Comments on: Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones http://nnwp.edublogs.org/2008/08/31/caroline-hatcher-natalie-goldbergs-writing-down-the-bones/ The official (we)blog for the Northern Nevada Writing Project Fri, 12 Sep 2008 02:04:14 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 By: Terry Stelle http://nnwp.edublogs.org/2008/08/31/caroline-hatcher-natalie-goldbergs-writing-down-the-bones/comment-page-1/#comment-90 Terry Stelle Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:31:26 +0000 http://nnwp.edublogs.org/?p=10#comment-90 Hi Caroline, I read this book a while back and read her novel, Banana Rose, too. It was autobiographical and read pretty well, however her forte is writing about writing. She has had so much experience writing and admits that tons of her writing is pretty worthless,which is an inspiration in itself. One of the first books that inspired me to write was called, "If You Can Talk, You Can Write". That author, like Natalie Goldberg, finds value in the 5% or less "good stuff" that we can sift from our ramblings. For me it was a way of perceiving an accurate expectation about my early attempts to write. There are different kinds of writing certainly and Natalie Goldberg and many others stress the value of the process not emphasizing the product-- a little tricky for an English teacher-- but that is the part that could link writing about 10-15 minutes each day, then finding the nuggets to bring in and share with the class, as well as having them talk about the effect the process had on them and their writing. I think your time with your students allows you time to inspire them and come up with selected readings to let them expand on and then share when they come back. Not all the writing has to be done at school. What about having them read about writing? I don't recall that we discussed the potential value in that with older students!! Bye for now, Terry Hi Caroline,
I read this book a while back and read her novel, Banana Rose, too. It was autobiographical and read pretty well, however her forte is writing about writing. She has had so much experience writing and admits that tons of her writing is pretty worthless,which is an inspiration in itself. One of the first books that inspired me to write was called, “If You Can Talk, You Can Write”. That author, like Natalie Goldberg, finds value in the 5% or less “good stuff” that we can sift from our ramblings. For me it was a way of perceiving an accurate expectation about my early attempts to write. There are different kinds of writing certainly and Natalie Goldberg and many others stress the value of the process not emphasizing the product– a little tricky for an English teacher– but that is the part that could link writing about 10-15 minutes each day, then finding the nuggets to bring in and share with the class, as well as having them talk about the effect the process had on them and their writing.
I think your time with your students allows you time to inspire them and come up with selected readings to let them expand on and then share when they come back. Not all the writing has to be done at school.
What about having them read about writing? I don’t recall that we discussed the potential value in that with older students!!

Bye for now,
Terry

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