Writing Wild: Forming a Creative Partnership with Nature

by Tina Welling

Even if we don’t write about nature, Tina Welling demonstrates, nature triggers our stories. This is because “everything we know about creating, we know intuitively from the natural world.” One can set the stage for creation by following these three steps: consciously naming the information gathered by the senses, describing the sensory details of one particular object, and interacting with the energy system of the universe. Welling discovered the last step while hiking and observing an intricate spiderweb shimmering in sunlight. Spiderwebs, she notes, are both “wondrous and ordinary” — ordinary in that they are made of chewed-up insects, yet wondrous in their intricacy. Welling shows writers how to make this kind of connection between the everyday and the hidden, worthy-of-attention beauty all around us. She makes the process of developing a fruitful relationship with wildness inside and out accessible to all writers and insight seekers.

Genres: Writing, Nature, Nonfiction, Teaching, Spirituality, Philosophy

248 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2014

About the author

An interviewer asked me recently during a live radio show what my most exciting moment has been as an author. He gave some examples: seeing my books on the shelf of a bookstore, perhaps spotting someone reading one of them. I thought only a second before telling him that the most exciting moment for me happens when I'm all alone writing and suddenly hit on an insight that opens up new understanding for me or when two ideas come together to form a brand new idea.

The outer events are nice, quite satisfying, yet the inner events are why I really write.

And the best thing about being published? That's when I hear from a reader and together we create an exchange between us. I love that incredible intimacy that occurs when two strangers - one writing, one reading - connect and form a complete circle. That's a big highlight for me.
I'd love to hear from you. Contact me here or by email Tina@TinaWelling.com.

Reviews

[Stephanie Affinito · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a breath of fresh air. Literally. Tina Welling combines two of her passions, writing and nature, into a transformative experience that readers can recreate for themselves. This book was a part memoir, part personal development and part informational book about the power of nature. Combined together, it offered powerful lessons for writing AND for life. Filled with compelling concepts, memorable anecdotes and tangible writing invitations, readers will connect to their senses, their bodies, nature and of course, their notebooks, too.

[Claire Lillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Nature is pure energy, expressed creatively, forever changing. We can partner with the natural world for inspiration, comfort, and nurturing. Living in partnership with nature can also help us produce new ideas and images and draw supporting material to ourselves. This occurs when we open to possibility, honor chance events, become willing to make unusual connections, and experience the outdoors with a willingness to fall in love with essential aliveness."

This book makes me so incredibly happy! I was passing from the Grand Tetons through Yellowstone in August, when I happened to stop at a gift shop for a little break and saw it sitting on a shelf and had to get it. I am forever glad I did!

Writing Wild combines two things I love greatly -- writing and nature, and presents a wonderful resource that does not only inspire you to write and be outside, but also contains so many lessons to use during everything you do in life.

Tina Welling is a great storyteller through her honest and kind words, and on every page I learned something that opened my mind to so much possibility, yet felt like I had known it all along in my subconsciousness. How she connects the mind and nature and stories makes so much sense now, and my life feels much more enhanced by it. What she says feels so right, and you can sense the truth of it all in your soul.

I haven't read a lot of writing reference/how-to books, but I can tell that this one is a hidden gem of a book. It is no matter if you don't even like writing, for I'm sure Writing Wild will help you anyways, wherever you may be in your life at the moment.

"The one thing I wish for each of us in this world is the willingness to experience the weave of energy that binds all living things and pulsates within each of us, breathing in, breathing out. Trees laced in light and the shine of water-veined mountains are reminders of the earthweave.
Keep watching.
Keep writing."

[Donnetta D Norris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I Read This For A Book Club

I cannot say that Writing Wild is not a great book. However, there was a lot that did not resonate with me. 1. I’m not a nature person. 2. I don’t feel the way about writing that she and others she mentioned feel about writing. Since my book club voted for this book, my goal was to read the entire book, and I did.

[Mindy Hardwick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Filled with nuggets of inspiration drawn from nature this is a great one to read alongside Bird By Bird.

[Charity · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an amazing guide and connection between writing and nature.

