I’ve been reading this book for nearly a year and a half. You know those books, usually fiction or memoir, that you pick up which ring so true in your life that you can’t put it down while at the same time you don’t want to pick it up? It’s just too much. Something about it makes you sad, you cry at every other chapter, there’s some kind of emotional involvement that you can’t avoid. Wild Mind didn’t create such sadness for me; it created frustration. I wanted to get through Goldberg’s writing memoir, I wanted to see what hint towards better writing she’d throw out next, but this book guided me through a year of discovering my purpose in writing, and it wasn’t until I graduated the course that I could finish the last fifty pages or so and move on to whatever’s next.

I recommend all writers find a book like this, one that doesn’t so much tell them why they write, but reminds them in a way they can’t quite explain. One that helps them learn how to embrace the skills they possess and utilize them positively. This book is not just a writer’s prompt book, but it’s not just a writer’s memoir. Goldberg is not mouthing off everything she does to write and telling you to do the exact same; she’s encouraging you to find your own way as she had to, showing you how she found her way and which experiences influenced her, and teaching you to find those guides in your life.