If you're stuck on writing ideas, like hiking or walking, a Writer’s Walk is perfect for your brain to wander. Linda Wasmer Andrews, a health writer for Psychology Today, says novelists and poets have long held that walking and writing are closely connected. Now there’s research to back up that claim.
In short, a Writers Walk is a guided hike with planned breaks for creative writing exercises - a walk where you write. On a Writers Walk, the focus is not on the distance traveled in miles but on the journey traveled within - in terms of reflection, motivation, and the courage it takes to put words onto paper. (Destination Kystlandet, 2022).
Among the past literary luminaries known as avid walkers were Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, and Henry David Thoreau. But perhaps the most celebrated walker-writer was William Wordsworth, who always seemed to be strolling down country lanes, hiking up mountains, or wandering "lonely as a cloud." His friend, essayist Thomas De Quincey, estimated that Wordsworth "must have traversed a distance of 175 to 180,000 English miles" on foot.
Following their footsteps, Susan Froetschel, author of the critically acclaimed novel Fear of Beauty, counts herself among the current generation of perambulating writers. "As I walk along familiar streets in my neighborhood, I think about my writing and observe my surroundings, gathering descriptions of trees and sky and weather," Froetschel says. The mental impressions she collects may eventually find their way into descriptive passages in her books.
Yet walking does more than provide her with opportunities for observation. Perhaps even more importantly, it opens her mind to inspiration and creativity. Froetschel says, "I let my imagination roam free and plan storylines, deciding where the characters should head next."
Going for walks serves a similar purpose in her own life. Froetschel says, "When I’m stuck on something, I’ll go out and take a walk, and that will often loosen up the ideas or trigger a new approach."
In the study, participants ambled along at their own natural pace. That may be the best approach when you’re hoping to spark your creativity. The best place to walk seems to be a matter of personal preference. Whether you walk alone or with others is something else to consider. For her part, Froetschel enjoys taking walks with her husband and grown son. Yet she notes, "When I’m working out something in a novel, thinking about it requires a certain level of introspection and being alone with my thoughts." At such times, she says, a solitary walk is often the fastest way to get from plot point A to plot point B…. Read more from the article.
How about you? [Get up and move to promote new connections and free up your mind so that you can see something anew]. In comparison, when I attended the M.A. English Writing Studies Writer’s Retreat of Summer 2021, Supported by the Kean University Graduate Writing Studies Program, I, too, learned and discovered from the incredible Director, Dr. Mia Zamora, that Writer’s Walks unblocks the mind from writer’s block and helps us think. The "Writer’s Walks" undoubtedly awakened my inner senses, cleared writer’s block, and consumed me. And the process of my writer’s project had suddenly gone beyond My Mother’s Pain to an intriguing exposé, Power of Words! Amherst Writers Walk also provides great inspirational tips and tools for writer’s walks.
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