[Artemisia Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first approached Writing Wild as a book that appeared to pair writing practice with spending time in nature, which of course is a wonderful idea. Many writers and other creative people talk about how long walks in nature can be a wonderful way to get creative juices flowing as preparation for a long day of creating. However author Tina Welling takes this idea deeper as she subtitles this book, "Forming a Creative Partnership with Nature". It is far more about a spiritual connection to the wildness in nature that helps the writer to find that same essence of wildness in the self thereby unearthing the deepest and most authentic parts of oneself. For artists of all kinds striving to find their "authentic voice", there is wonderful inspiration in this. Where many writing books give wonderful exercises and creative tips to expand your writing prowess, Writing Wild takes us back to the deepest source of whatever it is we create: our own inherently wild and free nature.

[Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tina Welling is a fiction writer, known for Cowboys Never Cry, Fairytale Blues and Crybaby Ranch. This book, Writing Wild, is non-fiction; in fact, it is a book about writing. Here's how Welling describes the book:

Everything we know about creating, we know intuitively from the natural world. Over and over, nature shows us the rules of creativity. . . 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, heal, enlivens, and deeply engages both writer and reader.

As a model, she takes Joseph Campbell, who wrote, "The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature."

Welling lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a place where (I imagine) you love the natural world, or you move away.

She believes in using all five senses in writing, and has several exercises to show you how to do that, too. She uses a method called "Naming, Detailing, Interacting," which she describes in detail, so you can learn how to get the most out of a nature walk, and bring it into your writing.

She also shows us how to truly inhabit our body. For many of my coaching clients, the body ends right at the neck, there is a vague connection to fingers (for writing or typing) and then. . .nothing. I'm always surprised at how many writers live their entire lives in their head. Welling pries you out of it with gentle, easy exercises that make you realize how much of your truth lives in your body.

Once you have learned to connect your body to your head, she guides you to understand that intuition is a knowledge we all have, but often don't trust. And that writing is the healing action that combines body and soul.

One of my favorite parts of the book is the idea that we do not, after all, write what we know. Instead, Welling says, we write to know something, and that something is ourselves. (I found a hint of Inner Hero here.)

Chapter titles include:

Nature as a Writing Partner
The Body Never Lies
Creativity and the Four Elements
Lessons from the Natural World
The Energy of Writing
Follow Your Longing
Wild Spirit

This book is certainly not for everyone. But for hikers, naturalists or writers curious about the world around them, you will find help, validation, and some interesting exercises to help you become the writer you already know you are.

[Story Circle Book Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writing Wild: Forming a Creative Partnership with Nature begins with a poetic description of the sudden illumination of a dew-beaded spider web. "One moment, the dead tree was notable only for its shapely flare... The next moment, it was aflame with stars." This moment highlights the interconnectedness between earth's creative energy and personal creative energy.

Author Tina Welling shares her journey and the specific steps she took to bring her creative rhythm into alignment with the rhythms of nature. Professional writers will gain insights on creativity and craft from Writing Wild: Forming a Creative Partnership with Nature, as will private journal keepers and others who wish for "a stronger relationship with wildness."

Welling details the three-step foundation of a process she refers to as a Spirit Walk: name, describe, and interact. This process so intrigued me that I set out to thread the steps into my own writing life. My runs along dirt trails through the desert took on new meaning, as did simply watching the clouds during half time of my son's soccer games. I carried a small notebook with me, with Name, Describe, and Interact scribbled on its cover. I experienced the shift Welling describes: the once mundane and daily taking on richness in detail. My awareness heightened, my writing deepened, my sense of connection with the world and my writing expanded.

Welling addresses the assumption that writers somehow have more time to write than anybody else. It is not that writers have fewer obligations, less demands, and more time. It is that writers make decisions to write, often difficult decisions. "As writers, we choose a particular way of life. It is our business to see what others may miss; we see life as an exciting wilderness of connections, and we make it our work to discover these connections, mark the path through them, and pass the information on to others...Yet it is uncomfortable at times."

Welling proves a wise companion and steady guide through this wilderness of connections, for all of their beauty and discomfort. She does not shy away from the human dynamics of a writing life, in family, work, and the world. Whether one is a writer, a journal keeper, or one who wants to experience life on a deeper level through writing, this book will open worlds of wonder. Grab your notebook. Try it.

by Dawn Wink
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

[roguereader · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not in line with how I view the world, namely the spiritual undertones. The author is too David Avocado Wolfe for me, with her messages of balancing ions in the body, energies, chakras, etc. A snake crossing your path has meaning only because you’ve given it meaning; not because the universe is speaking to you...

