Ten-Finger Exercises

Reading about writing

When I finished my blog last night, I picked up Natalie Goldber's Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life. The chapter I turned to, #10, entitled "No Writing," was about writing practice versus journaling. Journaling, Natalie says, "has a fascination with self, with emotion and situation." It is about "rumination and self-analysis."

"One of the rules of writing practice," she goes on to say, "is, Don't think." The idea is to let the ideas rise to the surface on their own.

Natalie's two books on writing came out in 1986, pre-blogging days.

Then as I was going to bed, I picked up Anne Lamott's book, bird by bird. In her chapter on finding your voice, she quoted the Gnostic gospel of Thomas: If you bring forth what's inside you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what's inside you, what you bring forth will destroy you.