Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer's Craft

by Natalie Goldberg

In the sequel to her bestselling Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg advises readers on how to capture the flashes of inspiration of a writer’s life, and turn this “thunder and lightning” into a polished final piece
 
Any writer may find himself or herself with an abundance of raw material, but it takes patience and care to turn this material into finished stories, essays, poems, novels, and memoirs. Referencing her own experiences both as a writer and as a student of Zen, Natalie provides insight into the struggles and demands of turning ideas into concrete form.
 
Her guidance addresses ways to overcome writer’s block, deal with the fear of criticism and rejection, get the most from working with an editor, and improve one’s writing by reading accomplished authors. She communicates this with her characteristic humor and compassion, and a deep respect for writing as an act of celebration.
 
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Natalie Goldberg, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Memoir, Crafts, Self Help, Reference, Essays

242 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2000

About the author

Natalie Goldberg lived in Brooklyn until she was six, when her family moved out to Farmingdale, Long Island, where her father owned the bar the Aero Tavern. From a young age, Goldberg was mad for books and reading, and especially loved Carson McCullers's The Ballad of the Sad Cafe , which she read in ninth grade. She thinks that single book led her eventually to put pen to paper when she was twenty-four years old. She received a BA in English literature from George Washington University and an MA in humanities from St. John's University.

Goldberg has painted for as long as she has written, and her paintings can be seen in Living Color: A Writer Paints Her World and Top of My Lungs: Poems and Paintings. They can also be viewed at the Ernesto Mayans Gallery on Canyon Road in Sante Fe.

A dedicated teacher, Goldberg has taught writing and literature for the last thirty-five years. She also leads national workshops and retreats, and her schedule can be accessed via her website: nataliegoldberg.com

In 2006, she completed with the filmmaker Mary Feidt a one-hour documentary, Tangled Up in Bob, about Bob Dylan's childhood on the Iron Range in Northern Minnesota. The film can be obtained on Amazon or the website tangledupinbob.com.

Goldberg has been a serious Zen practitioner since 1974 and studied with Katagiri Roshi from 1978 to 1984.

Reviews

[Jan Marquart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Natalie Goldberg is most famous for her book Writing Down the Bones, and although I've read every one of her books and liked them, I love Thunder and Lightning the best. I'm not being critical of her. I have taken five of her workshops in Taos and know her personally. She is no-nonsense when it comes to writing. I like that about her. Just do it -- she says. But there is something about Thunder and Lightning that spoke to the writer in me more deeply than the other books. Most of her books have her personal stories in them yet again, this book seemed different, raw, fresh, alive but I warn you, read it with trepidation; it will take you into your dark corners. If you write, or want to write, or think of writing -- buy it.

[Emma Sea]

got to page 11 and my heart cried out for me to stop. I was not ready for the sense of despair Goldberg communicates in her introduction. Which is called 'Warning', so that was kinda apt.

Not for me.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Natalie Goldberg does what she knows best: she writes about writing. She shares stories from writing workshops as well as sharing what works and doesn't work. And she ties everything to Zen.

[Jeana · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are things I like about all of Natalie Goldberg's writing books. She really has a love of writing and that is infectious. However, every writer has a different method and different things that work for them. Her methods are not what work best for me. As I read, I could accept that she was describing her method and I was thinking how that wouldn't work in my situation. I particularly did not like that she said you shouldn't be thinking about the story you're writing unless you're sitting down with pencil (or laptop) in hand. I've done most of my own plot mapping in my head while showering and driving and jogging. For a mom, like me, I have to use my valuable time driving carpool, etc., because so little of my time is spent sitting down with my pen in hand. That being said, this is still a worthwhile read and just confirmed how different writers are and what works for one does not work for all.

[Tanvi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t remember how many times I must have read this one! But its always a different experience and learn something new each time. It is so encouraging and rewarding.

