Minds and Manuscripts

I had found the first fifty pages of the book unimpressive but things really started to flow after that. I started to learn a different way of seeing things. While I agree that they are not suitable for today’s survival oriented world, it’s a great outlook about the world to have access to. Here and there, in the book, I found a bit of useful writing advice too, and the most practical of them all was about combining verbs with nouns, which would be of great practical use to me. It’s an honest book, and one that is bound to give a lot of inspiration to the writers. It’s like a love letter to the wannabe writers telling them to “just write”. There are a lot of zen examples and zen related elements in the book and after a while you start feeling the zen in Goldberg’s writing too. There is not much technical writing advice in the book but there is one most important advice that every writer knows but wants to be reaffirmed to him or her that is to “just write”, in any situation. There is a bit about the importance of places in writing but I know from my experience that places are not as important as Natalie tells in the book, I think it might be subjective to her, but I do agree that places are important and they can be as important as they are to her to many other writers. Except for the first fifty or so pages the book has been easy to read and you silently achieve a meditative state while reading the book as she tells about her writing and teaching about writing and various exercises she did with her friends or other writers. Every writer has a process and it was great to know her process and after not liking the book initially I was pleasantly surprised. Even though I don’t have such a soft attitude in my writing, her way of looking at the world offered a fresh perspective on looking at things and the world which can be used by the writers in their writing. I didn’t think I would like it at first but I was pleasantly surprised. A must read.