However, once I push past all that material, she makes good points. Writers need empathy towards themselves and also need to be in touch with themselves and nature to fully realize their creativity.

There are more scientific explanations for what she points out even if she goes on a more spiritual explanation for things. I found myself frustrated with how she seemed to both denounce science yet pull it in when she felt that it bolstered her material. I don’t think ruling out scientific explanations is necessary to be in touch with yourself and nature. There’s nothing spiritual about all that; it’s simple biology.

Having pointed out those frustrations, the author did make me think about things a bit differently. She makes good points about going out in nature and replenishing your creativity or sitting back and taking time to be in the moment.

All in all, even if her tone and worldview do not jive with yours, I’d recommend this book to be read with an open mind and glean some perspective on what it means to be an artist and a human.

This book pushed me out of my comfort zone, and even though I rolled my eyes at a number of things she said, like chakras and energy balances, yin and yang, left brain right brain, etc. she was still worth reading.

I give 3 stars for the good material, but not higher simply because she’s too spiritual for me. I want to give 4 stars because I did learn from her and maybe I’ll return one day and change the rating if I find myself adopting her lessons.

[Ann Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good and useful book for writers, but decidedly geared toward beginners.

I feel as though I already know most of what Welling writes here, but that is because of my own particular background, training, and approach to writing. So it is no reflection on the book itself.

I do not give it 5 stars for several reasons, though...reasons that may have more to do with Welling's editors or publisher. The book feels redundant in places, and the structure seems a bit forced to meet chapter or theme demands rather than, well, being truly inspirational so that one would turn to it again and again.

Having said all that, I still would recommend it to a person who is serious about creative writing but starting out and feeling a bit stuck.

[Susan Marsh]

For anyone who is stuck - either with writing or something else in their personal life - getting outside and letting the natural world in is true medicine. Tina shows you how with some simple but profound methods, as she tells her own story about how she came to writing as both personal expression and a means for learning who she truly is.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book so much that I turned around and read it again, slower this time, and even bought another copy to give to my sister! This was the kind of thing I was looking for when I picked up Healing with Nature as well as Partnering with Nature! Wonderful, practical advice for how to attune your senses to the outside world and how to use that to connect with your creativity.

[David Buhler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, not only for writers, is full of wisdom for anyone wishing to live a fuller life.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite reading this side-by-side with Bird by Bird (which is genius), I very much enjoyed it and felt it had poignant points for the writer about listening, observing, being still. A point that really resonated with me was her discussion about a writer's need for recognition. While she talks about ego, both the problems with it and the function it serves, it was the part about the writer's essence that I felt to be engaging. "We are people who are creative, attentive, and deeply engaged with life. We're thinking and watching and making connections all the time. Be we are doing this in solitude, and then, when we go out into the world to our jobs or the grocery store, nobody is acknowledging this vibrant self or the euphoria or the dark struggles we may have been experiencing while pursuing our creative work.". Yes!

[Mother Goose Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Nature triggers our stories.”

I love to read books about writing and Tina Welling’s Writing Wild: Forming a Creative Partnership with Nature is a new favorite in my collection. Welling writes about ways in which a writer can be in connection with the natural world in order to spark one’s writing, as well as her personal story on how she came to her writing through nature. Essentially, Writing Wild is a writing handbook as well as a personal memoir. Welling describes “spirit walks,” using one’s senses, listing, using natural elements, and writing from quotes as some of the inspiration and tools of “writing wild.” She instructs us that, “As writers we need to live more fully than others.” regardless of whether you are a nature enthusiast or someone who is more of an indoor type, Writing Wild has writing advice and information that you can add to your writing repertoire.

[Zack · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me much longer to read this than I anticipated. There are many writing exercises throughout the book to focus and practice writing. At times, it fell more into mysticism than I would prefer, but whatever gets you expressing yourself is what matters. I had a hard time focusing on the book because of all the ideas and memories it would cause to bubble up in my mind.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of focus on the body and finger writing intuitively which didn't really resonate with me. An early chapter about naming nature items you see and describing one verbally in detail is a good practice. I mostly scanned the last half of the book as I felt other books were more suited to my style of nature writing.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book! This is exactly the kind of motivation I needed to get me inspired to write; and since I love nature, how perfect is this? I loved the "try this" exercises.

