An Exercise in Sensory Deprivation

The sun is shining, I can hear birds singing outside my window and it's the longest day, so the last thing you probably want is a writing exercise for the weekend, but if you think that the longest day will, by definition, give you more time to write, and allow your senses to be stimulated by the effects of the lovely weather, perhaps you might be persuaded....

Early memories, because they are vivid and elemental and form part of your make up, can be a fertile source of ideas. Try and recall an event from your infancy or early childhood and jot down as many details as you can remember so that you have plenty of information  at your fingertips. Then, just to make it a little more challenging, write a few paragraphs based on this memory, but without using any visual description at all.

This will force you to think about other ways of recalling and describing things – sounds, smells and tastes can be intensely evocative, and conjuring up a memory purely through the medium of touch might be a revelation. This is an opportunity to flex different writing muscles; going beyond the visual might take you deeper into the experience itself, thus bringing rewards to both you and your reader.

And anyway, the forecast for tomorrow is for gales and rain. Have a great weekend....

Writers' Block – Finding the Hidden Slipway of the Imagination

Am I suffering from writer's block just now? I don't think so. I hope not. It's just that I'm not entirely sure what story I want to tell and at the moment it feels as if the various component parts of my proposed novel are straining to get away from each other.

If that's a kind of writer's block, then this is my solution....

Before I start to write, I find it helps to put myself into something like a meditative state. You'd be forgiven for thinking that I was simply staring out of the window, but it's the beginning of a process of submersion which makes my pulse quicken with excitement and my thoughts flow. I don't breathe in a particular way, or chant, or focus on anything specific. I just allow myself to be. The only thing I need in order to achieve this is quietness.

If you are suffering from writer's block at the moment, here's a little exercise that you might like to try. I took the picture below when I was in Cornwall last week.

Think of it as the hidden slipway of the imagination. Picture yourself standing in the shade at the top of the steps, feel the grit of the concrete under your feet, imagine the salty, wiry grass and the scent of the ocean on the wind. Start to walk down, listening to the sound of your footsteps; perhaps you can hear a seagull wheeling overhead or the lumbering sound of a fishing boat's engine. When you move from the shade into the light, you can feel the warmth of the sun on your skin. You keep walking, down and down and down, beyond the steps, following the gentle incline into the sea. Spring hasn't reached here yet and the water is freezing. It laps your ankles, then your knees, your thighs and your waist. It is cold enough to deprive you of breath and for a moment you feel precarious, still earthbound, your feet scudding into rocks you cannot see, but then you take a deep breath and launch yourself and the cold stings your scalp and shocks your brain into action, but already you  have imagined all of this and as you start to float, to swim, you find that you are ready to write...

Now strike out from the shore and keep on going, until the tide turns and brings you home.