[Jean Bowen · Rating 4 out of 5]

"So when someone edits your work- in class or privately- you should be stalwart but also let yourself bristle with the pure fear! Let it ripple through your whole body, let it burn you to a crisp like a marshmallow- it's another way to be done with yourself. Then you can listen like a rock or mountain when someone tells you, 'This feels like grinding it out- you're reciting by rote. This image isn't earning its way each time you use it. These pages don't make it.' "

- I enjoyed her thoughts on Southern writers and the importance they place on Mentorship. It's interesting she brought that up since I've been thinking about mentors and the creative process recently- Caroline Gordon and Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty and Katherine Anne Porter, Jane Keyon and Donald Hall (Did they consider themselves each others mentor?) The Inklings. . .
- Makes me want to join/ start a writing group
- Goldberg is much harsher than Julia Cameron; I'd love to be in either of their workshops.

[Larada Horner-Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just what I needed!

As I finished this, so many questions were answered for me on how to take Writing Practice to a different level. Natalie has been and still is my my writing hero, mentor and guru!

[Taylor Church · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just love finding an author and devouring their mind. You read all their works—their poems, their juvenilia, their forgotten essays, letters, novels, and memoirs. You read biographies on them and listen to interviews of them. In doing so you don’t try to copy their style or become them, but a beautiful part of them is left with you forever like a close friend. You can never go back to the time before you first opened their books, and if they are strong writers you will be that much better off for it.

This is the endeavor I have undertaken with Natalie Goldberg. And it’s a strange choice for me if you consider some of my other all-time favorite authors. She’s nothing like them. Her prose is simple and colloquial, even discursive at times. It’s never difficult or erudite or filled to the outer margins with stream-of-consciousness poetry. It’s instructive, funny, and easy.

Thunder and Lightning is the 6th book of hers I have read. I have at least 7 more to go, and I suspect by the time I get there she will have written more. And what a blessing that is. This specific book was an important book for me to read and has propelled me forward in the tasks I’m already engaged in. It’s reminded me of things I think daily, but forget that other people are thinking as well. Goldberg has the gift of inspiring and motivating. Her craft is teaching the craft. And it’s a class I want to be enrolled in forever. This book, written 16 years ago is just another semester under her tutelage. And having read her books diachronically, it gives me a chance to one day come back, when her cannon is sealed and read them in order with fresh eyes and a new heart.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thunder and Lightning didn't effortlessly send my wild mind flying like Writing Down the Bones did, but it wasn't just a piece of fluff, either. Far from it. It's still Goldberg, writing in that clear and poignant way that she has, sharing herself and what she's learned about writing. The best books about writing inspire rather than dictate. Goldberg inspires.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about actually turning writing into works of literature. Particularly novels.

Very personal accounts. More or less useful depending on how close your writing style comes to hers.

[Amalia Wompa · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an aspiring author and writer, for some reason it's never occurred to me to pick up a "how-to" book on writing. This is a personal problem. I've been trying to be more open-minded when it comes to reading any self-help books at all. Maybe it's the Northern European in me, but I never like asking for help or admitting that I need it.

This book may have single handedly made me realize how badly I want to be a writer. It's always been a deep part of me that I've pushed aside with the belief that "everybody writes", or "anybody can be good at this". However, there were so many points during reading that I suddenly felt heard- and not in a comforting kind of way. I felt vulnerable, like Goldberg explained and said things about myself I hadn't come to terms with yet.

This line in particular changed everything for me:

"I'm making love with someone but at the same time I'm noticing how this graceful hand across my belly might just fit in with the memory of lilacs in Albuquerque in 1974." (Pg. 36)

I've always thought like this, always wondering how a memory I'm making in real time would look on a page, and how I can change it to match the perfect story I want to tell in my head. To know that this turned the tides for her, is simultaneously turning the tides for me, and I couldn't be more grateful to Natalie Goldberg for allowing me to feel this way.

[Barb Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not a professional writer, I’ve never been paid for writing. But I do write, often. I rarely go more than a few days without writing something— a review here on GR, a blog post, an email to a friend. So I occasionally pick up a writing book, for ideas, inspiration, or just to see how someone else does it.

As an example of that— how someone else does it— Thunder and Lightning is terrific. Unsurprisingly, Goldberg is a great writer. There are bits of memoir, bits of writing instruction, bits of Buddhist practice, all told in a clear, compassionate voice.

