Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hi and welcome to your beginner's Guide
to Nature Writing. My name is Tasmin Huntsman
and I am an author of these books that
you can see around me and I'm a freelance creative. I'm an environmentalist and
I am a skill shared teacher. I have moved from Germany to the Z because I love the nature here so much and you can follow my journey
on my Youtube channel. I have already released four
other skillshare classes, three of which were
about writing and one of which was all about nature
and environmentalism. So I think you can see
how we ended up on a class with nature
writing in my poetry, and actually also in
my fiction writing. Even though my novels have
not been published yet, I focus heavily on nature, both in a fictional sense as
well as in a poetic sense. And I just love nature so much, and I love incorporating
nature in my writing. In today's class,
we are going to look into the topic
of nature writing. What is it? How can you do it? And how to get started and
where to go from there. I hope you're going to have fun and that you're going
to learn something. Grab a pen and a piece of paper
or your keyboard to type. If you're not the handwriting, type and let's go.
2. Class Project: To immediately use the skills that we're going to learn today. You guys are going to get a class project that you
can do if you want to. The class project for
this specific class is to either write a poem
or a short story, which can be fictional
but doesn't have to be. It can also be non fiction. It can be just almost like
an essay if you want to, a short story or an
essay if you want to, about something in nature
that fascinates you, that you feel connected
with or just about your favorite natural
phenomenon out there. This can range from your house plants to an
animal that you love, to volcanoes and how much it fascinates
you when they erupt. You can create
this class project while you're
watching this class, if you're very good
at multitasking. Or you can do the project after the class is finished
and then come back to the class and post it. You can leave it posted under projects and
resources down below. And if you have any
questions about this class, please feel free to ask your questions in
the discussion tab, which is also down below.
3. What is Nature Writing?: Before we dive into the
actual writing tips, let's first ask the question, what is nature writing? Nature writing is a
type of writing in which the beauty of
the natural world, the environment, and
the landscapes around us is observed and
described with words. This sounds very
broad and very vague, which makes sense because
nature writing is a very broad topic which includes multiple
genres of writing. You can do fictional
natural writing, you can do nature writing, combined with a memoir. You can do nature
writing in non fiction, in poetry, and in pretty much
any genre that you like. And you can take nature writing literally
and just describe the natural world
with the passion you have for it and describe
its beauty and wonder. But it is also often seen as a way and a metaphor
to describe emotions, describe someone's mental state, and to explore human emotion and experiences through nature. This is mostly done
through metaphors, by using nature as a metaphor
for the human experience. However, we will get to
that in a little bit. If this sounds a bit
too much for you, just come back to yourself. Sent to yourself and remind yourself that nature is already present in our daily
use of language. And I'm going to use the English language here as an example. But if you want, I will open up a Discussions
tab down below, where you can share
nature expressions, day to day nature
expressions that happen in your native language if it's not English or if you know
of any good English one, since English is not
my first language. So here are some examples
for day to day phrases that incorporate nature
into our daily speech. Having a family tree, the tree of life, having
roots to a place, or a culture being
interconnected, like fungi to beat
around the bush. Something being a
breath of fresh air. The brass is greener. On the other side, the
calm before the storm. This is exactly where
nature writing starts. But it of course
doesn't stop there. It goes a step further. Some good everyday examples
where nature writing, or a description of
nature is used as a metaphor for human emotions. The meeting felt
like walking through the desert with no
water and no compass. The realization hit her like a wave or like a
lightning strike. Seeing their friend felt like finding an oasis in the desert. His cheeks became
the color of roses. She felt as if
walking on clouds. She went into Mama Bear mode. He was as stubborn
as a mountain. They were always searching for love like the ocean,
following the moon. Always longing but
unable to reach it. If you want to go deep
into nature writing, this is your starting point. And now we're going to
dive deeper personally. When I started to go deeper into nature writing
in my own creations, it felt like remembering. Don't be afraid when you still feel a little
bit overwhelmed. First of all, I hope at
the end of this class that this will no
longer be the case. And second of all, nature
writing is something that is very human because it has
been around for so, so long. Nature writing might be
the oldest form of writing if we count the cave art of our ancient ancestors
as writing. But even if we don't, it has been around for a
very long time, ever since humans existed. We told stories and talked about the natural
world around us. About how it moved
us, changed us. How it was the base of our survival and our
sense of wonder.
