Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer's Craft (Paperback)

~ (Author) "BACK IN NINTH-GRADE BIOLOGY CLASS when Mr. Albert Tint announced that we would study the involuntary organs-the heart and lungs-he forgot to mention the mind..." (more)
Key Phrases: wild mind, writing retreat, writing practice, New Mexico, New York, Banana Rose (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

More musings from Natalie Goldberg on writing as a spiritual path, as "an authentic Zen way." Goldberg has some nice things to say about the importance of the process of writing. She recommends her students spend two years at writing "practice" before undertaking a specific project, so that they can "get in touch with their wild minds." The most inspired writing, she says, comes when one's conscious mind gets out of the way. Still, we are puzzled by Thunder and Lightning: is it really meant to show us how to turn "our flashes of inspiration ... into a polished piece of work," as the book jacket touts? It comes off more as a collection of Goldberg's ruminations on writing and reading. Goldberg tells us about her friend Julie's writing process. Another pal, Kate, talks about plot. We study Styron with Goldberg's workshop students and take a road trip through the South to try to figure out just how some of the poorest states in the union managed to produce so many great writers. There are some good stories here, and it's vaguely interesting to know what Nat likes to order when she does her café writing or lunches with her editors, but we end up desiring a little less wandering and a little more focus. --Jane Steinberg --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Goldberg here urges aspiring writers to go beyond the Zen-inspired writing practice she presented in her 1986 bestseller Writing Down the Bones and the subsequent Wild Mind. Writing practice was a means Goldberg devised of observing the mind by moving the hand, writing through our endless judgments and opinions until the unstoppable stream of thought becomes transparent and we can see clear through the mind to the vibrant life force that shines up from the bottom. In this guide, Goldberg seeks to help students find the organic formsAthe resonant questions and questsAthat exist deep down within us. She doesn't teach technique so much as affirm that the life force carves a particular channel in each of us. The title came to Goldberg several years ago in Costa Rica, as she stood at the foot of an active volcano and experienced the sudden power of a tropical storm: "I thought, some divine structure has just whipped through here." Goldberg describes her various book projects as inspirations that crash down like lightning, absorbing her and vanishing. As she delves into her own process and the process of other writers, however, it becomes clear that the work of discovering form can be as long and painstaking as an archeological dig, and as painful as surgery. Great book and story ideas do tend to come in flashes, she confirms. But they come to those who have gotten by the barking dogs of the conventional mind only to face the raw truth about what is. Goldberg writes as someone who has been there and back. She guides readers without handing out any illusions about how easy the trip is. BOMC, QPB, One Spirit Book Club and Reader's Subscription alternates.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (October 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553374966
• ISBN-13: 978-0553374964
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #195,986 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational, August 9, 2000

By	"armchaircritic" (San Juan Island, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer's Craft (Hardcover)

It took me a bit to connect with this book because the tone and style are so different from Natalie's previous books. I also found I had to read this a little bit at a time to give myself time to absorb what she was trying to say. But I was really shaken up by the book. After writing a terrible, terrible truly horrible and horribly boring novel myself, I had given up writing (after 35 years). In other words, I was in a similar place as Natalie was in the closing chapter of this book. How she dealt with that and what she relates about that are extraordinary and absolutely inspirational. It got me to pick up a pen again.

Natalie has always had a Zen slant to her writing and it is even more evident here. The connection between the disciplines of writing practice and meditation really struck home with me. Especially as it addresses the ultimate point of writing. While this book does deal with issues of structure (and I disagree strongly that this book is just for prose writers), it addresses more the spiritual and personal nature of writing. Why write? it dares us to ask. Why write at all? As usual, Natalie is challenging our basic beliefs of ourselves and particulary ourselves as writers. Why do *you* write? This book will inspire you to seek the answer to that fearsome question for yourself.

