nature creative writing

12 Nature-Inspired Creative Writing Prompts

by Melissa Donovan | Feb 20, 2018 | Creative Writing Prompts | 14 comments

Nature inspires, and so do these creative writing prompts.

Today’s post includes a selection of prompts from my book, 1200 Creative Writing Prompts . Enjoy!

Creative writing prompts are excellent tools for writers who are feeling uninspired or who simply want to tackle a new writing challenge. Today’s creative writing prompts focus on nature.

For centuries, writers have been composing poems that celebrate nature, stories that explore it, and essays that analyze it.

Nature is a huge source of inspiration for all creative people. You can find it heavily featured in film, television, art, and music.

Creative Writing Prompts

You can use these creative writing prompts in any way you choose. Sketch a scene, write a poem, draft a story, or compose an essay. The purpose of these prompts is to inspire you, so take the images they bring to your mind and run with them. And have fun!

A young girl and her mother walk to the edge of a field, kneel down in the grass, and plant a tree.
The protagonist wakes up in a seemingly endless field of wildflowers in full bloom with no idea how he or she got there.
Write a piece using the following image: a smashed flower on the sidewalk.
A family of five from a large, urban city decides to spend their one-week vacation camping.
An elderly couple traveling through the desert spend an evening stargazing and sharing memories of their lives.
A woman is working in her garden when she discovers an unusual egg.
Write a piece using the following image: a clearing deep in the woods where sunlight filters through the overhead lattice of tree leaves.
Some people are hiking in the woods when they are suddenly surrounded by hundreds of butterflies.
A person who lives in a metropolitan apartment connects with nature through the birds that come to the window.
Write a piece using the following image: an owl soaring through the night sky.
A well-to-do family from the city that has lost all their wealth except an old, run-down farmhouse in the country. They are forced to move into it and learn to live humbly.
Two adolescents, a sister and brother, are visiting their relatives’ farm and witness a sow giving birth.

Again, you can use these creative writing prompts to write anything at — poems, stories, songs, essays, blog posts, or just sit down and start freewriting.

14 Comments

lovely prompts… really simple line or two that just strikes up imagery and let you freestyle all over it. Nice one

Thanks, Rory!

thanks for the good ideas good short story for someone in grade 8

Thanks. I just read through your list of prompts and got flashes of either beginnings or endings for stories from every one. I’ve not seen prmopts like these much on the web, so well done. Such a simple idea with so much power and potential. If only I had the day off to get cracking!

I love to create and use writing prompts, and I’m glad you found these to be useful. Thanks!

Hello. Supernatural or magic realism is pretty much all I write. I’ve got a prompt. ‘A young teenager is walking home during a storm and ends up getting struck by lightning. The next day they wake up to find that the accident turned them into an inhuman being.’ I’ve heard of this type of scenario before and I thought it would make for a great story. I love creating my own ideas of course but writing prompts are just fun challenge myself with and see what I can create out of already given ideas. I really like the prompts you give. As I said they are enjoyable to mess around with.

Thanks for sharing your prompt, Kristen. I agree that prompts are fun and can be challenging. I’m glad you like these. Keep writing!

#7 Woodland Clearing

Winter trees screen blue and sunny skies, Intense but icy light the heat belies. Spikey, naked, dormant maids and men Wait for the earth to turn around again.

And bring the warmth that touches every thread Of bark and twigs and all that acted dead Until the full-blown leaves create a wall Shortening the view until late fall

When sun and clouds break through the limbs again And show clear-cut those lacey maids and men Black for a time against the coldest air While waiting for the Spring to deck them fair

With leaves that seem to turn the world to green Creating hidden meadows only seen By animals and birds and mist and rains. For ages before calendars and trains.

Humanity intrudes in such a place And fools themselves that they have found a space Where they belong beneath the patchy light To rip and tear and exercise their might.

For meadow edges have no need to stand Between the woods and grassy, open land Where bugs and bears and buntings feel the sun. ‘Till people think they do what must be done.

April 27, 2019

Hi Jennifa. Thanks for sharing your lovely poem here.

That is a stunningly good poem, Jennifa. Far more worthy than just an obscure comment thread here. I hope you found a home for it where more eyes will see it. If you are published anywhere, I’d love to find out.

Wow. These are truly amazing prompts! Just a few lines of inspiration and now my mind is filled with creativity. Please come up with more! <3

You’ll find plenty more in the Writing Prompts Writing Prompts section of the Blog menu.

these are really helpful

Thanks, Flo! I’m glad you found them helpful.

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Smell of Nature: Descriptions that Appeal to the Senses (2024)

Are you looking for descriptions for the smell of nature? You’ve come to the right place! From mildewed to petrichor, we have all the words you need to describe the beautiful natural world that surrounds us!

Jump to Section

Smell as a Potent Descriptor in Writing

Examples of natural smell descriptions in writing, fresh and light, deep and pleasant, richly unpleasant.

Related posts: Vivid Description in Creative Writing Examples

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase using these links.

The sense of smell is known as the strongest sense for memory inducer. When your writing contains descriptions of various smells, you have the potential to trigger your reader’s most nostalgic memories; hence, your writing will stay with them longer !

Inject your writing with the smell of nature whenever appropriate, be it when your character is out exploring nature, or to draw comparison / parallel between their current situation and the natural world around them.

Let’s look at two examples to illustrate this point.

1. This first example lets us experience the world as the character in the story experiences it. The rich description transports us to Louisiana in September, how heady and overwhelming it is, just as the author describes it.

