Book Review: Old Friend from Far Away

Natalie Goldberg is one of the greats for providing writing inspiration. This particular book, Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir, will benefit writers who are interested in working on a memoir and writers who simply wish for more ideas. I selected it because of my recent attempt at travel memoir. I don't believe it will help me in my revision process, but it provided so many prompts that I would actually consider purchasing this one for myself.

I'll share here a dozen of my favorite prompts (she provides several paragraphs of explanation, then the prompt, then the words "Go. Ten minutes."):

• "Go for the jugular, for what makes you nervous... Make a list of all the things you should not write about... What you fear, if you turn toward it, will give your writing teeth."
• "Tell me about how a relationship ended."
• "Write a full ten minutes about one time you didn't fit in."
• "What tortures you and awakens you at night?"
• "Tell me in ten minutes why nothing worked, why you felt stuck where you were."
• "Tell me what your biggest mistake has been."
• "Tell me what stifles you."
• "Begin a ten-minute writing with No Thank You."
• "What have you waited a long time for?"
• "What have you held onto too long?"
• "Write a last letter to someone."
• "What did you know that you didn't want to know."

She provides several hundred similar thought-provoking topics to explore. Indeed, you could take one prompt a day and not run out for a year. One of my goals for 2018 is to do two pages of free-association writing every morning. Goldberg's prompts will certainly help if I ever run out of ideas to cover.

I also appreciated the section at the end of the book titled "Guidelines and Suggestions for Writing Memoir." This list summarizes some of the key points made throughout the book (even providing page references so the reader can go back to review a principle). The book is simply a Pandora's box full of ideas and prompts. Once you tackle one, it will be down on the page and you will not be able to stuff it back inside again - certainly a grand goal for any writer.