Blisscraft Life With Christina Katz

This is a place to gather final thoughts, threads, and media related to Wild by Cheryl Strayed.

It’s also the place to consider sharing your comprehensive thoughts on the book as a whole.

Please copy and paste links of interesting media related to Wild in the comments below.

Did you stumble across a cool blog post or a see a video reading that you wanted to share?

Then this is the place to do so.

It’s also the place to write  a comprehensive review of the book from your point of view.

Consider sharing your review, here, in the comments, and also around the Internet in various places that allow the posting and sharing of reviews.

Most book retailers and book discussion communities also allow book reviews. Or, if you prefer, post yours there and then link to it in the comments here, so we can all read it too.

Most book review sites offer a way to link to your review via a “permalink.”

I will link my review here when I am done with it too.

I look forward to what you have to share and say in closing this discussion about Wild by Cheryl Strayed.

Thanks for participating! And thank you Cheryl Strayed for writing such a discussable book!

Man vs. nature. Man vs. man. Man vs. himself.

Cheryl Strayed vs. ???

In Wild by Cheryl Strayed what was the conflict that kept the story moving forward—that kept the reader reading?

What vs. what?

Along the journey the narrator encounters nature over and over. She encounters actual nature: a fox, a bull, a bear, frogs, and many others.

She has a unforgettable encounter with a horse.

And she also encounters her own nature.

Nature is a major player in Wild. Nature is big and alive and teeming with possibility, danger, and despair in this book.

Where does the depiction of nature leave you as a reader of this story?

What role does nature play in both the book and the ongoing dramatic tension of the story?

Was your attitude towards nature changed by reading this book?

Say anything you want.

I teach pitching to writers because writers are resistant to the aspects required to create an awesome pitch.

An awesome pitch requires:

Focus. You have to be able to push all the other distractions out of your mind’s way, if you are going to be able to clear the way for a strong pitch.

Clarity. You have to know what you are saying to make a good pitch. How are you saying this and not that and how does what you are saying make your pitch a better fit than it might be otherwise?

Understanding. You have to care, first of all. You have to forget yourself long enough to sincerely want to be helpful to an editor’s needs. A pitch is not about you.

Confidence. You have to believe that you can do the footwork and deliver a finished piece of excellent work that is worth publishing.

Willingness. You have to be willing to fail. You have to accept “no” or silence as one step closer to a possible “yes.”

Flexibility. You have to have such a focused, clear, confident understanding of your topic that you can reconfigure it if necessary. You have to be informed yet flexible in your approach. This is hard for some writers who want to stay on the surface of a topic until an editor gives them an assignment. But it doesn’t work that way. You don’t the assignment until you have inspired the confidence that you can carry it out.

Perseverance. Initially learning to pitch is awkward and uncomfortable. But when a writer shifts from partially succeeding to nailing it, that’s a major shift in a writer’s career. It means mastery of a skill that comes in handy in so many aspects of a writing career.

There is an art to pitching. And once you’ve got the hang of it, it belongs to you.

And yes, of all the classes I teach, pitching is probably the most challenging…but it’s also the most rewarding for those who are ready for it.

Yup, the climb is steep. But the victory sure is sweet.

Pitching Practice begins Wednesday. Are you up for it?

~ photo by searching4jphotography

Money. Money. Money.

It’s mentioned 31 times in Wild by Cheryl Strayed.

Money is often on the narrator’s mind. Having money. Not having money. Being rich with $20 in her pocket. Scraping together enough change to buy a Snapple lemonade.

Oh, that Snapple lemonade. I’ve never wanted one in my life until I read this book.

I want one right now, in fact. Really badly.

On page 280, Strayed writes, “I probably wouldn’t have been fearless enough to go on such a trip with so little money if I hadn’t grown up without it. I’d always thought of my family’s economic standing in terms of what I didn’t get: camp and lessons and travel and college tuition and the inexplicable ease that comes when you’ve got access to a credit card that someone else is paying off. But now I could see the line between this and that—between a childhood in which I saw my mother and stepfather forging ahead over and over again with two pennies in their pocket and my own general sense that I could do it too.”

