Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Wild and Unbridled

Aspiring writers are dreaming of and in many cases actually producing their first novel ~ all made possible by self-publishing. Pay up-front and hope to sell enough copies to cover costs.

New writers, fresh ideas and stories ~ But are they? The disappointing outcome unfortunately can be an abundance of proper and boring text.

Natalie Goldberg calls it, "wild and unbridled." Get your first thoughts down; don't worry about punctuation, grammar or spelling. That can come later. Commit yourself to a time limit. Don't stop writing. Don't pause to reread. "That's stalling," according to Goldberg, "and trying to get control of what you're saying."

She teaches, "Go for the jugular. If something comes up in your writing that is scary or naked, dive right into it. It probably has lots of energy."

AND writers, may we add ~ get a good editor!

Reference: Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg, Shambhala. Natalie has a website.




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