4. How to get started: So you like nature?
You like writing? How started with nature
writing, First of all, and this is always my favorite
thing, ask yourself why. Why do you want to
write about nature? Or what about nature? Makes you gravitate towards
it and makes you want to integrate it into your writing that may or may
not already exist. Which books or stories or texts that included
nature writing or were nature writing inspired you to take
it on yourself? What drew you to this
skillshare class? And in which genre do you think you could excel
in with nature writing? Remember, you can include nature writing in any
genre that you like, including fantasy and sci fi. However, it is
obviously the most popular in poetry
and nonfiction, and also in the subgenre
of non fiction memoirs. Nature memoirs, for example, hiking memoirs or travel
memoirs are really popular. So ask yourself, what
nature writing do you personally enjoy to read and
what do you enjoy to write? Where do you meet
what your interests are and your talents are
with nature writing, Where is the connection? How can you bring
those two together? I want you guys to write a list with all of these questions and
all of their answers. And all the things that
you love about nature. What intrigues you about
nature? What fascinates you? What makes you go like, oh, then take this list and come
up with words or emotions, for example, that you feel are connected
with those things. And as a last step, I want you to think about which of these things of
nature that intrigue you so much and that you
feel drawn to are things that you can
experience in real life. For example, if you just
love bird watching, you love seeing
the birds fly by. You can probably do that
where you live because birds are pretty much
in any human space, even in very, very
urbanized areas. However, if, for example, volcanoes are the thing
that fascinate you, it is pretty unlikely
that you will see a volcanic eruption
up close without, you know, getting in harm's way, unless you live in a place like Iceland or any other
volcanic islands, or you are someone
who has the privilege of traveling the world
however they like. Then maybe maybe that is
something that goes on the list of things that you could
experience that fascinate you. But again, just think about with the means that you have the
position that you're in, What are some natural
phenomenon that intrigue you, that fascinate you, that you could experience for yourself? And now we are
going to translate that slowly into
the writing part, because in order to
excel at nature writing, you need to do the
following steps. Observe, learn, experiment,
and make it yours. We will now discuss
each of those points.
5. Observe: The first step is pretty straightforward and has nothing to do with writing
in the first moment, and that is to just spend
more time with nature. Even if you live in a
very urbanized area, in the middle of a city
where you might not have access to a lot of nature, still go on walks, be outside, because
nature is all around us. Not only are we humans, also nature at the end
of the day, but again, for example, in cities you
can still see the birds, you still have some
trees somewhere. You might have a
park in your city. There might be some
urban beekeepers or some urban gardeners around. People might have a lot of
flowers on their balconies. All this kind of stuff
still counts as nature. Of course, the more
rural you live, the easier it is to interact with nature
outside of your home. But the important
part is go outside. Actually, spend time with nature both mentally,
emotionally, and physically. Then of course,
read nature writing again in whatever genre you like and you
want to dabble in. Read some more nature writing. It gives you more
ideas, it inspires you, and you will learn something
about nature. Stay curious. Keep your eyes open, because nature is
all around you. And if you pay attention, you can find it
anywhere you are. Keep your eyes
open. Try to focus. Try to find it wherever you are. And then I want you to
engage your senses. This is actually really
important because when I say to physically connect with nature and spend
time with nature, yes, sure you can go on a walk, but do you know how
a leaf feels like? Do you know how this
