I’m often asked how I manage to stay motivated to write. The truth is, sometimes it’s hard. I’m a great believer in the use of writing exercises to unblock the resistant mind, having used a good number over the years to coax myself back into productive writing. I guess others might find this kind of approach useful, so over the next year I will be talking about different writing exercises and tips each week, to be posted here on the website.
Happy writing!
Creative Writing Exercise # 1 :- Take a Walk
It’s a vicious circle really. The more I can’t get it together to write, the less inclined I feel to get out and about. The less I get out, the smaller my inner world becomes. The smaller my inner world grows, the less inspiration I have to draw on. Of course the answer is easy: snap out of it and get your backside out the door.
Yesterday, my husband took the kids off to watch the football match over in Portsmouth. It was the perfect opportunity for me to get down to some writing. So after I had defrosted the freezer, rearranged the bookshelf and baked a tray of fairy cakes, I realised that I might be trying to put it off. It’s not that writing is something I don’t want to do – I love it. But sometimes, well, it’s just a bit hard to get going. Eventually, in a fit of lethargy, I took the dog for one of his (and my) favourite walks.
It was a beautiful hazy afternoon, and from the top of the Trundle I could see the cathedral, the sea, the towns and villages stretching out around me. In the inner dip of the circular walk, an unexpected band of bright white snow lay, which Charlie-dog bounded in and out of as I marched around the ring with purpose. I paused to take in the view, all the while thinking about my new character, Sarah.
I suddenly realised that she needed to be removed from her home setting for a period, in order for us to see her from a different angle. She needed to be put under a different kind of pressure, the pressure of being out of her comfort zone. I finished my walk, bundled Charlie into the car and drove home with new purpose. I wrote for two hours, and closed my laptop, contented that my story had moved on in a new direction.
So, take a walk. It might be a favourite walk, one which simply relaxes and energises. It could be somewhere new, somewhere you feel more alert and uncertain. Perhaps it’s a trip of nostalgia, around your old school grounds or the city park. Wherever it is, treat it as part of the writing, not as an unnecessary luxury. Your writing deserves it.
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