In this long-awaited sequel to her bestselling books Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind, Natalie Goldberg takes us to the next step in the writing process: turning our flashes of inspiration—the thunder and lightning of creation—into a polished piece of work. Thunder and LightningYou've filled your notebooks, done your writing practice, discovered your original voice. Now what? How do you turn this raw material into finished stories, essays, poems, novels, memoirs? That is the subject of this unique and inspiring guide, which taps the same rich sources of intuition and individuality that have made Natalie Goldberg one of the most sought-after writing teachers of our time. Drawing on her own experience as a writer and a student of Zen, Natalie shows you how to develop a structure or plot that preserves all the odd, kinky turns of your one-of-a-kind mind and captures the completely authentic way you see the world. She tells you how to "get out of the way" and let your characters take on their own life. She shows you how to create a field big enough to allow your wild mind to wander—and then gently direct its tremendous energy into whatever you want to write.Here, too, is invaluable advice on how to overcome writer's block, how to deal with the fear of criticism and rejection, how to get the most from writing workshops and working with an editor, and how to learn from reading accomplished authors. With a generous helping of humor and compassion, she recounts her own mistakes on the way to publication—and how you can avoid the most common pitfalls of the beginning writer. And through it all there is a deep celebration of writing itself—not just as the means to an end, but as a path to living a deeper, more fully alive life.