flower truly smells like? It is currently winter where
I live, unfortunately. But I do have one of the evergreen bushes that
are growing where I live, so I grabbed a
little piece of it. Don't worry, it's not
an endangered species. And it's growing in my own
backyard, so it's okay. I didn't steal from
anybody or anything. I am touching this right now. This is a smooth leaf. It's not really rough, like the edges have a
little curl to them, but otherwise it's very soft and it's very cool to
the touch as well. There's a little corner
here that is a little bit burned from some salt water
from a storm we had recently. It's very elastic too. It's a very elastic plant. So those are the things just
at first slance that I can feel just about this
little thing listening. This is how this sounds
like in the wind. This sounds very different if you didn't know
this is Rosemary. Which leads us to the next
part that is smelling. I also have some time
over here that looks very sad without
the other parts, and it's one of my favorite
smells in the world. Of course, if you
have, for example, herbs around you or plants that you know are edible,
that's very important. You can also taste them because sometimes
there are surprises. There is a tree where I live, I live on a small island, and if you lick the
bark of the tree, which I would have never
done just as an own impulse, it was just someone
that is from this place originally who told me about it and did
it in front of me. So I then did it too. And if you lick the
bark of this tree, it is completely salty. It is like licking
a jar of salt. And it just blew my mind because I would
have never thought of licking the bark of a tree. It's kind of weird to do, but what an experience. So if taste is an option, put it on your list of senses. And lastly, just watch. Sit down and look
at things up close. Look how the leaf of this rosemary is very
rough actually in texture, and how beautiful the little lavender colored flowers are. Or just sit down and
watch the birds fly by or watch a squirrel
in your park, or watch the cow on
the neighboring field. Depending on where you live and what you have
available, of course. But just sit down. Slow down. No phone in your
hand, no notebook either. Just sit down and watch. Wow, if you want afterwards, of course, you can note down your observations or you
just keep it stored up here, whatever is your
preferred method.
6. Learn: The next step is to learn. In order to write about nature, we need to know about
nature and not only in the ways that I've just
described in the observe lesson, but also in a more traditionally
educated kind of way. If you know what I mean, go out and inform yourself
about nature. This can be through
the medium of books, of course, if you are a reader. But this can also be through
the medium of articles, if you're more of
a science person, this can be through the medium of podcast watching
documentaries, maybe going someplace where someone explains
stumps something. There are amazing tours in a
lot of places where really passionate people offer tours where they show
you around nature. So maybe participate
in one of those. Whatever is available to you, just inform yourself
about nature if there is a specific field or niche
that sparks your interest, for example, you
just love mushrooms and the mycelium and you
find it so, so fascinating. Feel free to dive as
deep as you want. Find other creators that create something with
this specific niche. For example, if
you are a writer, which I assume you are
since you're in this class, I'm sure there are, for example, some artists out there that paint with this topic in mind. Or some regenerative farmers who are super passionate about this topic and just find new
ways to explore this topic. Or some scientists that are
doing research in this field, just reach out, branch
out, dive deep. But don't forget that in nature, everything is connected
with everything else. Don't do this. Don't focus yourself
too much on one topic. Again, you can dive as
deep as you want to. Just don't forget to sometimes
look on the sides as well. To look on the
outside to broaden your horizon and
to remember that nature is interconnected
and that you cannot just have
one specific thing. It's always just one aspect of a huge network of multitudes.