A connection between money and fearlessness. A connection between not having enough and having enough.

The word “enough” is mentioned 54 times. What does money have to do with being enough in this book?

What does money have to do with being lost and being found?

What does not having to focus on money allow in the story?

In the memoir, Wild, by Cheryl Strayed on page 241, the narrator talks about a necklace given as a gift by a friend.

I looked at the padded envelope. It was from my friend Laura in Minneapolis. I opened the envelope and pulled its contents out: a letter folded around a necklace she’d made for me in honor of my new name. STRAYED it said in blocky silver letters on a ball-link chain. At first glance, it looked like it said STARVED because the Y was slightly different than all of the other letters—fatter and squatter and cast from a different mold, and my mind scrambled the letters into a familiar word.

Earlier in the book we learned that the narrator chose a new name for herself after she got divorced. She picked a name that was meaningful to her. She told us on page 97:

I had diverged, digressed, wandered, and become wild. I didn’t embrace the word as my new name because it defined negative aspects of my circumstances or life, but because even in my darkest days—those very days in which I was naming myself—I saw the power of the darkness. Saw that, in fact, I had strayed and that I was a stray and from the wild places my straying had brought me, I know things I couldn’t have known before.

In what ways was the dramatic object of the necklace symbolic in the narration?

What’s the difference between straying and starving?

And in how many different ways did the narrator experience both?

And what do either straying or starving have to do with the void, which comes up on page 127 when the narrator encounters a woman in the restroom in Reno who comments on the feather Cheryl has attached to her pack.

“It’s got to be a corvid,” she said, reaching over to touch it delicately with one finger. “It’s either a raven or a crow, a symbol of the void,” she added in a mystical tone.

“The void?” I asked, crestfallen.

“It’s a good thing,” she said. “It’s the place where things are born, where they begin. Think about how a black hole absorbs energy and then releases it as something new and alive.”

Straying. Settled. Starving. Sated. Empty. Full. How are these ideas all explored in the story?

I knew that if I allowed fear to overtake me, my journey was doomed. Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose to tell myself a different story from the one women are told. I decided I was safe. I was strong. I was brave. Nothing could vanquish me. ~ page 51 of Wild by Cheryl Strayed

One thing about Wild that kept jumping out at me, was how  brave the author was in her willingness to hike the trail alone. Even when Cheryl could have hiked with others, she often preferred to remain alone.

A woman alone. I think this is a good discussion topic.

I hiked a section of the Appalachian Trail with a friend in my early twenties (just a couple of years earlier than when Strayed went on her trip only ours was only for a week and on the opposite coast). When we got off the trail at the end of our hike and returned to civilization, all the locals we encountered were shocked that just the two of us would hike for so many nights out on the trail…two women alone.

Just as the forest ranger seemed to relish telling Strayed and her trail buddies all of his horror stories about all of the terrible things he’d witnessed, the locals did the same thing with us after we got off the trail for good. And boy, were we glad we hadn’t known more before our hike. It was hard enough to sleep. Afterwards, folks could not wait to tell us how the government wanted to expand the trail and how, in protest, local dissenters were booby-trapping the trails by hanging fish hooks at eye level. We heard about women disappearing, getting raped, etc. And on and on and on. I don’t necessarily remember all the stories, but I remember that they were delivered with emotion and amazement. How could we be so foolish?

Women are not supposed to be alone. It’s not safe. Right?

And yet the redemption that comes to Strayed seemed to depend on facing her journey, both external and internal, alone.

If you are familiar with The Hero’s Journey, as discussed by Joseph Campbell and others, you may remember that a Hero’s success in any particular quest typically has much to do with his alliances.

