Resurrecting the Wild Writer: Singing Over the Bones

Reclaiming Instinct in Your Creative Process

Photo by Ivars Krutainis on Unsplash

Let’s start here: You’re in a desert. The horizon stretches endlessly, a mirage of heat and stillness. You’re walking, not sure what you’re looking for, when your foot catches on something buried in the sand. You crouch, brush the grit away, and find a bone—smooth, resilient, waiting.

This is the image I return to whenever I feel lost in my writing. It’s how Women Who Run With the Wolves and Clarissa Pinkola Estés’s ‘La Loba’ found me—not as a woman alone, but as a writer. La Loba crouches over bones like these, singing them back to life. Her voice reminds us that what’s scattered can be reclaimed. What’s dormant isn’t gone.

It’s messy work, bone-gathering. It requires instinct, trust, and a little bit of wildness. But isn’t that exactly what writing demands?

---

The Intuitive Wild

There’s a part of you that knows how to create without permission, without rules, without fear. That part—the instinctual, untamed part—is your intuitive wild. And it’s always been there, even when doubt and perfectionism bury it under layers of noise.

When I first read about ‘La Loba’, the Bone Woman, I couldn’t help but see her as a guide for writers. Estés describes her as a figure who assembles the scattered bones of wolves and sings over them until they come alive. The metaphor couldn’t have been clearer. Writing, to me, is bone-gathering.

It’s messy, instinctual, and transformative. It’s trusting the fragments you collect—the images, the memories, the half-dreamt stories—and bringing them to life in your voice. The Bone Woman reminds us to honor that voice, to trust the wild parts of ourselves that know how to create without hesitation.

---

Writing as Bone-Gathering

The raw materials for creativity are always there. Scattered, sure. Hidden, maybe. But they’re never lost. Writers are natural bone-gatherers, piecing together fragments from everywhere: a half-heard conversation, an old draft, a fleeting image from a dream.

Here’s your challenge:

• Go for a bone-gathering walk through your writing life.

• Look at your abandoned stories, your scribbled notes, your discarded ideas.

• Spread them out in front of you. See what calls to you.

There’s no need to rush or force the assembly. This isn’t about perfection; it’s about discovery. Let the process be wild.

---

Play Invitation

Take ten minutes. Imagine you’re The Bone Woman, kneeling in the sand with a story waiting to be resurrected.

• What are the bones you uncover?

• What textures, histories, or feelings emerge as you hold them in your hands?

• Begin to sing—not with a plan, but with instinct.

Let your pen follow the song.

---

Trusting the Wild

In writing, as in life, we cling to rules and structures, afraid of the chaos that might unfold if we let go. But sometimes chaos is where the best stories begin.

Let your characters surprise you. Write the scenes that make you uneasy. Follow the ideas that feel half-formed or too big to tackle. Writing is never about controlling the story—it’s about unearthing it.

---

The Reader’s Role

Here’s the magic of storytelling: readers are bone-gatherers too. They leap between the words you’ve written, connecting the dots, filling in the gaps. You don’t have to tell them everything.

The story isn’t in the words alone—it’s in what they evoke. It’s in the space you leave for the reader to create meaning. Trust that your wildness will speak to theirs.

---

Your Turn

Writing isn’t about taming your creativity. It’s about setting it loose.

• What bones in your writing life are waiting for you to find them?

• What song will you sing to bring them back to life?

Find them. Write them. Let them breathe.

---

About Me:

I’m Rena—a writer, educator, and relentless explorer of stories. Originally from Southern California, I’ve spent the past 20 years making my home in Costa Rica, where I live with my husband, two children, and a pair of Rhodesian Ridgebacks who refuse to acknowledge their size.

My writing has appeared in places like Brevity Magazine, South Florida Poetry Journal, Five on the Fifth, New Flash Fiction Review, Headland Literary Journal, and more. Along the way, I’ve collected more rejection letters than I care to count—a badge of honor for any writer chasing the next story.

I’m also the Founder and Director of an International K–12 school in Costa Rica, a space where my love for learning and writing collide in exciting ways. At my core, I believe in the power of ideas, in listening for what’s unsaid, and in finding beauty in the unexpected. Stories connect us—and together, I believe, we’re better.

Come write, wonder, and explore with me.