The Gift of Listening

In our culture, so filled to overflowing with noise and confusion, listening has become a lost art. Author Natalie Goldberg writes:

        "Writing is ninety percent listening. You listen so deeply to the space around you that it fills you, and when you write, it pours out of you. If you can capture that reality around you, your writing needs nothing else. You don't only listen to the person speaking to you across the table, but simultaneously listen to the air, the chair, and the door. And go beyond the door. Take in the sound of the season, the sound of the color coming in through the windows. Listen to the past, future, and present right where you are. Listen with your whole body, not only with your ears, but with your hands, your face, and the back of your neck.

        Listening is receptivity. The deeper you can listen, the better you can write. You take in the way things are without judgment, and the next day you can write the truth about the way things are. Jack Kerouac in his list of prose essentials said, 'Be submissive to everything. Open. Listening.'

        Basically, if you want to become a good writer, you need to do three things. Read a lot, listen well and deeply, and write a lot."   

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