7. Experiment: Okay. Now you have
gotten to know nature. You've spent with nature. You know how it smells, tastes, feels, sounds like, and you
have learned more about it. Maybe you have already
started to do nature writing. That is how it happened for me. The more I learned about nature, the more I immediately
incorporated it into my writing. And I just got so inspired. And maybe that's exactly what's
happening to you as well, which would be very exciting. Please let me know down below if that is what's
happening to you. Because I would love to know if you have made notes perfect. If you just go by
memory also, fine. But try to take these things
that you've just learned, experienced, and
incorporate them in whatever genre
you're writing. And try to find deeper meanings of the
things that you've seen, that you've touched and
how they made you feel. Find ways to connect
the meanings of the words and of the nature elements
that you have been like observing and,
or learning about. And try to find the connection
with the message that you want to send in the writing
that you are creating. For example, you want
to write about someone, either yourself or a
fictional character, who is overcoming hardship. You could write
something like this. She blossomed like a plant, cracking the concrete forcefully
poured over her head, heavy gray, impossible to break. And yet she grew, reaching up her fragile stem
through the tiniest cracks, expanding them until
finally she was free. Or maybe you want
to describe how confused you were by
someone's actions. Or maybe your heads
over heels in love, and it's taking
your breath away. And it leaves you with
all of these emotions. You could write
something like this. My thoughts were
swept up by the wind, your presence, a thunderstorm
in my serene life. Just play around with different words,
meanings, metaphors. How can you incorporate all of these natural things
into your writing? If you're writing non fiction, of course that is a little
bit different then you need to be a little bit
more straightforward. However, it doesn't
hurt to still incorporate a few
metaphors along the way. Feel free to take this stage that you're
in right now where you experiment and use this time to create your class project. I would love to see
your in process situation and your
experiments in the projects.
8. Make it yours: Now you have experienced nature, you've learned about nature, and you've started incorporating it into your writing
by using it as metaphors or by describing very straightforward
what you have seen. But now it is time to
truly make it your own, make it unique,
connected with emotion. Try to bring your
own life experience and your own emotions
about certain topics. Or just in general,
your own individuality, your own personality,
your own individual path in life into the mix. This is especially true for nonfiction,
specifically memoirs, of course, and for poetry that is very
important for these genres. Again, especially
memoirs and poetry that you bring your own
emotions to the table. That you're not afraid
to be vulnerable. If you want to learn
more about poetry, I have two classes
about poetry out, so feel free to check them out. If you want to learn
more about that, you can do this in whatever
way feels right for you. It is hard for me to give you a super specific advice on
exactly how to do this. Because again, everybody has individual unique experiences, ways of processing
their emotions, own experiences with nature. And again, since it's so open as to what genre
you can write in, it is very hard to
give one specific tip. Because when you write a memoir that is
connected with nature, you can, for example, talk about how that octopus that you saw on the one
time you went diving. How that made you feel and how the way it was
gliding through the water reminded
you how you were gliding past the
obstacles in your life. But if you, for
example, incorporate all of this into
a fantasy novel, it can be very different. But let's take the example
from the last lesson when we were talking about the flower blossoming
through the concrete. And incorporate own
experiences and knowledge and our own journeys into the
mix and go into details. Don't be afraid to really go into details with
these kind of things. Don't be afraid of it
and make sure all of those descriptions are deeply
interwoven with each other. As she grew older, she became like those flowers
breaking through concrete. She would always marblehead
while walking to school. She had always found
comfort in this site. Not knowing that this comfort
was simply familiarity. One night she had looked up
which flowers were cracking the pavement in front of her
childhood home. It happened. The Japanese knot weed, the name alone, made her stomach
twist just like herself. It was seen as a pest, something that
needed to be hidden away and uprooted at all costs. The authorities wanted it removed before it
could cause damages to the perfectly unif street made for fast paced
transportation, but despite it all, it
would always break through. It was an immigrant, just like
her grandmother had been. If one would just
open their eyes, let curiosity win for once. They would not only see its strength and
beautiful flower, but also find that
it was not a weed, but a vegetable that had
saved many from starvation. And to this day fed
millions of bees in the early spring when the
bees needed it the most. What some saw as an irritation was actually the source
of the sweetest honey. As you can see, all of the elements that we've been
talking about, observation, learning about things, and just experimenting and trying to connect these things and making it your own,
your own story. Even though, in my case, this was now a fictional story, come together in
the finished text.
