Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer's Craft

Natalie Goldberg

Goldberg's third book on the craft of writing is good stuff. However, the first thing to point out about it is that a portion of it (a small portion, but pervasive) will be harder for a reader who hasn't been through Writing Down the bones and (especially) Wild Mind to understand. While it's possible to glean a good deal from this without those two, the book will be a more rewarding experience for someone who already understand the wild mind/monkey mind concept and has an idea of the process Goldberg is talking about when she says "writing practice" (and it ain't just putting pen to paper, Jack).

Goldberg presents the book as a series of essays, as is usual, and each has a point. Some of them are the usual stuff you get from books on writing, but there's more than enough here that's approached from a new direction to make this a worthwhile addition to the aspiring (or, for that matter, successful) writer's library. Where many books on writing struggle to answer the "where do you get your ideas?" question, Goldberg spends as little time on that as necessary and spends more time talking about parts of the writing process that many books don't go into. Writing, as was pointed out to me in a rejection letter from a poetry magazine ten years ago (Rhododendron Review, for the trivia buffs in the audience), isn't just about craft, but it's equally about craft and art. Craft, the technique of writing, is what most books on the subject cover; Goldberg wants to marry the craft with the art, the writer's spirit, soul, inspiration, whatever name you give to the muselike figure that inspires the desire to write.

If you've already read Goldberg's other two books on writing, or any of her fiction or poetry, you don't need me to tell you that you want to pick this up. Goldberg is exceptionally good at getting her point across, and writes with a clarity found all too rarely in how-to books of this type. If you haven't had the pleasure of browsing a Natalie Goldberg work before, this isn't the best place to start; go for Wild Mind or Writing Down the Bones. But this is definitely one you want, sooner or later.