[Fern · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this one! Believable, approachable writing advice. Even if you don’t pick up the pen, you will feel closer to a sense of play and natural observation.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of great writing advice! Though parts of it felt a bit appropriative of Indigenous practices.

[Ashley Bloom · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good I’m buying it!

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this to anyone: writer or observer. Puts you in touch with your feelings, memories and past.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wanted to love this. But it was a bit repetitive and needed to be better organized.

[Mary Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tina Welling wrote for many years before declaring to herself and her family she was giving writing a prominent place in her life. She had once been “an indecisive, dependent woman who leaned excessively on her husband.”
It was the process of writing that “continually threw me back into myself, because only I could decide what to write.”
The process of writing is important to Welling – much more so than publication. To find recognition, exchange and acceptance though, Welling knows writers need to take writing from the private to the public realm. That can be done by attending workshops, conferences, open mike readings and forming one’s own writing group.
I’m sure readers will relate to the journey and the courage it takes to make writing a priority. I definitely did.
Welling’s three-step process, called a Spirit Walk, was inspired by The Intuitive Way by Penney Pierce. Instinct, emotion and language, all part of a mental pathway, became the three-part formula of the Spirit Walk Welling describes in the book: naming, describing, interacting.
First, you name the information your senses bring you from the natural world. “Our five senses are our doorways into a fuller experience of our bodies, our writing, and our planet,” Welling says.
Second, detail one thing in the outdoors to create a relationship with it.
Third, interact with your outdoor surroundings to allow your awareness of nature and your presence in it to bring your emotions into consciousness. Write down the responses that occur in your body. Allow your memories, hopes, fears, and dreams to arise. “In this alerted, awakened state, our stories rise from the unconscious to the conscious,” Welling says. “These stories are used for our creative writing or for our personal healing.”
I felt as if this was a process we may intuitively follow but haven’t articulated. The three-step process of a Spirit Walk carries us into “an awakening of self and place,” Welling says.
She proposes writing what we want to know. “That draws us into following our curiosity.”
“Creative people need nature, a relationship with wildness. The link between the creative mind and nature is the body,” Welling says. Later she writes about linking creativity to the four elements and writes: “Our bodies are our link to the earth. Our senses are our power lines.”
While Welling’s lessons are from the natural world, they are also from her own experience. I want to make up a deck of inspirational cards for myself with phrases like this: “Writers and artists perform the duties that a wise woman or medicine man does in aboriginal societies. It is our job to be ‘first aware,’ to interpret, make connections, detect patterns, and notify the others.”
Welling has learned to simplify in order to make time for her writing. She’s also learned to lower her standards. (That’s advice from poet William Stafford who stayed in the creative flow by lowering expectations.)
Welling dresses simply, freezes batches of food for future meals when she’s deep into her writing, and cuts back on social obligations. She remembers she doesn’t have to be everything to everybody. “We just need to be somebody to ourselves,” she says.
The journey Tina Welling has been undertaking and encourages for others is based in the body and rooted in nature. Beyond observation and recording of “scene and activity”, creative writers can “create a brand-new event out of it with our experience and our use of language. This is the process of a Spirit Walk. This is writing wild.”
Writing Wild is a book to read over and over again. Wise and down-to-earth, literally.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this walk through the author's creative process, and have already put some of her ideas into practice. I've neglected my inner writer for a long time, and books like this one give me courage and inspiration to start writing again.

[Emily Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb! Thoughtful, earthy, and encouraging!

[Kristi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant!

I usually read from an inspirational writing book and a craft/promotional book every day to keep me on track with my writing career.

This month, I chose Writing Wild by Tina Welling as my inspirational book. Each day I couldn’t wait to get up and read her words and absorb her wisdom on nature and writing. I was educated, soothed and encouraged by this book.

I found character insights, setting ideas, motivation techniques, relaxation strategies, strength – the kitchen sink was all in this book.

It now sits on my bookshelf with a big star on the spine to remind me where to reach when I need a little encouragement and all the rest of the good stuff.

LOVED IT!!