Just started autumn with a (hopefully) regular writing hour with a creative friend, once a week or so, and it’s a great way to get myself into a good space. Today, we both went for a walk (separately, me with dog and she with herself), and then met up on Zoom.
The idea is that when you’re out walking, observe:
5 things that you see
4 things that you hear
3 things that you smell
2 things that you touch
1 thing that you taste
Write them down in the creative hour without overthinking. There’s no wrong, this is just a warm-up, like stretching before a run.
Then assemble the words you’ve got down into any shape you want. Poetry, prose, a list, anything. We might fix on a particular structure if it helps, like a haiku or a nonet but it doesn’t have to be that rigid. It can just be free flowing. Depends on what is needed.
I do a version of this most mornings, to get me kick-started with what I’m actually writing. And it does work. Even without the fields to walk in, and the ridiculously sensory overload of an almost-autumn morning complete with diamond-dew and luscious blackberries and wild geese crying overhead, there’s always something in what seems like the least inspiring… commuter journey, for example, or walk through city streets or a bus ride. Or there’s even a version that you can apply to being in a blank-walled office without windows: take inspiration in observing exactly what you see, hear, touch, smell, taste… really immerse yourself in this moment, and what’s around you.
This is today’s misty fields pic that I’m going to use as a writing prompt next…
