Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life

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Summary: More of the same...
Review: This is the follow up volume to the excellent Writing Down the Bones. If you have read the first book, and still feel blocked, then this book could prove very useful. What I feel is that she covered most of the important aspects of being an aspiring writer in 'Bones, so I feel their is some rehash, and some material that is just not as good as 'Bones.
Still, she builds more on both zen and jewish wisdom, and it does not do anyone any harm to read it.
Of course, this book helped me to appreciate haiku, and that counts for something!

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Summary: Wild Mind: A Book Review
Review: Wild Mind: A Book Review Writer's block. It can be a mind numbing and frustrating experience. Wild Mind: Living The Writer's Life written by Natalie Goldberg, a Zen Buddhist and author of Writing Down The Bones, helps writers realize that writing is all in their mind and not the pen. No matter who you are, Wild Mind is a book you should have on your bookshelf. The book is written in the first person and is an extremely fast read. The chapters are short-sometimes one or two pages-and tease you to continue reading. Throughout the 238 pages there are many "Try This" sections. They are lessons she uses to help people write better. Don't just breeze over these sections. Give them a shot. They're fun and exciting. Wild Mind also focuses on getting rid of what Goldberg calls "Monkey Mind." Monkey Mind is annoying and I hate it. It's that little critic that says I stink at writing. "So our job as writers is to not diddle around our whole lives in the dot [monkey mind] but to take one big step out of it and sink into the big sky and write from there. Let yourself live in something that is already rightfully yours-your own wild mind" (33). This book was an extra special treat for me to read because it mentioned Buddhism. I've been studied Buddhism for an entire semester.. While reading Wild Mind, I found an answer to a test question.. I was dumfounded. The funny thing is that if I had read that section in Wild Mind earlier, I would have gotten the question right.