Natalie Goldberg, 'Writing Down the Bones' Author By Molly Anderson-Childers

Creative Careers in the Arts Interview

Natalie Goldberg’s seminal work, Writing Down the Bones, was the first book that made me feel like a writer. I’ve been gleaning inspiration from her work since I was first introduced to Writing Down the Bones in high school. Her unquenchable curiosity, thirst for juicy details, and unsparing honesty kept me coming back for more with Wild Mind. Ms. Goldberg is, in fact, the first writer who truly seemed real to me — she wasn’t just a face in a dusty old book, but an actual flesh-and-blood woman battling it out on the page. I could picture having coffee with her in a cafe and writing for hours.
It is Natalie’s bravery — her ability to strip herself bare — which inspires me most. Her deeply revealing memoirs, The Great Failure, Long Quiet Highway, and Living Color, are a mirror into the soul of this complex writer, spiritual seeker, and artist. I enjoyed her novel, Banana Rose, because the characters pop off the page. It’s so real you can smell the rain on the sagebrush. Her amazing eye for detail is informed by her devotion to the visual arts — aside from writing, Ms. Goldberg is an accomplished painter in her own right — and her spiritual journey.
As I move through my own journey as a writer, I find myself called to read (and re-read) Long Quiet Highway, which is a memoir of her creative and spiritual journey. I find much to inspire me in this book. For the first time, I began to consider the act of writing as a spiritual practice, similar to meditation or prayer. In my own work, the spiritual and creative intertwine in a holy ecstasy of words. I pray with the pen and the page so fervently, and worship at the altar of the Muses. It was gratifying to learn about her spiritual journey, and Ms. Goldberg’s struggles with her identity and history were poignant and meaningful to me.
It is with great pleasure that I welcome Natalie Goldberg to Creativity Portal today. We’re celebrating the recent release of the Twentieth Anniversary e-book edition of Writing Down the Bones with a special two-part interview. The second portion of this interview will be published mid-February on Creativity Portal — so stay tuned for a juicy giveaway from Open Road Media.
Natalie, welcome to Creativity Portal. I’m honored to interview you today.

Q: I loved your novel, Banana Rose. Any plans to write more fiction soon, or another memoir?

A: I’m glad you loved it — I love it, too. I'm not naturally a fiction writer. I'm more into studying the movement of the mind, whereas fiction is interested in the movement of the story and must stay true to that narration. That said, writing this novel was the hardest thing I think I’d ever done. I had to learn the form and direction of fiction. For the future, I do have another story in mind about Yolanda, a twin, but that will have to come after other books. I think I will face Yolanda when I am old. Regarding memoirs, I have written a few in the past, such as the following: The Great Failure (2004), which is about the two most important men in my life; Long Quiet Highway (1992), which is about my spiritual and creative journey; and Living Color (1997), which is about my painting.

Q: Your book, Long Quiet Highway, discussed your spiritual and creative work. How does your spiritual practice inform and inspire your writing and art? How do you use writing as part of your practice as a Zen Buddhist?

A: Writing and Zen for me is completely interconnected and interpenetrated. There is no difference between the two. Writing practice is another practice like sitting or slow walking. It's another way to study the mind.

Q: What is the biggest obstacle in your creative path at present? How are you dealing with it?

A: Oddly my biggest obstacle right now is getting the time to write. I make a living as a writer — I just signed a new contract for a new book — and yet I have to fight for the time. Daily life is so seductive and pulls at you. I'm not married, I don't have children and yet I have to almost steal the time like a thief. For instance, when the first snow came to Northern Mexico, all I wanted to do was go snowshoeing. When friends called, I gave in. It was a wonderful time, but another day I did not write. (This is why early practice is so important, it helps build determination. I know eventually I will crack the whip and become so engaged that nothing will come before it.)

Q: Writer’s block can be terrifying. In your opinion, what causes this dreaded disease of the creative soul — and what’s the cure?

A: I don't believe in writer's block. The cure: pick up the pen and get moving. Go, 10 minutes, tell me everything you know about mashed potatoes.

