembodied. You won´t be so sure anymore who said something. Was it you or someone else? Well it doesn´t matter at that point. :D

Writing us Home

Writing is more than just a skill, it´s making us human.

Learning to write freely from our heart is a must to live the Go(o)d life.

Whether it´s writing with pen and paper or writing our universal love story from the depth of our heart - it´s the way to freedom and unity.

Writing and poetry heal us. Each hearticulated word we express a step closer to our soul.

So if you haven´t done so. Pick up the pen, lose control and write.

Thanks for reading.

Marco :)

---