Louisiana in September was like an obscene phone call from nature. The air–moist, sultry, secretive, and far from fresh–felt as if it were being exhaled into one’s face. Sometimes it even sounded like heavy breathing. Honeysuckle, swamp flowers, magnolia, and the mystery smell of the river scented the atmosphere, amplifying the intrusion of organic sleaze. It was aphrodisiac and repressive, soft and violent at the same time. – Tim Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume (1990)

2. This second example draws a parallel between what the character is feeling and the world around them. Autumn smelled acrid to the character in this story, and it mimicked the fear he felt inside.

The acrid scents of autumn, reminiscent of slinking beasts, make me fear. – D.H. Lawrence, The Complete Poems (1994)

Three Broad Categories of Natural Smell

Do you know that human’s olfactory sense can detect 1 trillion odors ? It’s no surprise that we frequently struggle to describe the smell of nature, with its plethora of colorful scents. But, a good writer must try, right?

Let’s classify natural smells into three categories . Here they are, with some alternative words to describe them.

When I think of nature, my mind automatically goes to an open air, green area with lots of sunshine, free of manmade buildings. Meadows, forests and mountains are some examples. The smells associated with such places are fresh and light.

Another way to say this would be:

– Airy : a flighty kind of smell that just wants to lift you up to new heights. – Alpine : reminiscence of high mountains. – Clean : that odorless smell that fills up the lung when you’re surrounded by nature. – Crisp : a sense of cleanness that you could almost bite into, like biting into a particularly refreshing chunk of apple. – Fresh : the kind of invigorating smell that overtakes you as if you’re standing beside a waterfall. – Fruity: the sweet, refreshingly light smell of fruits. – Minty : a smell that almost pierces your nose and fills you up with cool air. – Ozonic : fresh and clean air, especially the one breathed at the seaside. (Ozone in informal British refers to fresh air.) – Piney : a smell that calls back to the smell of pine trees in the forest, it’s peppery with a dash of minty and at the same time is said to be a good antidepressant. – Sun-baked: a clean kind of smell that is dry and a bit musky.

The smell of rain as it starts to hit dry earth, or the sea breeze at the hull of a ship. They stay with you for a long time and yet do not repulse you. Oceans and jungles are places that tend to carry these deep, pleasant smells.

Here are some words that can describe that deep yet pleasant scents of nature:

– Ambrosial : succulently fragrant or sweet. – Earthy : the smell of freshly dug soil. – Damp moss : the forest aroma after being steeped in the rain all day long. – Floral : richly sweet, flowery scents. – Myrrhic : a pleasant myrrh fragrance. (Myrrh is a sap-like substance or resin from the bark of certain trees. Furthermore, myrrh itself is described as warm, woody and aromatic with a hint of pungency.) – Musky : an animalistic scent that is earthy and woodsy, it’s a scent that’s close to human skin but more intense and heady. – Oceanic : the salty, breezy scent of the sea. – Petrichor : the light smell of rainwater as it makes contact with dry earth. – Peppery : a deep, aromatic smell that is a little pungent and musty, reminiscence of pepper. – Resiny : resin-like smell – Smokey : a deep woodsy scent with a hint of burnt matter. – Spicy : a strong, aromatic sweet scent that is reminiscent of hot spices. – Tang : a refreshingly sharp aroma. – Tropical : a sweet and strong scent that’s coming from a combination of tropical herbs, spices and fruits. – Woodsy : the collective smell coming from the various growth you might find in a forest. – Zesty : a smell akin to spicy.

BEFORE WE CONTINUE…

It could be time to make an investment in a quality dictionary if you need extra assistance to reference that particular term that keeps eluding you. Check out a few options below:

1. This Thesaurus broadens your ability to describe the world around you through seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling.

PLEASE CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR MORE INFORMATION!

2. The book below is a fascinating, weird, and awe-inspiring investigation of scent . Read what Jack Hitt (author of Bunch of Amateurs) said about this book: “The nose on your face is the Buckingham Palace Guard of your body, the maitre d’ of all taste, as well as the seducer of your imagination, and memory—and Jude Stewart has charmed them all into a wicked, poetic and illuminating tour of their mysterious domains.”

NOW, to continue down our list…

Lastly, nature can smell unpleasant, too. Oceans, swamps, natural springs, and many other natural places sometimes carry pungent aroma be it from decomposing organic matters or other natural, earthy elements. Here are some words to describe them:

– Acrid : sharp and harsh smell, – Cadaverine : a foul-smelling diamine produced by protein hydrolysis during putrefaction of dead organic matters. – Effluvium : a foul-smelling gas or vapor. – Fetid : foul-smelling or stinking. – Fishy : a smell reminiscent of fish. – Fusty : stale-smelling or stuffy. – Gamey : the strong smell of game meat. – Hircine : an odor reminiscent of goat. – Marshy : distinctive and pungent “rotten egg” smell. – Mephitis : a strong smell, especially emitted from the earth. – Mildewed : that scent when an organic matter is steeped in wetness for too long that it has gone stale and started decomposing. – Musty : the deep scent of decaying matters and rotting woods. – Oceanic : a salty, breezy seaside smell with hints of fishy and rotten smell. – Stale: the smell of old, forgotten, and stagnant matter. – Stenchy: having a stench, foul odor. – Putrid : the stench emitted by decomposing organic matter. – Rancid: rank in smell. – Reek: strong, unpleasant smell. – Sulphury : sharp, pungent smell.

As a closing, when I feel stumped in describing natural smells, what I love to do is to browse through catalogs of perfume descriptions and let the words inspire me .