Q: What sparks a poem or a painting? What inspires you, and makes your soul sing?

A: What sparks me is paying attention. One morning, I could be eating a piece of toast and not really be there, while the next, me and the toast are one. When I’m “right there” all kinds of associations wake up. Being right there opens worlds.

Q: Which came first, the writer or the painter? How has your work as an artist shaped your writing — and vice versa? How does writing influence your art?

A: In 1974, it was like spontaneous combustion: I began to write, meditate and paint. Writing is essentially a visual art. You want the reader to see what you are saying. That's why you stay away from abstract description. Painting attunes my visual faculty and also in the silence of paint I work out unconsciously some of the things I want to say in writing. Painting makes me aware of detail. It is my darling pleasure. Without painting, writing becomes like eating cereal without milk. Too dry.

Direct Experience from The Zen of Creativity by John Daido Loori

The tea ceremony in Zen involves experiencing a cup of tea, but an important part of the ritual takes place at the end of the ceremony, when the tea master brings out all of the implements used for the guests to examine and appreciate. The tea bowl is presented as a unique work of art, without peer. It is examined by the guest both visually and tactilely.

See for yourself if it is possible for you to take up and ordinary teacup and just experience its physical existence, without naming, analyzing, judging, or evaluating it. Just feel it. See it. Touch it. Experience it without the mind moving. When you find your mind moving, acknowledge the thought, let it go, and come back to the cup in the same way that in zazen (seated meditation), when a thought arises, you acknowledge it, let it go, and come back to the breath.

You'll find that the more you repeat this, the more you'll develop the ability to experience things directly, without evaluation. You'll be able to just see, hear, feel, taste, smell. And, as your attentiveness and awareness increase with this practice, they will appear in other areas of your life and art. You will begin to notice little things that you have been seeing everyday but barely noticed in passing. This kind of mindfulness is a state of consciousness that is free of tension and focused on the here and now, with no attempt to name or even understand what is being perceived.

Kurt Vonnegut: 8 Basics of Creative Writing

Kurt Vonnegut created some of the most outrageously memorable novels of our time, such as Cat’s Cradle, Breakfast Of Champions, and Slaughterhouse Five. His work is a mesh of contradictions: both science fiction and literary, dark and funny, classic and counter-culture, warm-blooded and very cool. And it’s all completely unique.

With his customary wisdom and wit, Vonnegut put forth 8 basics of what he calls Creative Writing 101: *

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

The greatest American short story writer of my generation was Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964). She broke practically every one of my rules but the first. Great writers tend to do that.

* From the preface to Vonnegut’s short story collection Bagombo Snuff Box

Creativity -- From "The Book of Qualities" by J. Ruth Gendler

Creativity is not efficient. She has a different relationship to time than most of us. A minute can last a day and a day can last an hour. She loves all the seasons. She is on intimate terms with the sun and the moon. It is New Year's all year long at her house, what with celebrations for the Celtic, Hebrew, Tibetan, Chinese, Japanese, and other New Years too numerous to mention. Creativity loves to gossip with the birds and put on her masks and beads and dance with the animals. Although bright colors amuse her, she most often wears neutral tones. She is especially partial to off-white.

Some people consider Creativity selfish because she does what she wants. I have always found her to be gracious and most generous. She is certainly complex. If you have only met her in a serene mood, her flair for drama may offend you. She is not your aunt with the porcelain teapot who plays chamber music. If you are one of those people who only go to see her when she is starring in a major melodrama, you will not hear her rain songs. If you insist she is mad, you will never see how still her face is when she returns from a dream.

Sometimes Creativity disappears completely or wanders around the back alleys for weeks at a time. She has a strong need to be occasionally anonymous. If you run into her at the post office line during one of these periods, you will probably not recognize her. She is in a different place. It is almost as if her blood has slowed down. When the blank period is over, Creativity brings her free self home with her. Her skin is new. She is ready to work. More than anyone else, Creativity understands the secret meanings of the months when nothing seems to get done.