This month, I am not a woman of my word. Instead of sharing about a local centennial, I’m sharing how I walk to write.
Recently, with the arrival of June, the weather has experienced its annual bloom, and I have been taking walks along the Bear River as often as possible. Nothing wild or impressive. Just a 1.5-mile hot-girl walk to get me out of my element—a cave-like apartment—and into the elements of the Northern Michigan summer.
Over the last four years as a freelance writer, and long before this work-for-yourself venture, I have found that in this technologically driven world, we’re so connected with everyone and everything all the time. Yet, we’re simultaneously disconnected from the real world around us. So, I decided to reset my connection with Mother Nature.
To earn my bread, I sit inside and stare at screens. Hours logged each day scrolling, typing, searching, and being blasted by blue light. Stepping away from work and walking most late mornings or early afternoons has given me the respite I require, plus OG vitamin D to collaborate with the 20,000 IUs I take daily. These walks, however good for my eyes, lungs, and body in general, have also brought another benefit into my life—providing me with a creative writing recalibration. So, now, I also walk to write.
Whilst walking beneath the tree canopy, beside the river, and through nature’s vibrancy, I have found inspiration. On each walk, since I began forming the muscle memory for this habit, I have gathered inspiration for my WIP, stumbling upon new ideas and details to add and finding things to steal and appropriately implement in my voice and style.
My WIP has a lot to do with nature, so being in nature has helped me with world-building and elaborating on existing content. On these walks, I keep my eyes open and my brain poised to absorb, but I also pause to engage with the world around me. I put my hand in the rushing water of the Bear River, stop to smell each lilac bush I come across because they are my favorite spring aroma that doesn’t last long enough (at the time of your reading this, the lilacs are gone), smile at fluttering birds like a Disney princess, get startled by deer snacking on leaves; and, as a non-botanist, become entranced by unknown flora.
One such plant (later identified by a friend as Sumac) caught my eye and got me thinking about the vegetative life of the world I’m creating. This dark red, almost black, flowering plant evoked visions of fire, blood, torches, battle, and fiery beacons. Violent and slightly morbid, I know. But I then toyed with the notion that perhaps this flower resurfaces each year in one of my made-up lands as a reminder of a devastating mark in its history. We’ll see if this detail makes the cut. What matters is that the idea exists and is ready to be used.
The trail I routinely walk is a popular route and, thus, well-trodden with firmly packed dirt. This detail struck me as one that could be incorporated when describing the floor of a character’s quaint cottage. During another walk on a Saturday morning, I fell upon an awareness walk, which encouraged me to take the first offshoot staircase to separate myself from the pack of matching t-shirts. I have no qualms with awareness walks, but my inner Hugh Grant emerges when I’m stuck behind walkers or drivers who are going slow (iykyk). On the bright side, this made me consider the different trails and connecting roads that could serve as bypasses for the main thoroughfares in my story. To put it another way—you can find inspiration anywhere as long as you’re looking.
Communing with nature won’t inform everyone’s creative work; however, I would argue that the experience can get you out of your head—out of the norm—allowing you to make room for organic inspiration.
Based on personal experience, a change of scenery can work wonders. Taking a vacation to warmer climes during winter’s peak, visiting my parents’ property during the workweek, or merely shutting my laptop and heading down to the Bear River—each new view holds promise for new ideas.
However, I’ll admit that I also draw ideas and inspiration from the digital realm. Exhibit A (above): This post about medieval staircase styles speaks to this nerd’s heart. Thanks to that, I now know that my main castle structure—Briarwold—has arcade, newel, and quarter-turn staircases.
Per a blog post from some time ago, I support this type of “appropriate stealing,” and I wholly encourage creatives across sectors to keep their eyes and minds open: a social media post or your hot-girl walk may spark a blaze that leaves you needing to put ideas to paper, and that has my full support. Full stop.
Keep walking, thinking, stealing, and creating—the world we live in is full of treasures untold, and our minds are ripe to express the creativity that comes when we least expect it. So, consider taking a walk to write.
Next Post:
Monday, July 28