I hope the list of smell descriptions of nature listed above is useful for you. For a similar post, head to Vivid Description in Creative Writing Examples

Or if you’re looking for writing prompts, check out Surreal Writing Prompts , Unique Zombie Ideas , or browse our Story Ideas & Writing Prompts category for more ideas.

Until next time!

Vivid Description in Creative Writing Examples (2024)

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Nature writing prompts to spark creativity and connection

A keepsake journal for writing down experiences in nature (Photo by Wendy Ho/NCC staff)

December 21, 2023 | by Wendy Ho

Connecting with nature can come in many forms. For some, it may be taking a walk and listening to the rustling of leaves, or the crunching of snow underfoot. For others, a creative outlet like art, music and rhythmic movement allows them to experience nature more closely.

I like to reflect on how I’ve nurtured my connection with nature through writing. Often, nature happens right under my nose and writing in a journal allows me to savour the moment and find delight every time I reread my work.

Whether it’s encountering a teeny spider on the windowsill or stumbling upon a bee dozing inside a squash’s flower, there is nature’s magic and awe to be found. And the more I think about how and why a moment in nature was meaningful and endearing, the more descriptive my written account is.

Roots of an old American beech tree at Clear Creek Forest (Photo by NCC)

If you’d like to flex your writing muscles and relive your nature experiences in new ways, here are 10 writing prompts to get your creative juices flowing. See how far you get in 10 minutes on any one prompt. Perhaps even consider making this a regular habit as your one-on-one time with nature.

Connecting with nature in a multitude of ways can inspire all of us to act with intention and make a positive impact on nature at every turn we take.

Write a eulogy for a majestic tree that stood for decades.
Compose the first communication transmitted back to Earth after a successful human expedition to another planet.
Finish this sentence: The scent of freshly bloomed flowers reminds me of...
A forest sprite grants you three tiny wishes to interact with nature's wonders. What are they, and how do you use them to connect with the environment around you?
An undercover botanist is about to study your local flora and fauna. Write instructions on how to observe and protect the delicate balance of nature.
Write your life story in five sentences, emphasizing your profound connection with the wilderness and how it has shaped your outlook on life and personal growth.
Complete this sentence: "I really ought to spend more time exploring …."
Find a photo of a serene landscape and write about the sounds of nature, the scent of the air and the unseen wildlife that might inhabit the area beyond the frame.
Pick a place in North America that you've never been to and describe your yearning to move there and immerse yourself in its beautiful landscapes.
If you were given one extra hour today and you weren't allowed to use it for anything you'd normally do (e.g., eat, sleep, scroll on your phone, watch TV etc.), how would you spend that hour connecting with nature?

Posted in: Time for nature

About the Author

Wendy Ho is Nature Conservancy of Canada's digital content manager.

Wellness And Paradise

1 x $ 67.00

Fantasy Storytelling

1 x $ 29.00

12 Nature-Inspired Creative Writing Prompts

Today’s post includes a selection of prompts from my book, 1200 Creative Writing Prompts . Enjoy!

Creative writing prompts are excellent tools for writers who are feeling uninspired or who simply want to tackle a new writing challenge. Today’s creative writing prompts focus on nature.

For centuries, writers have been composing poems that celebrate nature, stories that explore it, and essays that analyze it.

Nature is a huge source of inspiration for all creative people. You can find it heavily featured in film, television, art, and music.

Creative Writing Prompts

A young girl and her mother walk to the edge of a field, kneel down in the grass, and plant a tree.
The protagonist wakes up in a seemingly endless field of wildflowers in full bloom with no idea how he or she got there.
Write a piece using the following image: a smashed flower on the sidewalk.
A family of five from a large, urban city decides to spend their one-week vacation camping.
An elderly couple traveling through the desert spend an evening stargazing and sharing memories of their lives.
A woman is working in her garden when she discovers an unusual egg.
Write a piece using the following image: a clearing deep in the woods where sunlight filters through the overhead lattice of tree leaves.
Some people are hiking in the woods when they are suddenly surrounded by hundreds of butterflies.
A person who lives in a metropolitan apartment connects with nature through the birds that come to the window.
Write a piece using the following image: an owl soaring through the night sky.
A well-to-do family from the city that has lost all their wealth except an old, run-down farmhouse in the country. They are forced to move into it and learn to live humbly.
Two adolescents, a sister and brother, are visiting their relatives’ farm and witness a sow giving birth.

Again, you can use these creative writing prompts to write anything at — poems, stories, songs, essays, blog posts, or just sit down and start freewriting.

By Melissa Donovan Source: writingforward.com

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Disabled Poets Prize

Deptford literature festival, nature nurtures, early career bursaries, criptic x spread the word, lewisham, borough of literature, a pocket guide to nature writing.

In this glorious Pocket Guide, Kerri ní Dochartaigh highlights the value of Nature writing, whilst sharing her personal tips, resources and opportunities on how you can get inspired to write.

What do we really mean when we talk about ‘nature writing’? And what do we even mean when we talk about ‘nature’?

Nature writing , like pockets , is a politicised thing – embroidered with different threads; depending on your race , class , gender , (dis)ability, wealth or place in this world. Is there space here for you? Do you feel safe? There has never been a more important time to make safe space: for every single thing on this earth. The writing, then, will just do its own thing, you see. It will come and go as it pleases, like a moth to a big aul’ light.

