Hundreds of books are around that tell how to avoid bad writing. Here is one that tells how to create good writing. What a pleasant surprise.
The secrecy of creativity, Natalie Goldberg makes clear, is to subtract rules for writing, not add them. It's a process of "uneducation" rather than education. Proof that she knows what she's talking about is abundant in her own sentences. They flow with speed and grace and accuracy and simplicity. It looks easy to a reader, but experienced writers know it is the hardest writing of all. It's the simple style of a Zen Archer who looks like he's not even aiming, yet sends arrow after arrow to the bull's-eye time after time.
