I need to walk more. Or so my oesteopath tells me. I know he’s right, too long spent in a chair reading, or at the machine writing has not helped my back. I’m thinking of having an imaginary dog to pull me up from my seat and force me out walking. Why don’t I go more? After all I know what an inspiration walking can be for a writer.
I Google walking and writing and see that I’m not alone in finding inspiration when I’m out walking. But what is it about walking that’s so creative?
‘Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move,” wrote Henry Thoreau, “my thoughts begin to flow.” So it is with me. The minute I begin walking a vein of creativity opens up and ideas come flooding in. I think this happens by sleight because I’m not really thinking and perhaps that’s the key. The mind is free to wander.
There is also the sheer physicality of it: ‘Poetry is written from the body as well as the mind, and the rhythm and pace of a walk can get you going and keep you grounded. It’s a kind of light meditation.’ The poet Edward Hirsch. Read more of his wonderful piece on walking and writing HERE
For me being alone is also a key factor. Being alone is a gift to a writer, there are so many possibilities in the space that aloneness creates.
There is also being outside and the inspiration of the natural world or of the city. It’s all too easy to get hemmed in by weather, illness, difficulty, whatever, but walking especially in sunshine can mend most things.
below – the Canal du Midi – one of my favourite places to walk when I’m in France
I feel that the connection between walking and writing has something to do with serendipity. For as we walk, well at least I walk, I hope to find things of value and interest not sought, but in some ways hoped for. The meander through a land, city, anything-scape. The journey, the being drawn off course to pursue a curiosity, all of those things that can sometimes be found in writing, and are necessary in pinches and measures to sustain writing.
I like this Warren. I think you’re right about the connection, about serendipity and being drawn off course. So often as writers we set out on a journey on the page, who knows what we will find.