How about a wee browse through these background reads , and then we might, in the words of Edwyn Collins , (the most inspiring nature punk on earth): ‘Rip it up and start again’?… (What is nature writing if not the constant riotous act of starting again? Of learning, again, to listen and to look, to draw close and keep our distance, to break and to weep; to get back up and love the world afresh?) In this NY Times piece three and a half decades ago, David Rains Wallace wrote ‘NATURE writing is a historically recent literary genre, and, in a quiet way, one of the most revolutionary.’

We’re ready for this revolution but who is going to lead it?

For far too long we have allowed a very particular voice, from a very particular background, with a very particular outlook – dominate bookshop displays, library shelves, reading lists, bestseller rankings and our own homes. This, the idea that there has only ever been one nature story, is wildly incorrect. Other standpoints, other views, other stories, other voices: have always been there. In ‘Heart Berries’ Terese Marie Mailhot summarises: ‘So, where are we? Where we have always been. Where are you?’

To write about nature with truth and integrity means to ask questions about the past and the future – who, where and what have been mistreated – and how do we make that stop, through how we approach this genre? I only want to be a part of any gathering where every single one of us is there as an equal.

So, who is doing the important work in this area? Where should you go to read more? Where should you send your fledgling words?

Let’s start with The Willowherb Review because I think they are incredible. Their aim is ‘to provide a digital platform to celebrate and bolster nature writing by emerging and established writers of colour’, and already their writers have seen prize nominations and awards (all links on the site). Most importantly of all the writing is cracking; beautiful, raw and necessary. Jessica J Lee, the editor, has a no nonsense approach to the genre that I deeply admire. If you are a nature writer of colour, check out their website for submission dates.

Jessica has also organised a reading group, Allies in the Landscape , a fantastic support for nature writers and anyone wanting to widen their reading in the genre.

The folks at Caught by the River do stellar work for those who love the natural world across a plethora of genres. If you are in need of inspiration, or events to go to when we can, start here. You will not be let down. They read everything they’re sent but are a busy crew so – as with submitting anywhere, patience is kindness.

More folks with big hearts and brilliant writing are The Clearing .

The art of nature writing itself can be a children’s story, a poem, a list, a eulogy, a translation – it can be fiction or non – written or other – short or long; it is anything that takes our world and makes it sing. The best nature writing, for me, speaks of transformation – anything from a fiercely hungry caterpillar, through to strong women swimming themselves to safe places – making lists of yellow things for their sick fathers – moulding grief through sowing seeds: the best nature writers might not even call themselves that at all. Some books I have recently loved are: ‘ Trace’ by Lauret Savoy, ‘Braiding Sweet Grass’ by Robin Wall Kimmerer Elizabeth J Burnett’s ‘ The Grassling’ , ‘ Bulbul Calling’ by Pratyusha, Seán Hewitt’s ‘ Tongues of Fire’ , Jessica J Lee’s ‘ Two Trees Make a Forest’ , ‘The Promise’ by Nicola Davies and ‘ The Diary of a Young Naturalist’ by Dara McAnulty. I return over and over to writers like Amy Liptrot, Kathleen Jamie, Annie Dillard, Robert McFarlane and others but I am constantly trying to find new voices, approaches and stories – new to me, not new in their existence, of course: it’s important to make that distinction in a genre such as this.

The important thing, needed now more than ever, is that they each take their place in this symphony of hope.

There is room, here, on these mountains and beaches, in these gardens and fields, in these bodies of water – in ASDA parking lots and unsafe spaces – on the streets, and in every place both ‘wild’ and not (both outer and inner) – for you and your story.

From me to you, here a few exercises I return to over and over as a means to get started…

Choose something – a moth, the colour blue, a tree, a wren, a pebble, the waves on the beach – and write about it as if the reader will have never before seen or heard of it. Really stay with the description for as long as you can, and try to get down to what it really is: its thingness. Make your description almost like a love letter in how much care you take with it, and the depth of your words. Another interesting take on this is to write yourself as the thing – to really imagine, say, going through all the stages of the cycle from caterpillar to moth – or the ebb and flow you would experience as a particular body of water etc.

Journal – at least three free-flow pages without thinking about them or rereading – every single day. This one really helps to get me out of my normal flow of thought, and does something to my brain that welcomes experiences, creatures and thoughts that are conducive to nature writing. It really doesn’t matter if I am not writing about nature in these pages, really that is not the point, I think it’s in the act of carving out space and time – bringing awareness to the act. The space in which I write these can be a cafe, on a train, or at home, and still I find myself in a wild place, one that is on the inside not the outside.

The thing that most helps me to write about the natural world is actually being in it – walking, swimming, running, laying, laughing, crying – just allowing myself to be outside as much as I can seems to be the best way for me to try to write about the world we share.

Once you feel more confident, you might be interested in entering your writing into a prize or sharing it online (an incredible amount of links can also be found in the hyperlinked pages too) and I can share only a fraction but here are a few that sing to me:

https://nanshepherdprize.com This prize is changing the landscape of this genre. Every single section on the site is invaluable.

https://www.thenaturelibrary.com

Christina Riley has put such a wonderful thing together here. Have a browse / follow.

https://www.lonewomeninflashesofwilderness.com/about

Clare Archibald’s inspiring, inclusive site is really making ripples in this area.

https://beachbooks.blog/about/ A gorgeous, generous sea library full of joy.

https://www.elementumjournal.com Submissions are closed for this journal but there is lots of fine work to peruse.

https://www.elsewhere-journal.com This is a superb journal of place, and submission are open.