9. To the next level: Now that you've started
your own nature writing. First of all, congratulations, And second of all, what's next? How to go to the next
level from the beginning. First up, just like nature never stops evolving and
shifting and transforming, neither should your nature. Writing nature is so complex and there's so much we don't even know about just yet. Keep on learning more about it, about the different
aspects of nature. Keep observing, keep
interacting with it. And keep exploring it with
your senses, body and mind. As I said in the first step, in order to become a
really good nature writer, you need to go outside. You need to go out there. You need to
experience the world. How else would you be able to describe something that
you don't even know? Only when you truly let it in, you can let it out
onto the page. Don't be afraid to fail. Just like with any other type
of writing or creating art, you will write things
that you don't really love or that are imperfect or that might have
some mistakes. Don't be afraid of that. Most seeds that a plant produces never even germinate or make it past their little baby stage. Don't be afraid, because that one seed lands
and blossoms, it can grow into a magical tree.
10. Hope and Doom: I cannot make a class and
speak about nature and nature writing
without addressing the elephant in the room, the climate crisis,
even if you've not been very informed or engaged
with this topic so far. As soon as you start to learn more about the
natural world around you, you will come across this
topic one way or the other. It will sneak its way
into many stories that you are trying
to tell because you simply cannot ignore it. Unfortunately, you
shouldn't do not ignore it. I know it is a difficult topic, but it is truly just a part of the process and we
need to address it, either just in our minds
or also in our creations. Depending on where you're
at and what you're trying to create in order
to be truthful, nature itself, as romantic
and beautiful as it can be, can sometimes also be brutal. And we need to
acknowledge that in order to be truthful and in order
to actually honor nature. So how do we deal with
the destruction of nature that we can see on
a daily basis on the news, on social media, And again, as soon as you dip your toe into any kind of nature writing
that you will inevitably find. How do you deal with
the doom when all you want is pay homage to the
beautiful world around you? Of course, you can become active and step your toes
into environmentalism. I have a whole class about
that if you're interested. I'm not going to get
into it in this class. Again, if you want
to learn more, I have another class about that. For this class, I would like to stay in the context
of being a writer, an author, a storyteller, a poet, an artist, and a creator, right. Create art. It is so needed in this world. Tell the stories
that people need to wake up to the
situation that we're in. The stories that make them
fall in love with nature. Make them go on the same
journey that you did. A good book, a good story, a good poem even can really change someone's life by shifting their
perspective on something. Be that shift, create that art. The channels change. And the channels hope. There is a lot of
hope out there. There are amazing places, especially on the internet, where you can find tons and
tons of hopeful messages, hopeful improvements,
positive news. If you need that to deal
with the doom, go there. But in the context of you being
a creator and the writer, go out there and use your skill. Use what you do best Writing, creating something to tell the stories for a better future. Tell the hopeful stories. You can write the dark stories that make people go, whoa, okay? Is it really that bad? And that leads
them on a journey. But you can also write
all the hopeful stories. You can write just about
how much you love nature, how much you love the
pigeon in your backyard, or the ravens on
the tree next door. You can just write about that. Just know that that is valid because it creates
love and hope, which is exactly what we need.
11. Final Thoughts: That brings us to the
end of this class today. You have learned
about nature writing. You have learned
about what it is, how to get started, and how to take it
to the next level. After that, we observed, we learned something new. We experimented with words, and we made it our own. I hope you had as
much fun as I did. If you did, please feel free to leave me a review
here on skill that would mean a lot to me. And again, if you
have any questions, feel free to use the
Discussions tab. And don't forget to leave
your projects down below. I'm so excited to
read all of them. If you want to find me, you can do so by checking out my other
skillshare classes. So follow me here on skill
Share, read my books, or follow me on
Instagram or Youtube. Thank you so much
for being here. I'm going to head outside and spend some time with nature, and I hope you do to see
you and keep on writing by