Over the past couple years, I’ve repeatedly had Natalie Goldberg’s books mentioned and recommended to me. I of course dutifully noted it, but as often happens with tons of recommendations I get, it kept pushing it to the bottom of my list. When I was granted a review copy of her latest book, I knew it was time. I started with the latest book, Writing on Empty, then worked my way backwards to Old Friend From Far Away and Writing Down the Bones.
This is not a review, but rather a recommendation and overview of her books, including noteworthy parts, ideas on how to use each and when they’d be of most use. I’ll be working my way backwards, the order I read them in.
Writing on Empty
Goldberg’s latest book, Writing on Empty: A Guide to Finding Your Voice , was released in July of 2024. There are two distinct sections of the book. The first section is essentially a memoir focused on her struggle to maintain her writing practice during the pandemic. It mostly takes place during the summer of 2020, while also recalling earlier times, including her childhood, and how it relates to her writing life. Her style of writing kind of meanders, winding through loosely associated topics. The second section is where she ties her story into a writing practice and is titled A Writing On Empty Roadmap: Writing Instructions. Each part of the roadmap relates back to a part of the earlier narrative. It gives a short summary or points out a major theme and then provides questions, prompts and writing exercises based on them.
I like that it’s not simply a book of writing instructions or focused on craft. While I do love those kinds of books, it’s easy to burn out on them and never reread them. The mixture of her inspiring story and writing instruction makes it something I see myself going back to over and over. What I love most is how open she is about her struggle, even admitting that maybe she was done writing. For younger, less experienced writers it’s helpful to know that everybody has times where it doesn’t come easy. It’s also a really great read that I would recommend to anyone in any creative field for inspiration or anyone looking for an interesting memoir. It’s definitely a great book for someone that might be struggling with their own writing practice. I think it’d make a great homemade workshop working with one part each week, or however often you like.
Old Friend from Far Away
Published in 2007, Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir is (surprisingly) focused on writing memoir. I love that it starts with literal instructions, “Read this Introduction.” In the introduction she describes exactly what memoir is. She emphasizes the memory aspects of memoir, it’s not just about facts, it’s remembering how things felt and questioning the whys, hows and other aspects of the past. She illustrates how biographies deal with the facts of life, but memoir is something much deeper. Following the introduction is a “Note to Reader”, where she clarifies the intentions for the book. It’s not just for reading but “to drench you in the writing process and in your life of memory.” The goal is not to read about writing, but to put your butt in the chair and do the writing.
The table of contents splits the book up into ten sections, with parts that only have a writing topic italicized. But there is nothing in the text indicating separate sections, just the chapter or topic title. Each consists of either a short 1-2 page essay on a subject related to writing and one to two sentence instructions on a topic to write about. The essays are partly instructional, with advice and tips for memoir writing but also include personal anecdotes from her writing life. For each topic she provides she recommends writing for ten minutes, there are also a few test chapters that list several topics to write on for 2-3 minutes each.
Despite the fact that she is focused on memoir, it’s a useful book for writing in any genre. She provides a wealth of different topics to write on that could inspire a wide range of writing. Several stood out as unique, to write about ice cream, storage, bars, and what will you miss when you die. (That last one pops up in the latest book too.) I would recommend it to anybody that’s looking for inspiration and/or a way to quickly build a writing practice. It’s a great book to have handy in your collection. You could take your time slowing working through each exercise or just dip in as needed.
Writing Down the Bones
Finally, last but not least we have the OG Natalie Goldberg book. Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within has been the most widely recommended one to me. First published in 1986, it’s still hyped up–and totally worthy of it–almost forty years later. What works best about the book is the small bite sized chapters of about 1-3 pages each. Despite being so short they each contain really valuable and useful information. This is also where she first shared her method of writing as a practice, usually in about ten-minute increments. It might sound simple, but it was never taught in any class or workshop I’ve ever taken. She also really encourages us to think of it as practice without expectations, judgements or limitations.
As is the case with the other books, this is another great addition to any writers library. It’s something to have on hand for inspiration or to look to for advice and tips on writing. Personally, I wish my first time reading it wasn’t for this blogpost, because I was forced to speed through it. It’s much more something that should be given time to percolate, inspire a bit of writing and be reread to be properly digested. While it’s definitely helpful for beginning writer’s, I’d recommend giving it a read no matter what stage you’re at. It’d be a great book to read and discuss with a group, you might even try some writing practice together.
Natalie Goldberg has several other books on writing, she’s also published memoir, poetry and fiction. Below you’ll find a curated list in my Bookshop storefront for your convenience.
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