The Moth Nature Writing prize , The Rialto Nature Poetry Competition and others are great to look at too. There are courses, schemes and more online but I think the most important place to start is by looking and listening, reading and caring; by loving the world and by writing it down in any way you can.

For me, any time any of us looks and listens to the non-human beings we share this earth with – when we pause in humility to acknowledge the interconnectedness of us all – the threads tying us to each other; invisible often, but so strong – we are playing a part in making this a safer, fairer earth. To go one step further, and to write about this connection, to name, explore, celebrate and honour – whether we choose a swan or a stone, a moth or a lough, the wild sea or our gut flora; things nearby or faraway, the known or unknown – we are shining light on one of the most important truths of this earth: our need to be alive, and to remain connected to every other living thing. There is power in trying to find traces of ourselves in the nonhuman, as well as acknowledging our difference. In searching for the beat of something unnameable; the simple act of being alive, at the same time, as each other, and in the same way as even the smallest insect.

Nature Writing holds the hope, for me, of reminding us how to treat everyone and everything on the earth. The best nature writing shines light on places we need to see; on beings we need to learn to accept as our equal. It is only a proper telling of the earth if we can tread gently on the land and the non-human as well as human while we do it. If we can speak honestly of the places and the past – if we can find a way to write it where every single one of us is heard; where each one of us, and our stories, are kept safe.

Kerri ní Dochartaigh is from the North West of Ireland but now lives in the very middle. She writes about nature, literature and place for The Irish Times, The Dublin Review of Books, Caught By The River and others. Her first book, Thin Places , is out with Canongate in January 2021. @kerri_ni @whooperswan

Published 7 July 2020

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Course details

Getting started in nature writing.

This is an Online course which requires your attendance to weekly meetings which take place online using Microsoft Teams meetings.

This short course will combine pre-recorded lectures with live, weekly, online meetings where discussion and debate will take place between students and the tutor. Visit our How our WOW courses work page for full details.

This course will close for enrolment 7 days prior to its start date.

Gain an appreciation of different forms of nature writing and produce your own texts in a supportive environment with this online course.

We shall familiarise ourselves with various forms under the Nature Writing umbrella, and share texts on the flora and fauna of different habitats and genres, from Gilbert White to today's eco-warriors.

You will write about others' work and produce our own original writing based upon your personal experience of engaging with the natural world around you, wherever that might be.

Programme details

Courses starts: 19 Sep 2023

Week 0: Course orientation

Week 1: Introduction: What are we doing here?

Week 2: Killers and collectors: the Victorians.

Week 3: Gilbert White's village.

Week 4: Different forms, different voices.

Week 5: The Hines brothers: fiction and memoir.

Week 6: Nature as therapy.

Week 7: Your jungle or mine? A wood of one's own.

Week 8: Little things are big things. Bugs!

Week 9: What about the future?

Week 10: Recap.

Certification

Students who register for CATS points will receive a Record of CATS points on successful completion of their course assessment.

To earn credit (CATS points) you will need to register and pay an additional £10 fee per course. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online.

Coursework is an integral part of all weekly classes and everyone enrolled will be expected to do coursework in order to benefit fully from the course. Only those who have registered for credit will be awarded CATS points for completing work at the required standard.

Students who do not register for CATS points during the enrolment process can either register for CATS points prior to the start of their course or retrospectively from the January 1st after the current full academic year has been completed. If you are enrolled on the Certificate of Higher Education you need to indicate this on the enrolment form but there is no additional registration fee.

If you are in receipt of a UK state benefit, you are a full-time student in the UK or a student on a low income, you may be eligible for a reduction of 50% of tuition fees. Please see the below link for full details:

Concessionary fees for short courses

Mr Jeremy Hughes

Jeremy Hughes has published two novels – Wingspan (2013) and Dovetail (2011). He was awarded first prize in the PoetryWales competition and was short-listed for an Eric Gregory Award. He also publishes short fiction, life writing and reviews. He studied for the Master’s in creative writing at Oxford.

Course aims

To allow students to gain an appreciation of different forms of nature writing and to produce their own texts in a supportive environment.

Course objectives:

To read and understand a variety of nature writing.
To analyse the ways in which nature writing sustains the reader's interest.
To provide a positive atmosphere in which students can explore their reading and writing from first draft to finished piece and give constructive feedback to others.

Teaching methods

Reading and discussion of texts.
Textual analysis.
Directed writing tasks.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students will be expected to:

respond to different forms of nature writing with growing confidence and understanding;
be able to write in a manner which engages and sustains the interest of the reader;
be able to transform their own experiences into original writing;
be able to modify approaches to nature writing varieties.

Assessment methods

Two pieces of work will be expected:

1. A piece of nature writing which conjures a sense of place for the reader. (500 words)

2. A piece of nature writing inspired by the texts and topics on the course. (1,500 words). This can be:

a nature journal
travel near and far
notions of collection
conservation/preservation

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Free Creative Writing Prompts #18: Nature

We need to slow down as a species. We will often spend hours and countless units of energy amping ourselves up to go a million miles an hour. We drive fast and we run fast. This kind of activity really does take a toll on the body and the mind, however, and it's starting to really show in our adult-onset illnesses. One way to avoid this fate? Get back to nature! Relax in the amazing natural locations that you can find probably less than a few minutes away from your sheltered technological world. A little meditation next to a stream and a bit of lounging by the ocean is nearly a necessity to make it healthily through your life. These free creative writing prompts on nature can truly help you keep that concept in mind while giving you a chance to draw from your past (and future) experiences to create some great writing. Enjoy! Free Creative Writing Prompts: Nature

1. Describe the most intimate experience you've ever had with nature. Try to remember a time in which you were truly affected by the natural world and it became a major part of who you are. If that's never happened, make it up.

