Writing Wild: Forming a Creative Partnership with Nature

by Tina Welling

Overview

Align Your Creative Energy with Nature’s

“Everything we know about creating,” writes Tina Welling, “we know intuitively from the natural world.” In Writing Wild, Welling details a three-step “Spirit Walk” process for inviting nature to enliven and inspire our creativity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608682867
Publisher:	New World Library
Publication date:	05/06/2014
Pages:	248
Sales rank:	521,070
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Tina Welling is the author of Cowboys Never Cry and two other novels. Her nonfiction has appeared in Shambhala Sun, Body & Soul, and a variety of anthologies. She lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Read an Excerpt

Introduction

One summer day, I hiked Josie’s Ridge on Snow King Mountain. Large clouds moved across the sky and periodically put a lid over the sun. I paused to catch my breath from the upslope climb and gazed around the shadowy forest of tall, lanky pines. My glance caught on a fully rounded tree, leafless and apparently dead, standing upright with an abundance of sweeping limbs, making the tree stand out from others. At that moment, the sun broke through cloud cover and as I stood there, a dense, dew-beaded spider web, lacing the branches top to bottom, became abruptly illuminated.

One moment, the dead tree was notable only for its shapely flare, unusual in a harsh, high-altitude environment. The next moment, it was aflame with stars. My throat tightened and tears stung my eyes. The forest was silent, I was alone, and the tree spangled before me, woven with fairy lights. Then the clouds closed over the sun again, and the sparkle was gone.

I stood in those shadowy woods looking at the bare tree and my mind experienced a gracious leap. Skipping over the small steps of understanding, I knew suddenly that there was an interconnectedness between the earth’s creative energy and my own personal creative energy.

WRITING WILD was conceived right then. I wanted to understand more about this connectedness. I wanted to explore those small intuitive steps of knowing – to lay them out one by one, untangle the workings of that connection, and learn how to use this natural resource.

In our daily lives, you and I may be unaware that everything we know about creating, we know intuitively from the natural world. Yet when the light shines just right, we sense that we are part of the whole energy system of the universe, poised endlessly to express itself.

WRITING WILD is based on the ancient universal law, “As above, so below,” that tells us we can understand the patterns of the higher by following the patterns of the lower, and vice versa. In the case of writing, by following the patterns of the earth’s creative energy, we can understand our own personal creative energy. Though the interconnectedness of ourselves and the natural world shimmers like the spider’s web in sunlight, at times it can be so subtle that, not seeing it at all, we walk right into it, the supple strands clinging to our face and fingers. When the light shines directly on the web of connectedness, I think to myself, “Why write this book? Everybody sees this web sparkling like an earthbound constellation.” But other times, when the web disappears before my eyes, I realize that as a creative person I am often floundering, feeling a lack of support and guidance, unaware I am entangled in my own safety net.

Joseph Campbell once said, “The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.” Capital N. Following his advice, I developed a simple three-step process: Naming, Describing, and Interacting. These three steps address the levels of our awareness and correlate with the three parts of our brain. I call the process Spirit Walks to remind me of the spirit of my experience.

WRITING WILD offers writers, journal keepers and those others of us who wish to live more fully a direct pathway into a stronger relationship with wildness, both inner and outer. The result is writing that inspires, heals, enlivens, and deeply engages both writer and reader.

Writing constellates what we feel and intuit in our bodies and know in our psyches. Once we name, describe and interact with our experiences in writing, the experience belongs to us consciously and contributes to our creative work.

Spider webs are both wondrous and ordinary. The silk created to weave a web is a protein the spider produces from eating houseflies and other insects. Nothing more ordinary than houseflies. Yet nothing is more wondrous than the spangled web. The aspects discussed in WRITING WILD are ordinary as well, and consist of practical, down-to-earth ideas and experiences. But they serve to ensure that when the sun tips just a fraction of one degree and lights up the whole world before us, we are present to enjoy it.

Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction
Chapter One: Spirit Walks
Chapter Two: Do It Yourself
Chapter Three: Writing into Truth
Chapter Four: Engage Curiosity
Chapter Five: Nature as a Writing Partner
Chapter Six: Going Deeper
Chapter Seven: Story of the Body, Body of the Story
Chapter Eight: The Body Never Lies
Chapter Nine: It’s a Wild Thing
Chapter Ten: The Nature of Writing
Chapter Eleven: Creativity and the Four Elements
Chapter Twelve: Lessons from the Natural World
Chapter Thirteen: The Energy of Writing
Chapter Fourteen: Rhythm of Language
Chapter Fifteen: Imagination to Intuition
Chapter Sixteen: Follow Your Longing
Chapter Seventeen: Wild Instincts
Chapter Eighteen: Writing Wild
Chapter Nineteen: Care and Feeding of a Writer
Chapter Twenty: Wild Spirit
Chapter Twenty-one: Writing Gifts
Epilogue: The Earthweave

Acknowledgments
Recommended Reading
About the Author

Editorial Reviews

“This book will help you learn how to really see and come more fully alive. I love it!”
— Penney Peirce, author of Frequency

“Before I was a full chapter into Tina Welling’s book, I found myself breathing more deeply; by chapter 2, I was outside — with the book, my notebook, and a pen....What a gentle guide and rich companion for explorations of our wilderness — both inside and out.”
— Judy Reeves, author of A Writer’s Book of Days

“Tina Welling says, ‘Writers need nature.’ I can hardly wait to introduce my writing students to this book — and encourage them to write outside, to get a word-tan, to let rain hit their journal pages, and to sit in the elements they are trying to describe — both inner and outer.”
— Christina Baldwin, author of Storycatcher

“A thought-provoking read not only for writers but for anyone who wants to deepen their connection to the world around them.”
— Kyle Mills, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists

“This book is as delightful as it is thoughtful. Spend a day with Tina Welling in the woods and feel your writer’s heart burst open on the page.”
— Susan Chernak McElroy, author of Animals as Teachers and Healers

“Writing Wild is an impressive guide to feeling, seeing, thinking, and writing about the beauty, sadness, and wonder of life. Tina Welling has created a gift for us all.”
— Tim Sandlin, author of Rowdy in Paris

From the Publisher