Her methods are inspiring to me as an example of another writer at work, but they would not work for me without major modifications- and that is perhaps the book’s weakest point, her assumption that her writing methods are the best and even only way to work. But for my purpose, it delivered exactly what I wanted, an impetus to think about what I’m doing. Good book.

[Alina Stepan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a particular story for me. Back in 2014, after a week spent in Paris with work, I had another week with my partner there. Dragging my heavy 2-weeks suitcase down the long metro corridors, from Gentilly to Cluny La Sorbonne, I was longing to finally meet my loved one for a romantic - of course, what else? - week in the City of Lights. Thunder and Lightning, all right :)
In front of Fontaine Saint Michel, here he is, dragging his suitcase and holding two books under his left arm. ‘I found these’, he said, clumsily handing me the books.
One of them was Nathalie Goldberg’s book.
With hundreds of books on my shelves, it was only now, 6 years later, that I have read it and loved it. It stroke many chords, intellectual and emotional, physical and ethereal. Practice. Love. Visualise. Work hard. Write.

[Sparkie Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a fan of Natalie Goldberg since Writing Down the Bones and then Wild Mind. Thunder and Lightning was on my shelf but other books and work diverted my attention. I am glad that I finally got the opportunity to indulge in this book. Goldberg references Zen practices and humor, both of which resonate with me. It has been a while since I had read a book that spoke to me in so many ways. She advises us to write what disturbs us, what we have not been willing to deal with. That pushes me to move beyond the comfort zone to explore what other themes emerge and embrace the real self that I keep safely from the world. It is really empowering. If you love to write poetry, novels or songwriting, this is another tool to job your senses and expand your use of words and imagery.

[Jsarno49 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I'm taking a virtual class with Natalie Goldberg, I especially appreciated this book which provides context and insights into her philosophy of the teaching of writing. Goldberg believes that the only way to become a writer is to write spontaneously, daily, and fast. She advocates writing 10 - 15 minutes a day in order to discover your mind. The book is organized into 3 sections: structure, reading (yes, she also advocates reading good writing and writers), and reining in your wild horses. It's in this last part that she discusses ways to hone your writing. I thoroughly enjoyed this book because Goldberg's voice is strong, and she makes it feel as though she is speaking directly to you.

[Jessica Ferrara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't normally read nonfiction, something this author predicts, and for the reason she suspects. The nonfiction books I read in school were bland, spitting out facts without a human connection.

Thunder & Lightening is all human connection. It's intimate. I liked it.

That said, the entire structure section seemed focused on writing memoir, and I agree with the author's students that free-writing for two years, as practice, isn't practical.

Also, the text meanders, glancing on personal stories worth digging into before catching up with the point of each chapter, and leaving most tales behind, unfinished. This isn't a complaint so much as a consistent observation, though I can see how this would annoy some readers.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever since I read Natalie's "Writing Down the Bones" last fall, I have been writing steadily, almost daily. Her approach of "writing practice" has given me back my writing---I can finally silence the internal Editor and let myself write freely, penning those "first thoughts" that often turn out much better than overworked, carefully manicured prose. This book was a nice follow-up to "Bones," if just to keep the conversation going and hear Natalie pronounce "memoir" as "mem-wah" in her terrific New York accent (I listened to the audio book). I don't share her Buddhist views and could do with a little less Zen in the book, but I certainly appreciate her insights into the writing life.

[Bryan Whitehead · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t like this one anywhere near as much as I liked Natalie Goldberg’s first two books on writing. Most of the entries are longer than in her previous works, and the extra length seems to do little beyond give her unwelcome room to wander off topic. Further, the book is short on practical advice. In its place we get tales from Goldberg’s personal experiences. While these are no doubt priceless to her, they’re often hard to relate to (especially the one at the end, which sounds more like a nervous breakdown than a writing breakthrough). I don’t regret reading this, but I’m glad I started with some of the author’s other books first.

[Brian Cuban · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this book because I enjoyed Writing down the bones. I found much of this one redundant to that book.

One big warning here-if you are not into “Zen” you may find her repetitive mentions distracting. That part is really a continuation of Writing Down The Bones.