2. One day, all plant life and animals just plain started to talk to you. They talk to a few other people too, so it's not like you're crazy. What do they tell you and what do you do about it?

3. You wake up one day as a frog on a lily pad. What do you do and how do you get back to your human form? Is this a Disney fairy tale or a Grimm's fairy tale? :)

4. What is your personal plan to preserve nature in your community? Even if you only spend 5 minutes a day each week, what is it you plan to do with that time? Do you even want to preserve nature?

5. Talk about a big hike or nature trail walk that you've been on. If you never have, make it up. Who were you with, what did you bring, and why do you remember it so well?

6. If you had a choice of any natural landscape to live on the planet and money was not an issue, where would you live? What would your first year their be like?

7. What is your favorite season and why? What memories have occurred during that season for you? Go into extreme detail on what you like about that season and mention what it is you don't like about the other ones.

8. Your favorite natural area is about to be changed into a shopping mall (I know, the plot of like every movie). What do you do to stop it and how do you get the community on your side?

9. In a horror-movie type setting, nature fights back (and I'm not talking about the M. Night Shyamalan movie "The Happening"). You are stuck in the middle of a forest at night. How do you get out of this predicament and back into civilization?

10. For some reason, as if you were a Disney princess, animals of the forest begin to come out of nowhere to help you through your life. What do you do with this newfound power? Be a part of nature while you're writing these prompts. Go out to a field or sit out on your porch and watch the rain come down. It's not a necessity, but you might as well get your natural relaxation in and complete some writing at the same exact time. Two birds with one tasty piece of bread :). Thank you for writing from these nature free creative writing prompts. Use the space below to complete any of them you wish! Bonus Prompt - You can grow the garden of your choice without money or time as a hindrance. What do you grow and why? How do you keep out the rabbits? :)

Related Articles Free Creative Writing Prompts from the Heart, Part 1 Free Creative Writing Prompts #2: Love Creative Writing Exercises #2: Relaxation

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What is Nature Writing?

Definition and Examples

An Introduction to Punctuation
Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
B.A., English, State University of New York

Nature writing is a form of creative nonfiction in which the natural environment (or a narrator 's encounter with the natural environment) serves as the dominant subject.

"In critical practice," says Michael P. Branch, "the term 'nature writing' has usually been reserved for a brand of nature representation that is deemed literary, written in the speculative personal voice , and presented in the form of the nonfiction essay . Such nature writing is frequently pastoral or romantic in its philosophical assumptions, tends to be modern or even ecological in its sensibility, and is often in service to an explicit or implicit preservationist agenda" ("Before Nature Writing," in Beyond Nature Writing: Expanding the Boundaries of Ecocriticism , ed. by K. Armbruster and K.R. Wallace, 2001).

Examples of Nature Writing:

At the Turn of the Year, by William Sharp
The Battle of the Ants, by Henry David Thoreau
Hours of Spring, by Richard Jefferies
The House-Martin, by Gilbert White
In Mammoth Cave, by John Burroughs
An Island Garden, by Celia Thaxter
January in the Sussex Woods, by Richard Jefferies
The Land of Little Rain, by Mary Austin
Migration, by Barry Lopez
The Passenger Pigeon, by John James Audubon
Rural Hours, by Susan Fenimore Cooper
Where I Lived, and What I Lived For, by Henry David Thoreau

Observations:

"Gilbert White established the pastoral dimension of nature writing in the late 18th century and remains the patron saint of English nature writing. Henry David Thoreau was an equally crucial figure in mid-19th century America . . .. "The second half of the 19th century saw the origins of what we today call the environmental movement. Two of its most influential American voices were John Muir and John Burroughs , literary sons of Thoreau, though hardly twins. . . . "In the early 20th century the activist voice and prophetic anger of nature writers who saw, in Muir's words, that 'the money changers were in the temple' continued to grow. Building upon the principles of scientific ecology that were being developed in the 1930s and 1940s, Rachel Carson and Aldo Leopold sought to create a literature in which appreciation of nature's wholeness would lead to ethical principles and social programs. "Today, nature writing in America flourishes as never before. Nonfiction may well be the most vital form of current American literature, and a notable proportion of the best writers of nonfiction practice nature writing." (J. Elder and R. Finch, Introduction, The Norton Book of Nature Writing . Norton, 2002)

"Human Writing . . . in Nature"

"By cordoning nature off as something separate from ourselves and by writing about it that way, we kill both the genre and a part of ourselves. The best writing in this genre is not really 'nature writing' anyway but human writing that just happens to take place in nature. And the reason we are still talking about [Thoreau's] Walden 150 years later is as much for the personal story as the pastoral one: a single human being, wrestling mightily with himself, trying to figure out how best to live during his brief time on earth, and, not least of all, a human being who has the nerve, talent, and raw ambition to put that wrestling match on display on the printed page. The human spilling over into the wild, the wild informing the human; the two always intermingling. There's something to celebrate." (David Gessner, "Sick of Nature." The Boston Globe , Aug. 1, 2004)

