Today I want you to write in the wild.

My childhood was spent in a peapod hamlet on the prairies. I was the kid with her nose in a book – maybe you can relate. The summers were long and my mom wouldn’t listen to me complain about being bored.

“Go outside and get some fresh air in your beak.”

I’d jump on my bike, throw a book, pad, pen and apples in the basket and pedal down an old country road. Eventually a perfect spot under a tree would appear and I’d settle in and read and write for a few hours. No, I wasn’t Laura Ingalls Wilder wearing my covered bonnet. It was the 70s and 80s when kids still had freedom.

It was bad writing for sure, but it filled those long summer days with meaning and fun. Nature swirled around me in the forms of birds, clouds, bugs and the sounds of the prairie. It slowly transformed a nerdy kid into someone who wrote in the wild. Writing outdoors became a joyful and soulful lifelong habit.

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I live in a small city now, but that doesn’t stop me from writing in the wild. For six months of the year (I live in Canada) you’ll find me avoiding mowing the lawn and hanging out with my pen and notebook instead. Or I head to a nearby park or botanical garden or just sit on the deck. (Trust me, a snack is always close by.)

You don’t need to go anywhere fancy with waterfalls, windchimes and swans. Just find a place to sit.

Nature will find you.

When was the last time you wrote outside?

Have you been feeling a lack of creativity and the words have dried up?

It’s time for you to go outside and get some fresh air in your beak.

The process is simple. Write about what is in front of you. Who just flew by? What sounds do you hear? Do you see any connections? Did the bird song bring a memory?

Your writing doesn’t have to be complicated. It doesn’t even have to be good. (That comes with practice.)

But when you just allow yourself the freedom to get outside and write whatever the hell you want?

You become the wild thing who writes in the wild.

*Did you love this? Then check out Scribbly – my quirky writing program that we snail-mail right to your house. Scribbly writers from three countries joyfully anticipate looking in their mailbox! (And then they go sit outside with their Scribbly issues.)