And yet, Strayed’s success in restoring her feeling of wholeness by going on her wilderness hike seemed dependent on her insistence on being alone, again and again, no matter how many times she connected and reconnected with others she came to know and like. She had alliances but so much of the story was about letting those old ties go.

Is this the Heroine’s Journey then? And is being alone an important factor in the Heroine’s Journey?

Have you been on a journey that was more like Strayed’s—more like a heroine’s journey? Or have you read other books that describe something similar?

Is Strayed describing The Heroine’s Journey…or is there no such thing separate from The Hero’s Journey? What do you think?

“I always wondered about the people who do that. I know the trail is up there,” she said, waving her hand westward, “but I’ve never been on it.” She came closer and for a moment I thought she’d try to give me a hug, but she only patted my arm. “You’re not alone, are you?” When I nodded, she laughed and put a hand to her chest. “And what on earth does your mother have to say about that?” ~ meeting Christine, page 147 of Wild by Cheryl Strayed

The catalyst for Strayed’s eventual PCT hike is her struggle with mother’s unexpected death.

The discovery that her mother is going to die, which happens more quickly and more awfully than anyone in the family could have imagined, takes place early in the book.

Strayed becomes a motherless daughter, to coin the title of Hope Edelman’s landmark 1995 book.

What does it mean to be motherless?

How does it feel to be motherless?

How is the concept of being motherless explored in the book?

Does motherlessness play a role in your life? Does it play a role in all of our lives?

Is mothering important or not important to each of us and to our collective future?

In what ways does this story restore a sense of mothering for Strayed and for the reader?

If you are seeking a writing career you will love, I would love to serve as your guide and coach in one of my highly praised, widely respected six-week classes.

A lot of folks go for bells and whistles today. They go heavy on the social pressure. They OD on technology. They want to hurry writers up and get them overloaded with information and tools.

That’s not how I work with writers. It’s also why I can work with anyone, meet them where they are, and help them take their writing career to the next level via my classes and dream teams. I don’t put things in the way, I help my students take things out of the way.

Maybe you have read one of my books. Maybe you have been wanting to take a class with me for a long time but you have just been waiting for the right moment. Maybe you saw me speak and thought you might like to work with me one day.

Working with me is a huge gift to your creative self. It’s a gift because you grant yourself permission to focus on yourself and your own ideas. Focusing on your own ideas is key because this is where everything else in your writing career comes from. Nothing else can happen until you create a context within yourself where you can court and woo your own ideas into something greater.

Nurturing ideas is a key part of my writing classes, my platform development classes, my query writing classes, and my eBook classes.

Of course, having an idea is only the beginning of a writing journey. Sometimes a writing journey is a long journey and sometimes it’s a comparatively short journey, but it’s always an experience involving ups and downs, challenges and breakthroughs, and determination and letting go. There is no way around the sheer hard work of nurturing a writing career.

And that’s where I come in. I can’t nurture your writing career for you, but I can assist you in nurturing it. I can validate your urge to do so by helping you get to work and grow your writing career in ways that make sense to you. Every skill I teach is a career-long skill that will keep benefiting you no matter what you write.

And you know what? Creative growth is a great feeling. And the world is full of creative opportunities right now despite the droning on of the naysayers’ chorus.

What those people are really saying, when they say, “Don’t create, because you’ll never succeed,” is not about you. It’s about them. They are saying, “I am blocked and I want you to be blocked with me.” They are saying, “Don’t create because if you succeed, then I am wrong.” They are saying, “If you succeed while I fan the flames of my fears, then I will end up frustrated and jealous.”

And they will be. And so what if they are? It’s not your problem.

While they are creating a portfolio of grievances, you can create a portfolio of small accomplishments. And those small accomplishments will begin to pile up over time.

You can create. And succeed. And it is not a reflection on anyone but you.

This is why I say, naysayers be damned. I am going to keep creating and keep working with those who love to create. And we’re going to keep succeeding without giving a rip what all the naysayers think.

