Published in 1993, Long Quiet Highway is the fifth book by Natalie Goldberg. Just in case you don’t know, she is the iconic writing teacher and author of Writing Down The Bones, among other amazing books about writing. This one, though, is not technically a book about writing. It’s a memoir. But, like all of her work, it sent me right to my notebook.

So today, let’s talk about Long Quiet Highway. How it’s different from her other books, and what I learned from it.

Long Quiet Highway starts with the story of Natalie as a child. Her parents were immigrants. She grew up in New York before they moved to the suburbs.

Natalie describes her childhood as being cloistered. Dull. To me, it feels cloying. Safe, fun, and full of little pleasures. Her parents clearly loved her and supported her. But there was little art in her life. There was little to wake her up, to make her feel alive.

This is used as an introduction to a teacher who woke her up. That encouraged her to listen to the rain. To experience it.

As an adult, Natalie taught high school. Or, maybe middle school. I’m honestly not sure which, and I don’t think it matters. While she was teaching the same bland curriculum she herself had learned, she felt lost and dull. Asleep. That’s when she decided to quit her job and join a Zen commune.

Because I guess that’s a thing you can do?!

For years, Natalie learned meditation and Zen from several teachers. Until she met one that changed her life, Katagiri Roshi.

He’s changed mine as well. But we’ll get to that.

The focus on the subject is solid

Through the book, it can feel like the story sort of rambles. One minute, Natalie’s talking about a train ride she took with a friend. The next she’s talking about learning Zen. Then we’re at a diner ordering a soda.

It’s only when we step back and look at the story as a whole that it makes sense. That we realize that every step was going in the right direction, we just couldn’t see the end of the path yet.

This was a fantastic way of memoir writing. Rather than going in strict chronological order, we skip around. It allows us to become completely immersed in the true subject of the story without even realizing it.

Even when she’s not talking about writing, she’s always talking about writing

I mentioned earlier that Long Quiet Highway is not a book about writing. It is about Natalie’s life. But here’s the thing. Natalie’s life is about writing. She writes passionately. She teaches writing. She exudes writing. This woman writes like the rest of us check social media. So when she talks about her life, she is talking about her writing.

In this way, much can be learned about the habit of writing from this book. Write when you’re happy. Write when you’re sad. Write when you don’t think you can possibly get yourself up off the ground. Fuck it, write from the ground, then. Write when you feel inspired and when you feel dull. Write when you’d much rather be eating chocolate.

Just keep your hand moving.

This is the best advice I’ve ever gotten about writing. Don’t worry about it being good, at least not at first. A lot of your first draft is going to be shit, no matter how many books you’ve written and how many you will write. Trust me, I speak from experience. I have published 12 books, and my rough drafts are still terrible. Hell, my second drafts are also bad. It’s only by the third draft that the story becomes anything I might consider letting someone else see.

And that’s okay. The purpose of a first draft is simply to exist. So if you’re still trying to complete your first piece, but you’re worried it isn’t good enough, it is. Just keep your hand moving.

Her work makes me want to live

I’ve mentioned before that reading Natalie Goldberg always makes me want to write more. More than that, it makes me want to live more. To do more things and to do them deeply.

Never before have I experienced a person who so deeply experiences every part of their life. She talks in such detail about going to get a croissant. Of riding the train.

Goldberg’s work makes me want to sit outside and feel the sun. To write about the rain, the people arguing in the parking lot outside of my window, and the cupcake I bought at a festival.

She also makes me want to travel. To go out and explore the world. To take a long trip alone or just a different route home.

The legacy of a teacher

Finally, I want to talk about how teachers can touch the lives of people they will never meet.

I am not a Buddhist. I am not a Zen student. I practice meditation, but more in a witchy way than a Zen way. And I certainly never met the famous teacher Katagiri Roshi.

And yet he has touched my life in a profound way. Because Natalie Goldberg was his student. And she wouldn’t have written Writing Down The Bones if it hadn’t been for his teachings.

Because of this, Goldberg was able to touch my life. I have learned so much from her work, and I continue to do so. Someday I want to actually work with her, attend one of her workshops. But for now, I have her words, and am one of the many students she’s inspired.

And Natalie is only one of Katagiri’s students. His kind, supportive teachings have touched countless lives.

I highly recommend reading Long Quiet Highway. As well as any of Natalie’s books. If you want to be a writer, or get into mediation, or just experience life more, this book will help you do that.

It will help you wake up.

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Spooky season is coming, and it’s time for some creepy reads. Check out my horror novel Quiet Apocalypse, about a witch trapped in her apartment during a dark winter storm with a demon devoted to ending the world.

Or check out my horror short, The Man In The Woods. A man tries desperately to protect his granddaughter from the mysterious man in the woods. But his fear only grows when a new housing complex is built too close to the woods.