Natalie Goldberg's Old Friend From Far Away
The Practice of Writing Memoir
Most writers have read and learned from at least one of Natalie Goldberg’s books. Her Writing Down the Bones is classic of creative writing “instruction,” selling over 1.5 million copies, and succeeding volumes Wild Mind and Thunder and Lightning continued to teach her Zen approach to writing.
Goldberg is also the author of a novel, Banana Rose, two memoirs, and a book of her paintings. She recently finished a film about Bob Dylan’s Minnesota roots, Tangled Up in Bob, and she’s taught writing retreats and workshops for three decades. She is considered among the top creative writing teachers in the country.
Writing Memoir for Publication or Just Ourselves
Goldberg’s latest book, Old Friend From Far Away, focuses on The Practice of Writing Memoir, which is the book’s subtitle. The author stresses that writing memoir need not necessarily be for publication, but rather for ourselves. “We are on a quest, a search for meaning,” she writes in the introduction, “What does our time on this Earth add up to?” This is what the writing of memoir can help us with.
Old Friend From Far Away can be used as a literal manual, proceeding through the readings, exercises and tests chronologically as the writer composes his or her memoir, or it can be be used as a sort stimulus to jolt the process. Opening randomly to any chapter (none are longer than 2-3 pages) and following the prompt will produce results.
Before using Goldberg’s book, however, an initial read, even if it is a skim, is recommended, if just to get a feel for what’s covered, and what you may want to start with. The author suggests that the writing of memoir is “not a chronological pronouncement of the facts of your life,” and needs to be approached “sideways,” to get to the various layers.
Goldberg Uses Authors as Examples, Prompts
To aid in uncovering those layers, the author uses several techniques and/or teaching devices. Goldberg’s one-word chapter headings –“ugly,” “birthday,” “suicide,” “smoke,” “song,” “orchard,” “children,” & dozens more—reflect not only the highly effective and simplistic approach she has always taught, but are the beginnings of writing prompts, the point of which is to get the pen to the page.
Intertwined with those chapters are others, some of which use the work of well-known writers --Jack Kerouac, James Baldwin, Allen Ginsburg, Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Rhys, to name a few—as examples of autobiographical writing that may not be outright, traditional “memoir.”
“Tell me everything you know about Jell-O. Go. Ten minutes. Let it rip.” It sounds simple, perhaps even a little goofy, but with Natalie Goldberg leading the student through an exercise like this, the results can be amazing.
Natalie Goldberg’s Old Friend From Far Away is designed to help write memoir in particular, but, like each of her books, will undoubtedly teach the writer much more, not the least of which is always her most important lesson: “…pick up the pen, and kick some ass.”
Goldberg, Natalie, Old Friend From Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir. 2007, Free Press/Simon & Schuster, 310 pages. (isbn: 13:978-1-4165-3502-7)
Old Friend From Far Away by Natalie Goldberg
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