I am indebted to Natalie for constantly opening herself up to an unknown and naturally critical audience. She does sound older and wiser here and that gives me pause too. It goes back to the fundemental question -- why write? This is not a writing instruction book per se, you can visit her previous books for help in that area. This book is something beyond that. Something almost intangible. I was deeply moved by the book and tremendously inspired. Thank you Natalie for giving so fully yet once again.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Read Carefully to Glean the Gems, August 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer's Craft (Hardcover)

While this book is essentially a memoir of Natalie's life as a writer, there are tangible, useful clues plus decent and practical advice about how to move your writing to a higher level. True fans should appreciate this book as it represents a deep meditation of a honest and hardworking writer's mind.

Like her earlier books on writing, this one again delivers in a series of essays, divided into three distinct sections. Considering the wide territory she attempts to cover, the chapters end up forming a more cohesive story than before.

Believe it or not, Natalie is on to something here. To find the roadmap that is the promise of this book, you have to read carefully and not skim the pages looking for them. I recommend highlighting or bookmarking these passages so you can go back to them. Just "Like Writing Down the Bones" and "Wild Mind," the ultimate lesson here is to take her advice and carve your own path.

What I liked best about "Thunder & Lightning" is how Natalie walks us through her journey as a writer. Like me, she started with no idea on how to write and made many attempts that lead nowhere. Although she occasionally covers old territory, there's a terrific and inspiring lesson here about what it takes to be a writer.

Natalie also reveals her internal dialogue in dealing with her editors and bravely shows us the editorial revisions to original sentences from her various manuscripts. This should give anyone struggling with the writing process some measure of hope and consolation.

I was a bit stymied when she advises *two* full years of regular writing practice to break through instead of the year she suggests in her second book. I wished she had explained why she's upped the ante.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Struck by "Lightning.", September 25, 2000

By	G. Merritt (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer's Craft (Hardcover)

In this book, Natalie Goldberg shares her insights into how we can explore our "interior territory" through the practice of reading and writing mindfully. Although she begins her book with an introductory "Warning" to aspiring writers, and then ends with her reflections on Allen Ginsberg's death, Goldberg's book is neither discouraging nor depressing. "Do not say you were not warned," she cautions. "To continue this crazy thing called writing might lead to steep precipices, dangerous canyons, craggy cliffs. I make no promises" (p. 7). Goldberg makes "the writer's craft" sound downright exciting!

Goldberg equates writing with mindfulness training. Writing, like meditation, is a "place where we can meet ourselves deeply," allowing us to "encounter the imprint of something immense running through us" (p. 43). In other words, writing is a serious practice. A writer's path, Goldberg tells us, "includes concentration, slowing down, commitment, awareness, loneliness, faith, a breakdown of ordinary perceptions--the same qualities attributed to monks or Zen masters" (p. 44). Goldberg sees writing as "a true spiritual path, an authentic Zen way. Writing is an immediate mirror: it reflects back to you. You can't fool anyone, especially yourself. Here you're the doer and the done, the worldly person and the monk" (p. 218).

Similarly, the practice of reading mindfully allows us to "wake up to everything about a book . . . it will become alive and take flight" (p. 95). Certainly, you will experience such moments throughout Goldberg's book. It is rich with anecdotes. For instance, she tells us that after reading Wallace Stegner's CROSSING TO SAFETY, she walked around the streets of Taos astonished for "three sizzling summer months" (p. 47). Goldberg confesses to reading books during a Thich Nhat Hanh meditation retreat, explaining "I couldn't get my head out of this novel" (p. 147). While on a Mill Valley writing retreat, she recalls hearing the moon through the redwoods telling her, "Enough is enough. I needed to see what was out in the world beyond writing" (pp. 210-11).

For me, this book was not a disappointment written by some negative Natalie. Lightning does not strike the same place twice, and this book is not intended to revisit the same old "Bones" of Goldberg's 1996 book. Whether you are an aspiring writer, an avid reader, or interested in living your life mindfully, I encourage you to experience all the thunder and lightning this book has to offer.

G. Merritt