Every Moment Is Enormous And It Is

When You Write What You Know, You Stay In Control. One Of The First Things I Encourage My Writing Students To Do Is To Lose Control - Say What They Want To Say, Break Structure.

We Are Each A Concert Reverberating With Our Whole Lives And Reflecting And Amplifying The World Around Us.

What Writing Practice, Like Zen Practice Does Is Bring You Back To The Natural State Of Mind...the Mind Is Raw, Full Of Energy, Alive And Hungry. It Does Not Think In The Way We Were Brought Up To Think-well-mann Ered, Congenial.

Once You Have Learned To Trust Your Own Voice And Allowed That Creative Force Inside You To Come Out, You Can Direct It To Write Short Stories, Novels, And Poetry, Do Revisions, And So On. You Have The Basic Tool To Fulfill Your Writing Dreams. But Beware. This Type Of Writing Will Uncover Other Dreams You Have, Too-going To Tibet, Being The First Woman President Of The United States, Building A Solar Studio In New Mexico-and They Will Be In Black And White. It Will Be Harder To Avoid Them.

It Used To Be With Chocolate. I Would Put Chocolate In My Studio And Say, "you Know, Nat, There's This Chocolate You Can Have If You Get Over There." And Usually If I Got Over There, I Would Start Writing. Sometimes I Need Get Out Of The House And Go To A Café And Write. Sometimes I'll Write With Other Friends To Get Myself Going. And Sometimes I Just Say "ok, Nat, Enough. Go One Hour. Keep Your Hand Going." I'll Do Whatever It Takes.