Confessions of a Nature Writer

"I do not believe that the solution to the world's ills is a return to some previous age of mankind. But I do doubt that any solution is possible unless we think of ourselves in the context of living nature "Perhaps that suggests an answer to the question what a 'nature writer' is. He is not a sentimentalist who says that 'nature never did betray the heart that loved her.' Neither is he simply a scientist classifying animals or reporting on the behavior of birds just because certain facts can be ascertained. He is a writer whose subject is the natural context of human life, a man who tries to communicate his observations and his thoughts in the presence of nature as part of his attempt to make himself more aware of that context. 'Nature writing' is nothing really new. It has always existed in literature. But it has tended in the course of the last century to become specialized partly because so much writing that is not specifically 'nature writing' does not present the natural context at all; because so many novels and so many treatises describe man as an economic unit, a political unit, or as a member of some social class but not as a living creature surrounded by other living things." (Joseph Wood Krutch, "Some Unsentimental Confessions of a Nature Writer." New York Herald Tribune Book Review , 1952)
A Brief History of English Literature
Romanticism in Literature: Definition and Examples
Creative Nonfiction
The Conservation Movement in America
What Is Literary Journalism?
Defining Nonfiction Writing
A Guide to All Types of Narration, With Examples
An Introduction to Literary Nonfiction
The Essay: History and Definition
What You Should Know About Travel Writing
Biography of Henry David Thoreau, American Essayist
Must Reads If You Like 'Walden'
Thoreau's 'Walden': 'The Battle of the Ants'
Notable Authors of the 19th Century
Genres in Literature
Tips on Great Writing: Setting the Scene

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CAREER COLUMN
09 May 2018

Write fiction to discover something new in your research

Amanda C. Niehaus 0

Amanda C. Niehaus is a scientist and writer in Brisbane, Australia.

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In the final month of my Australian Research Council fellowship at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, I published papers about sex-crazed marsupials, wrote grant applications and finished The Breeding Season , an as-yet-unpublished novel.

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Nature 557 , 269 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05089-x

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Healing Forest

Forest Walks, Nature Art, Mindfulness Activities, Healing with Nature

Words that heal: creative nature writing.

CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISES IN NATURE

Writing is therapeutic. Writing in nature – meditative.

Writing helps to give direction to our thoughts. From clouds of voluminous chatter in the mind, words drop on to paper like gentle rain, turning into streams of sentences. These streams follow their own path to uncover what is hidden and discover what is waiting to be discovered. It is a way to ignite creativity, curiosity and a deeper enquiry into the self.

It’s about observing the nature outside and observing the nature within.

Writing about nature leads to an increased awareness of our surroundings. This simple activity is an exercise to enhance our attention and also become aware of our own state of being. Nature is a place where one can observe our outer and inner landscape. Every person has a unique way of perceiving life and things around them. You begin to discover this uniqueness when you channelise your memories and imagination in a creative way.

Writing in nature is also a way to reconnect to a calmer self. Putting words on paper brings us back into the present moment and by paying attention to our senses and breath we can reach a state of relaxed ease. When one is relaxed and calm, it is easier to get creative insights about the questions in our mind.

WRITING EXERCISES IN NATURE

Our mind is a forest of memories, ideas, and observations. Let us explore the power of words to rediscover the nature around us and the nature within us.

Given below is a list of simple writing games that can be incorporated into an engaging walk for all age groups. The aim of these games is to build your awareness and curiosity. We hope this practice leads you to calm, creativity and clarity.

Senses: Pick any one of your senses. Describe your surroundings keeping only the chosen sense in focus. You can turn this exercise into a letter to a friend. In the letter you are describing your nature walk to a close friend who is not present with you, but remember you can only use one sense to portray the scene. Objects: Choose any object in nature, create a riddle around it. Let others in the group guess what object you picked. In the riddle the less you reveal, the more interesting it becomes. Just like the language of the forest which is full of riddles and mysteries. Here’s a riddle for you. The answer is given at the very end of the article.

You can see me, but you can’t hear me. You can feel me, but you can’t smell me. What am I?

Emotions: Take an emotion that you are feeling. Include it in a 3 line poem. These 3 line poems are a simplified version of Japanese Haikus . The aim of our poem is to capture an image from your nature walk and convey the emotion you are left with. It’s not a test of your poetic skills and the lines do not have to rhyme. Here’s an example:

Characters : Pick the oldest tree around or a tree that feels special to you. Spend time with it and write the story of its life. In this exercise allow your imagination to fly. You can compress time and write a biography for the tree or simply write about a day in the life of your tree.

EXTRAS: IDEAS FOR NATURE WRITING

Magical Creatures: Our forest stories have always been full of magical beings like elves, fairies, gnomes. If you could create your own magical creature what would it be? What magic will they have and what would you call them?

Game of Memories: When we recollect positive memories in nature it strengthens them and allows us to return to them when we need it the most. Write down your earliest happy memory. Write down your most peaceful nature memory.

Nature Song: This is a fun exercise that gives rest to the logical, thinking side of your brain. Pay attention to the sounds of nature and write a song in gibberish. Which means you cannot use any known words from your language. Just compose a song from the sounds around you: Krr Krr Krr Krr Krr, tok tok, Ku-oo

One Word Connections: This game serves as a warm-up to our next exercise, but is also fun on it’s own. If you are in a group, form a small circle. The game starts by one person saying any word from nature. The next person says the first thing that comes to mind on hearing that word. You are not allowed to think and respond. If a participant takes too long to respond, then the chance automatically passes to the next person in the circle. Complete 2 to 3 rounds of the circle with this exercise and build your spontaneity.

Twisty Tale: This is a group exercise. Stand in a circle and create a story starting with ‘I went for a walk into the forest….’. The conditions are that each person adds one line to the story, but alternate people add happy and sad twists to the story. So one set of people are trying to make the story positive and happy while the other set is giving it a dark or tragic turn. Once the story runs its course, switch the roles of the people.