We have a pretty good time, working hard, believe it or not. We’re a pretty satisfied bunch, so long as we are creating. We create a whole world of possibilities that never existed before we came along and that’s pretty exciting every time.

So, if you want to get creative, stop tangling yourself up with naysayers and do your darn work. You don’t have to change them or save them. Just save yourself. Take a step forward. Focus on creative productivity for six weeks rather than dissipated distraction and you just might amaze yourself.

Classes begin on April 11th and 12th and I’ll be teaching them. I’ve been teaching them for ten years.

I hope you will join us! Please visit my classes page to learn more about the following classes that begin in ten days:

Writing & Publishing The Short Stuff

Discover Your Specialty & Launch Your Platform

Pitching Practice: Write Six Queries in Six Weeks

Micro-publishing for Mom Writers

Welcome to the first book discussion of the Beyond Busy Global Monthly Book Club.

Today, April 1st, we begin our global discussion of Wild, From Lost To Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed (Knopf March 2012).

No fooling!

In the true “beyond busy” spirit, I finished the book at about 8:30 pm on the last day of March, just in time to begin this discussion on April 1st.

If you have not finished the book yet yourself, you might want to steer clear of these posts until you have finished reading, as they may contain spoilers.

All book discussion posts are clearly marked with the abbreviation, “BBGMBC,” to set them apart from other posts.

BBGMBC=Beyond Busy Global Monthly Book Club (Can also be used as a tag on Twitter: #BBGMBC)

I will be asking one discussion question per day in this blog for seven days each month. Anyone can join the club (sign up in our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/257596150995443/).

In the Facebook group we can easily introduce ourselves and share our enthusiasm for the books without spoilers. But here in this blog, we can share, in more detail, what we think about the book and want to express to others about our experience as readers.

If you are new to the book club, just jump in and start reading and join us as soon as you finish the book. I respectfully ask only those who have finished the book to participate in the discussion.

And don’t worry, if you need more time, you can always finish up the book at your own pace and then jump in and answer these questions at any time.

For those of us who wish to participate in real time (the 1st – the 7th of the month), having a deadline is good motivation to finish selected books by the first of each month.

Before I ask our first discussion question, I just want to say that there is no right/wrong way to answer these questions. You can answer off the cuff with plenty of typos in your response because the baby needs to be fed and this is all the time you have. Or you can carefully mull over your response and run it through spell check in Microsoft Word first before you carefully edit and post your thoughts. You do not need to have a PhD to be in this book club. Nobody is going to judge you. How could they after reading such a book as Wild?

As the club creator and host, all I ask is three things:

No self-promotion, no judging/condemning the author, other group members or me, and please keep responses rated PG.

Our primary purpose is to enjoy sharing our thoughts and opinions about the book and to try and make sure that everyone has a good time discussing the book. So without further ado, let the book club discussion begin!

Our first question to the book club members is a simple, personal one:

What was your favorite passage or scene in the book and why?

Please describe the passage or scene in your own words.

Why did you pick this particular moment in the book?

What made this scene meaningful to you?

If not a particular scene, per se, feel free to mention an aspect of the book or of your experience reading the book that was personally meaningful or enriching to you and tell us why.

Thanks for sharing. Please limit discussion question responses in the comments here to 300 words or less.

If you find yourself wanting to say more, consider answering the question in a Word document and then cutting down your response before you paste it in the comments.

You are also welcome to respond to book club discussion questions in your own blog and link your posts back to question posts.

Obviously there is no word-count if you post in your own blog, but keep in mind that members of the club are already “beyond busy.” We can do each other a favor by keeping our comments thoughtful and concise.

Have fun sharing what you loved most about our first discussion book, Cheryl Strayed’s wonderful memoir, Wild, From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail!

We are making up the guidelines as we go along, and naturally, they will evolve as the club evolves. Thanks for being patient with the process. 🙂

Every so often I will ask for member feedback. I hope you enjoy the discussion!