If you embrace a Zen philosophy of writing and want to learn how it influenced Natalie’s writing, you will probably be more engaged with the book than I was.

The quality of this audio book is a giant leap over Writing Down The Bones

[Kelly Brill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Natalie Goldberg makes me want to write. Write well, write better. Sharper, more detail, closer, more intimate. Write when you feel like it and when you don’t. Make a commitment to it. And read. And walk.

Highly recommend this as a tool and a source of inspiration for anyone who wants to become a better writer. She intersperses practical advice with snippets of teaching and literature, anecdotes about people she’s know and adventures she’s taken.

Complete with a list of her favorite books.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book..but then I love Natalie Goldberg. She is a writers writer. She tells you to just write and feel free to write the worst junk in the world. And she shares that it’s not easy even for a prolific writer like herself. Just because I finished this book does not mean it is done. It’s one of those books I will keep with me and when I get stuck in my writing I will pick it up, read some , get inspired and go back to writing. A book I can go back to and read over and over is a treasure.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been years since I read and was inspired by Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within. This book is less inspiring but more about creating a structure and direction for your work. There is a much good food for thought here. I like her emphasis on writing practice; I need to do it more regularly!

[Rowe · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book gives me anxiety; I'm over writing instruction. This books seems more prescriptive than Writing Down The Bones. She says that one should do writing practice for 2 years. I read it as "no more than 2 years," I believe she means, "At least 2 years." I don't think you want to get caught up forever freewriting and doing morning pages because at some point you need to write your book. Goldberg includes a reading list in the back of this book.

[Priti Sakhadeo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most inspiring book so far! Now I am hugely inspired to write.

The book is about the craft of writing; so it could have as well looked like a manual with its do’s and dont’s. Instead it seemed like a poetry book. It busted myths about writing - some of them sent a chill down the spine - but what the book did to me a hundred percent was to inspire me to write and write everyday and write everywhere. It is by writing I am going to be.

As Natalie says writing is truly deeper than therapy, it is spiritual. While reading her ‘Writing Down the Bones’ I started with the writing practice she strongly advocates and by the second month now, when I am finishing this book, I have learnt a great deal about me, resolved my mental conflicts and have become fearless. Most importantly, I have realised that I need to take pride if I am vulnerable in my writing and need to bring my experiences as bare as I can to the paper thru’ my pen.

Love, respect and care your way, Natalie Goldberg

[Sjervey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb look at the craft of writing and vignettes in the lives of many writers, with wonderful candor about her own life as a writer and lecturer. Rich in insights into the challenges of keeping the word vibrant, it also recognizes that one size can never fit all. I strongly recommend this lively guide to anyone who wants to write or even just read better.

[bruce l. wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let the mind reveal itself through writing

I very much enjoyed this book. It came to me at a time of great stress and challenge. Writing was far from my mind but intuitively I discerned that this book was not a distraction. Rather it contained a message of how to navigate troubled waters and arrive somewhere, stronger and wiser. It delivered.

[Ann Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Natalie's book Old Friend From Far Away. I learned so much and wrote so much while reading it. In this volume, I hoped for more, but this was not that. This book felt more like a wandering sort of memoir, with a few good tips, but mostly just Natalie's talk about her experiences and her writing seminars. Not much meat, not many take-aways. I'd recommend her other books more.

[Kathy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing Down the Bones will always be first in my heart; but this book shows Natalie as a vulnerable, relatable human who also is a world class writer. We all have struggles with our lives. It’s solace to know we aren’t the only ones.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book didn't provide as much content around structure as Natalie suggests but it is a good read nonetheless. Definitely listen to the audiobook with Natalie narrating it, like a long deep chat with a beloved friend.

[BooksAndFrogs (Mervi) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Koska olen lukenut ja luen yhä paljon, tämä tuntui näin ensimmäisellä lukukerralla läheisemmältä kuin "Luihin ja ytimiin". Tai sitten alan tottua Goldbergin tapaan ammentaa elämästään lyhyitä, hetkeen tarttuvia pakinoita kirjoittamisesta - tai tässä tapauksessa, erityisesti lukemisesta.