Well, I wasn’t sure I’d get a blog in this Thursday, but here I am 🙂
In fact, out here in the middle of fields and mountains I have more reliable mobile reception and wifi connection than at home – maybe I should arrange technology-free retreats in my garden!
Nevertheless, I’m keeping this short as I don’t want to be on-line too much; it kind of defeats the point of a retreat if you spend the entire time connected to the rest of the world. I’ve scheduled publication of this post in advance so I really hope it works…
Today’s inspiration follows on from last week’s post, in a way. It’s about observation, and is simple and you can do it anywhere, even just sitting in a bedroom. It’s actually something I’ve done here; I started it in the car on the way up and have done a little bit each day between other things.
Look at what you see, and list everything. Try to describe it – colours, textures, shapes, smells, feel. If you aren’t sure – say you’re describing a hill in the distance – try to fill in the blanks from memory or explore if you can. Be as complete and accurate as possible: if a rose has blackspot, describe the shape of the spots. If you see a butterfly flying past, note the different colours you can see as it flaps its wings.
But – and here’s the trickier bit – try to describe everything in terms of another familiar thing. Something might be the colour of cooked spinach, or the shape of a jam roly poly (for traditional pudding lovers!) or have the texture of shaving foam, or smell like chips (french fries) cooking in the kitchen, or feel like spider webs. You get the idea!
A couple of quick examples: For descriptions of a humid day, you might say that ‘the leaves outside had the consistency of cooked spinach’ instead of saying ‘the leaves were very wet’; it gives the idea of heat as well as water. In a poem about a hot, humid day, the clouds could be ‘like spider webs, sticky filaments trapping the light,’ which I think is much more powerful an image than ‘wispy clouds cover the sky.’ It provides a sense of being cocooned by the heat, unable to escape it.
Can you tell it’s been a little humid as I’ve written this post?!
Have a go, see what you come up with and share an example or two in the comments. And if it doesn’t work for you, let me know what you do instead – everyone’s techniques are a bit different and it’s good to have a writing community to share ideas with, after all!
Happy writing from a very sunny, very peaceful, very productive retreat,
EJ
🙂
Like this:
Like Loading...
Read Full Post »