Writing on Empty: A Guide to Finding Your Voice

Longtime Zen practitioner and writing teacher Goldberg (Three Simple Lines; Let the Whole Thundering World Come Home) writes a memoir meant to inspire fellow scribes, which chronicles her life during the pandemic, when she could no longer access her preferred writing places (cafés, libraries, parks), complicated by an inability to write at all, with no ideas for her new book—a first for her. Meeting socially distanced at a park with her friend Eddie gave her much-needed structure during this difficult time, but that ended when he was badly injured in a bike accident. Finally, during a visit to Hemingway’s grave on her way to a writer’s residency in her beloved Port Townsend, WA, Goldberg decided that the answer is to write anyway, pushing through her lack of inspiration. Other topics in this eclectic book are Goldberg’s thoughts on the internet, her enjoyment of the book Dirt by Bill Buford, and her pain when the Abiquiu Lake reservoir was emptied. She also reflects on her childhood and her complicated relationship with her late mother. The book concludes with writing prompts to help establish a writing practice.