The sun’s beaming rays that warm the skin ever so lightly. A gentle breeze that flows from the east, ruffling the hair and clothes. The birds singing in the trees, their natural melodies pleasing the ears. Multitudes of flowers blooming on the trees, enticing the eyes no matter where they look. Spring has officially begun, and that means I can finally write outside without freezing my butt off!
Whether as a young and wild boy with an overactive imagination, or as a tired and tame writer with… well, an overactive imagination, I’ve always seen nature as a grand adventure, a place to discover and explore. As a boy, it was the physical adventure that enamored me. I would run off into the woods surrounding my neighborhood, searching for anything new, anything unexplored. Or I’d climb the tallest tree I could, just for the thrill of climbing and the sight that would await me at the top. It was the mystery of the external world that always grabbed my interest.
But now, as an adult (if I can even be considered one), what really enthralls me whenever I venture out into the wilderness, or even a simple park, is the mysteries that await to be explored inside my mind. There’s something about the calming atmosphere of the natural world that awakens my slumbering creativity and unveils hidden paths and possibilities in my writing. It’s like my creativity is a wolf, tamed by the constricting walls of my tiny dorm room. Once I escape the confines of my cage, it escapes with me, and that act opens an entire marvelous, unexplored world of new ideas.
So, whenever I smack into a wall in my writing, and I can’t find a way through it, I always grab my laptop and venture out to the nearest park or shaded tree I can find, sit down, and open my mind to the world.
What kinds of places do you seek out whenever you’re stuck in your writing? Do you escape to nature, like me? Or do you look for something else, like the relaxing energy of a coffee shop, or the quiet flipping pages and scribbling pencils of a library? Feel free to discuss your answers in the comments below!
I hope to see all you beautiful writers back for next week’s post!
—Josh Stadelman
Photo c/o Emma Larkins, via Flickr Creative Commons