Jul 28 2008
Walk Your Way to Better Writing
People who like to write are a unique breed.
Most writers prefer to move slowly, contemplating their thoughts and surroundings as they go, rather than racing ahead focusing on what they’re driving or on their destination. Writers would rather go snowshoeing in a forest than skiing at a crowded resort. They would rather be on a sailboat than a motorboat. They would prefer to walk up an alpine slope than zoom up it on a four-wheeler.
Writers are made to be walkers. Or vice versa. Whichever way it goes, walking and the writer’s soul seem to be inextricably connected.
“If I could not walk far and fast, I think I should just explode and perish,” said Charles Dickens.
In his book, Walking, Henry David Thoreau wrote, “I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits, unless I spend four hours a day at least – and it is commonly more than that – sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields, absolutely free from all worldly engagements.”
The fact is, walking gives the writer’s mind space and time to contemplate and meditate. In that space and time, the body is busy, while the mind naturally relaxes and clarifies itself, like a pond of muddy water clearing again after people have run through it.
“Thoughts come clearly while one walks,” said the German writer, Thomas Mann.
Thomas Hobbes, the noted English writer and philosopher, had an inkhorn built into his walking stick so he could scribble down notes on his frequent walks.
Walking is a sort of physical mantra that invites meditative clarity – a more physically involved form of counting prayer beads. Consciously attempting to bring thoughts, ideas and concepts to the surface of your consciousness can be a daunting task. But when you go on a walk and allow your mind and emotions to relax, you will find that your subconscious mind will often float those elusive thoughts effortlessly to the surface. It’s like the difference between trying to herd a bunch of cats into a bag and stepping away and leaving the bag wide open with some irresistible catnip inside.
“I can only meditate when I am walking,” Thoreau explained. “When I stop, I cease to think; my mind only works with my legs.” He also said, “Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.”
For William Wordsworth, walking was essential to writing. He once made a 2,000-mile journey on foot, and went walking almost every day of his long life. He is said to have composed most of his poems while walking. A visitor once asked Wordsworth’s servant to show him her master’s study. “Here is his library,” she said, “but his study is out of doors.”
The Danish writer/philosopher Soren Kierkegaard was also a walker. In his journals he insisted that he composed all his works afoot. “Every day,” he said, “I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.”
In addition to walking’s power to help us access our best thoughts, Kierkegaard’s comment points to another benefit of walking – one that should interest writers whose work forces them to be sedentary much of the time: Walking is healthy.
“When you have worn out your shoes, the strength of the shoe leather has passed into the fiber of your body,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was an avowed, lifetime walker. “I measure your health by the number of shoes and hats and clothes you have worn out.”
French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau summed it up in his Confessions when he wrote, “Never did I think so much, exist so vividly, and experience so much, never have I been so much myself – if I may use that expression – as in the journeys I have taken alone and on foot. There is something about walking which stimulates and enlivens my thoughts. When I stay in one place I can hardly think at all; my body has to be on the move to set my mind going.”
Me? I have been hooked on walking and writing since I can remember.
These days I walk at least an hour a day at least six days a week. I walk alone and I meditate/contemplate as I walk. I take multi-day walks in the mountains and the red rock canyon country with a backpack.
When I walk my body is relieved of the cramps and aches that have built up after sitting for long hours writing on my computer or in my notebook. Everything inside me relaxes. My mind becomes calm and clear. My external and internal worlds clarify, just as reflections in a pond become clearer in the calm after a wind. Thoughts that I have struggled to grasp at my desk often float to the surface of my conscious mind on their own when I walk. Confusing issues sort themselves out. New and sometimes surprising ideas flow.
Like Kierkegaard, I walk myself into a state of well-being and into my best thoughts when I go walking. If walking is not a part of your writing life, make it so. You may become addicted, but it’s a wonderful addiction.
What about cycling your way to better writing?
If it works for you, great. Some of the same things are at play when you cycle as when you walk. However, cycling injects a machine into the experience and that changes the experience itself somewhat. Our human physiology has not changed considerably since the time, before mechanical contrivances, when walking was the way people moved around. I believe there is something very organic and deep about walking that takes us back to our roots as humans.
What a great post! Not only does walking get the creative juices flowing, but walking and contemplation sure can solve a lot of problems.
I feel that I know Ben Franklin said something along the lines that no problem couldn’t be solved without a little walk. But I can’t find it.
Stephen King would walk to work out the stories of his books, and it almost killed him. In his book, On Writing, he describes the event on Route 5 in Maine.
Great post.
Walking does it for me too! I think it is the body’s natural rhythm to walk and wander about. Some mornings I run (jog? shuffle?) for 15 minutes before my walk, and I’ve found that my mind does not wander and cannot concentrate when I am running (likely b/c I am too wrapped up in forcing myself to keep moving!). When I walk, I don’t have to think about my body’s movements; all energy and concentration feels free to focus on other things. So fascinating! Great read.
[...] Osborne presents Walk Your Way to Better Writing posted at The Writers Bag [...]
[...] Osborne presents Walk Your Way to Better Writing posted at The Writers Bag [...]
Walking is the way to get relaxed and recharged for me too! I just let my mind/body decide at which speed I walk. It is hard to describe for a non-native writer, but when you go shopping, you walk at a good pace, just get you shopping done.
But when I walk in the fields and forests, I let my body/mind decide what is the right pace. Sometimes it is a really fanatically fast pace, but more often I just start strolling and without any effort you start wandering and without giving it any thought the miles go by, the scenery enfolds, you see animals around enjoying their evening snack, people rushing home to their meals and on a rare occasion you’ll see another wandering fellow that is absorbing the surroundings.
Do others also experience the relation between mood and pace?
What I often do, is after a business meeting in the afternoon I go to a restaurant or bring my own doggy bag from home, have a light dinner, put on some jeans, sweater and my walking boots, get my small backpack out of the back of the car and take the car to a nice location.
Then I just start wandering, often I start in a high tempo, fast paced, but when the miles go by I tend to start walking slower, see and feel more of the surroundings, breath the quietness. And when I’m done I get my little GPS and plan a route back to the waypoint that I made of my car when I parked it.
This way I have several advantages: I can walk and relax and after some time sit down and make some notes. Second is I don’t need to worry about where my car was, and how to get back to it. I really can just walk where I like. Last thing (which started it all) is the point that I avoid the evening traffic, wich in my case often is over 100 miles of frustration.