Writing on Empty by Natalie Goldberg:

A Review

As I began thinking about the new year, one area of my life I really wanted to take seriously was my writing. With all of the chaos in my personal life over the last three or four years, writing has been a constant... as in I was constantly telling myself I needed to write more, that serious writers prioritize their craft, that, of course I was tired but when would I not be tired? 

Because this year’s focus is to begin again, I have decided that I will not be mean to myself when it comes to writing. What I will do is find ways to keep writing, whether it is through journaling, working on my novels, or here on the blog. The second way is by reading books on the craft of writing. 

Natalie Goldberg is a writer and teacher, so I feel a certain kinship with her. With fifteen books on writing, including Writing Down the Bones, I didn’t hesitate to pick up Writing on Empty. It was the perfect place to start this journey.  She shared her love of writing, her fear of not being able to write, and the wonder of finding one’s voice again. This book felt like it was written for me, like I was meant to find it exactly when I did. 

While the cover promises a guide to finding your voice, I will say that most of the book reads like a memoir. You are reading and learning about someone else’s experience with writing, with feeling lost, and with finding their way to their words again. It is about finding your voice, but I would argue it is more about how even the best of writers sometimes lose their way. 

Early in the novel, she’s sharing with her friend Eddie, the two of them in lawn chairs in a park because the threat of covid hovers like a dark cloud. She says that in high school she “never got over the promise of writing” (24). That’s it isn’t it? For all of my friends who write, the promise of getting it right, the promise of saying something that matters... That promise keeps us moving forward. And most of the book is about her fighting through because of that promise. She wants to give up, but she refuses to. 

This book gets four out of five stars for me. At the end of the novel there is a section of practices that align with the chapters in the book. I wish those had been sprinkled throughout. Aside from that, the promise of writing is shared in a way I really needed to hear it. 

“That’s why I teach writing practice. It’s my hope to close the gap between someone’s fine, deep connected writing and how they live their life. A writer doesn’t have to be mad or an alcoholic to squeeze out their writing. Writing and life can be more coincident, can be seen as a practice. Not holy, not precious. Instead, you show up and continue as long as you live” (109).

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Don't be afraid to begin again... 

It almost seems like a cliche to start something on January 1, but I can’t seem to help myself. I love new beginnings. I love the promise of a chance to try something new, to create lists and set goals. I don’t, however, always love that I lose focus and forget what I’m trying to accomplish. I feel like Dory.

Part of who I am as a person means that if it is out of my sight, it is out of my mind. I forget to do things when I don’t have a physical list I can reference. And, even if I make the most organized and fancy list of all time, if I don’t see the list, I will just bebop around doing valuable things, but not necessarily doing the things on my list that I want to be doing.

This year, I decided to plan on paper, and I did it more in a mind map style. No matter how much I want to just fix my whole life in a month, I know that the things that I find valuable take more time. This is what I came up with:

 

Word of the year: Begin Again..

Yes, I know it's two word, but they go together. Often, I feel so disappointed when I don’t accomplish a goal in the amount of time that I have deemed appropriate. Sometimes, I feel so disappointed I deem myself a failure and want to give up. I don’t give up easily, but I carry that shame of not completing a goal even as I try to accomplish the new goal. This year, I want to drop the shame and instead remind myself to begin again. Begin writing again. Begin exercising again. Begin reading again. Don’t be afraid to begin again.


Is there anything that 2024 took from you that you would like to begin again? For me, I’m going to start with writing, with beginning some of my previous projects again, with blogging, and with a renewed hope for what this year will hold.