Engaging and accessible. A recommended purchase for collections where writing craft titles are popular.

My review has been published here, on Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6329588297

Ah! This one sounded so promising. I kept checking to make sure I was reading the right book. Nothing about it is instructional or helpful for “finding your voice.” It’s really a memoir about Goldberg’s writer’s block during COVID and then just pages and pages of her railing against the internet (in general, but also as a means of research for writing or finding books to read). It should be called something like “Exploring Your Own Story and Leaving the Internet Age Behind.” The very end contains some hyper-specific writing prompts that I didn’t find compelling at all. So bummed!

Thank you to Net Galley, St. Martin’s Essentials and the author for the advance copy.

I was really anticipating reading this book--the initial premise led me to believe that it would be an inspirational how-to, more of a self-help title, but it fell short from those expectations. This is more memoir than anything, and deeply rooted in a Covid-narrative that this reader wants desperately to escape from. It wasn't until the last 10% or so that this gives any sort of advice/prompts and I was left wishing there was more of this, though I appreciated the personal narrative of the author.

Thank you to the publisher for inviting me to read this for review through NetGalley.

Writing Down the Bones was my first introduction to Natalie Goldberg. I read it for one of my MFA classes. It had a delightful structure, one I was unused to in craft books. One of the things I love about her writing is that it doesn’t seem like a lesson. It’s a conversation. A free write morphed into a lesson. On the face of it, this book may seem like a person’s mind wandering and not about writing through writer’s block. On the contrary, it teaches you that very thing. By her free writing her essays through her block, she learned how to write again. That is a strategy I’ve gotten comfortable with over the years. When I can’t write, I just write. It may not be in one of her spiral notebooks, and I can’t write in a cafe to save my life (too noise sensitive). But free writing anything is the only way I can break myself from a block. She teaches that in order to write, you have to experience life. And while I’m sick to death of talking about COVID, she has an absolutely valid point. COVID got most of us writers used to solitude. So the only way for her to break that block was to experience life on life’s terms and write about anything that came to mind. This book is a great reminder of that. If you don’t experience life, you have nothing to write about.

Huge thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for sending me this ARC for review! All of my reviews are given honestly!

I've been reading Natalie Goldberg books for over 30 years. She is a teacher, poet, fiction writer, memoir writer, painter and Zen Buddhist. Natalie's way of teaching is unique and soulful. Her books are one part writing advice and two parts memoir. In the midst of her writing about hiking in the mountains, swimming in a cold river, or visiting the grave of a dead writer, we learn how to express our own voices. In this book Natalie writes about her struggles during COVID and how the lack of being able to go to her usual places to write and her inability to travel and see her friends led her to a writing drought.

Many of us felt the same way during the pandemic and Natalie talks about how she got herself out of the rut she was in and promises us we can do it to if we simply start writing. Natalie always comes back to telling us to write about what we see, we feel, we dream. If you can't get out of your house write about your dreams and memories. This is also a novel about getting older. The author is in her 70's now and is a cancer surviver. She contemplates moving into a senior community and all the things she will miss when she dies. At the end of the book is a roadmap where she gives the readers some concrete writing advice and writing prompts. I felt strongly tied to Natalie in this book although I have never met her nor have had a life traveling the world and becoming friends with famous authors and other artists. Yet she hits on some universal truths in life and writing and I was glad to share this journey with her. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC in exchange for a review.

I will read anything Natalie Goldberg writes, and "Writing on Empty" was just what I needed at this time in my life. This is a memoir of Goldberg's journey to find purpose and healing as she becomes paralyzed in her writing life during the pandemic. Her answer? To take a road trip through the West, searching for inspiration. You'll have to give this a read to find out what she learns. Highly recommended for fans of Goldberg, readers, writers, artists, and spiritual seekers. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
#WritingonEmpty #NetGalley

I've always been a fan of Natalie Goldberg, and this book is not exception. We are starting to see many books come out with the pandemic in the plot or having been written during the pandemic. The memoir gives us another side of that. Crippling writer's block, a time of seclusion, and trying to save one's career during a time that careers seem to be the least important thing in the world.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Net Galley for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

I feel that this book wants to be two things and can’t quite decide if it’s a memoir or self-help book, The subtitle is “A Guide to Finding Your Voice,” but the actual guidance didn’t come in until 92% of the way into the book. If you’re looking for a book that contains a woman’s travels during the pandemic, this might be for you. I was expecting more of a guidebook and motivational tool as an aspiring writer, and this fell flat.

Moving memoir of a Jewish American writer about coping how to overcome writer's block during the seclusion of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Road map to overcoming the void of writer's and finding her voice.

The beloved writer develops a crippling case of writer's block, and takes us on her journey to healing as she travels across the West. Highly recommended for every writer!