WRITING ON EMPTY

Bestselling author and teacher Natalie Goldberg shares her inspiring personal journey out of a devastating period of writer's block and back into a life of growth, creativity, and healing.

Author of the beloved multi-generational bestseller, Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg has spent her life teaching people to write -- and to break out of writer's block. So, she was shocked to suddenly find her own creativity blocked when the pandemic shut down her world. She couldn't write. She couldn't sit in meditation. The steady stream of creativity and inquisitiveness that had blessed her all her life abruptly dried up, vanished. What do we do when what always worked for us before doesn't work anymore? WRITING ON EMPTY: Remembering What Matters is Natalie's journey back to fullness. Ultimately, like all of us, Natalie had to create a new normal. Instead of sitting, she had to get moving. Instead of relying on the usual landmarks, places, and interactions that inspired her, she had to find new ones. And she had to revisit her memories, especially her fraught relationship with her mother, which had kept her from fully making peace with her past and living fully in the present - alive to any crisis. Through her own journey, Natalie also discovered that she had created a road map for others. A practical guide for finding one's voice - or rediscovering one's voice - appears at the end of the book, to help readers reconnect to their own creative source. This is the first time Natalie has included a writing guide in one of her books. With her characteristic humor and frankness, her distinctive observation and stories, Natalie drives through her own life, picking out what it matters to remember, and helping us to do the same. Natalie Goldberg is a poet, teacher, writer, and painter. A student of Zen Buddhism for 24 years, she trained intensively with Katagiri Roshi for 12 years, and is ordained in the Order of Interbeing with Thich Nhat Hanh. Natalie Goldberg teaches writing workshops nationally based on the methods presented in Writing Down the Bones. Her other books include Wild Mind; Long Quiet Highway; Banana Rose; and Living Color.