Author Advice

Natalie Goldberg and Three Things

Basically, if you want to become a good writer, you need to do three things. Read a lot, listen well and deeply, and write a lot. And don’t think too much. Just enter the heart of words and sounds and colored sensations and keep your pen moving across the page.

Writing down the bones
by Natalie Goldberg

I think one of the questions writers’ get most often is simply “How?” How do you write a book? A short story? How do you write every day? How do you get ‘good’, whatever that means?

In her beautiful book, Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg lays out three (well, four) things that a good writer needs to do: read, listen, write, and don’t think too much.

I love it.

I love this list because it’s made up of deceptively simple things that are so hard, but that everyone could do. It’s achievable for all of us. Everyone can be a writer — it’s that easy and it’s that hard. Read, listen, and write (and don’t think too hard about any of those activities).

LESSON LEARNED: TRUST YOUR INNER VOICE. DON’T OVERTHINK YOUR OWN WORK.

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Published by rsjeffrey

Robin Jeffrey was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming to a psychologist and a librarian, giving her a love of literature and a consuming interest in the inner workings of people’s minds.

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