heart of writing

"Writing practice knows this, knows we are not our thoughts, but lets the thoughts, visions, emotions run through us and puts them on the page. Writing is the crack through which you can crawl into a bigger world, into your wild mind." -Natalie Goldberg

Ah, the dry spell has been broken. It's always Natalie Goldberg, digging into the heart of writing, and inspiring me to get pen to page. I started reading "Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life", and along with some encouragement from my dear friend Jessie, I sat down last night and did some writing. The thing with writing is, as Natalie Goldberg says, a writer can't stop writing. She might take a few months off, but not writing is like suicide. It will drive the writer into depression or drinking, or sometimes both. A writer just has to write.

I love Natalie Goldberg's method of creating a writing practice. It's not journaling, but just filling pages. Sometimes I do timed ten minute jaunts, sometimes I think of a subject and fill a few pages - ignoring margins and lines - until it wraps up on its own. Writing practice is a bit different than sitting down to write a novel, but writing practice is a great warm up for working on a novel. The novel I've been working on is taking some time off from me, it seems, but ideas for it keep rolling in, much to my delight. I think I've got to do some plot mapping, which I have no idea how to approach, but I feel I need to get myself organized before I continue.

For now, I'll be enjoying the drop in the temperature by going on long walks with my kids, picking up treasures all the way home. Magnolia pine cones, rocks, pecan shells, and red mottled leaves seem to be most popular these days.My personal treasures include reading late at night, my writing practice, and chilly mornings with black coffee, looking through the condensation covered windows, watching my little ones play together.
What sorts of treasures are you enjoying these days?