Gratitude Note (Closing Exercise)

We usually end our nature walk by writing a note of gratitude. The note starts with gratitude for the gifts we have received from nature and grows to encompass other aspects of our life.

Without gratitude, nothing is enough ~Julio Olalla

At the core of all emotions in life, this emotion of gratitude is the one that allows us to find contentment and make peace with ourselves. It shifts focus from what is missing within our life and moves our heart to appreciate what we have. As with all writing, this exercise is effective only when the words flow from the heart and not the head. We hope that being in nature has enabled you to do so.

Bonus: Story Walk

A story walk session typically takes about 60~90 minutes. It is suitable for all age groups and creates more delightful results when people of different ages participate together.

Give around 15 minutes for each activity – 10 minutes for exploring, walking, writing and 5 minutes for sharing the stories. If there are a large number of participants, create smaller groups of 5 or less for sharing. Smaller groups create more meaningful engagements.

Any safe space in nature works for a story walk. Make pairs to create responsibility and manage the group better. At the end of each activity, have pre-decided meeting points for sharing stories from that section. These ideas are mere suggestions. Feel free to make your own. Stay creative.

WORDS THAT HEAL

Please share this article with friends who may find it useful. Here’s a link to download some posters, in case you’d like to create an event for people in your city.

Fewer people are spending time in nature these days. This distance is affecting our health – as individuals, as a society and also as a planet. The intention of this idea is to bring nature back into conversations and inspire more people to connect with forests in creative ways. Let’s do this as a collective. When you create writing in nature and share it with other, it spreads the seeds of emotions you felt and the insights you learnt. Hopefully, it will grow the magic of nature and draw more people to it. Do share your poems, puzzles, stories or reflections from the nature walk on our Facebook group . In case you post your writing on social media, add these tags: #healingforest / #forestlearning . It will make it easier for us to find them.

*This page is part of our learning program with nature arts, activities and meditations from around the world.

END NOTE: To get uplifting new ideas once a month you can join our free newsletter here . We are a small group of friends trying to find new ways to reconnect people with nature. Our aim is simple. Helping people heal. Helping forests heal.

We’d love to hear your thoughts, experiences, and suggestions for more writing games. Please add them in the comments section below to grow our collective learning.

p.s: Our answer to the riddle is ‘ Sunlight ‘. But in nature, there can be more than one right answer!

Spread A Little Calm. Our World Needs It.

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Posted on May 24, 2018 by Healing Forest

Category: Healing Forest

Tags: creative writing , Creative writing exercises , creative writing in nature , Forest Bathing , forest therapy , forest therapy activities , gratitude meditation , healing arts , healing meditation , mindful meditations , mindfulness , nature connection activities , nature healing , nature meditation , nature walk , shinrin yoku , words that heal , writing in nature

3 Comments on “ Words That Heal: Creative Nature Writing ”

Pingback: Photos of Peace – HEALING FOREST

Open your senses and notice what you hear-smell-touch-see. Start by connecting with one sense using word association to prompt your writing. For example, seeing green = money, begin freestyle writing about money. Close your eyes and touch the tree bark, then describe what sensations immediately come to mind, allowing the words to flow on their own. Utilizing your senses is a sure way to expand your writing with more vivid detail, while also enhancing your own connection to nature, and to your readers.

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Thank you for this beautiful opportunity to share our nature perspectives and writings. I’d like to share my recently launched book now available on Amazon, “Strength from Nature—Simple Lessons of Life Taught By the Most Unlikely Masters: The Nature Teachers.” Each chapter features everything from a scraggly weed to a rock, waves, mighty forests, butterflies and much more offering to help us face our human challenges with a greater appreciation for all life on this planet.

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The Creative Penn

Writing, self-publishing, book marketing, making a living with your writing

The Seasons Of Writing With Jacqueline Suskin

posted on June 3, 2024

Podcast: Download (Duration: 55:10 — 50.5MB)

Subscribe: Spotify | TuneIn | RSS | More

How can you adopt the seasons of nature in your writing? How can you allow periods of rest as well as abundance? Jacqueline Suskin explores these ideas and more in this interview.

In the intro, thoughts on children's book publishing [ Always Take Notes Podcast ]; how to market a memoir as an indie author [ ALLi ]; A desperate quest. A holy relic. A race against time. Spear of Destiny is live on Kickstarter !; What is Kickstarter and why am I launching there? , I'm on the Wordslinger Podcast talking about marketing later books in a series.

Book cover designer Stuart Bache on AI for book covers [ Brave New Bookshelf ]; OpenAI signs licensing deals with The Atlantic, Vox Media, and NewsCorp [ OpenAI ]

Today's show is sponsored by Draft2Digital , self-publishing with support, where you can get free formatting, free distribution to multiple stores, and a host of other benefits. Just go to www.draft2digital to get started.

This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn

Jacqueline Suskin is a poet, author, speaker, and creative consultant. Her latest book is A Year In Practice: Seasonal Rituals And Prompts To Awaken Cycles Of Creative Expression .

You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below.

Writing a poem quickly, live and in person, or order
Choosing the poems that go into a collection and knowing when it's finished
The physical beauty of layout on the page
Embracing the seasons of life and creativity
Trust emergence
Choosing the “easeful” path for your next project
Celebrating our creative accomplishments while continuing our journey
Practices to help us slow down
‘The veil is thin' and how it manifests in our work

You can find Jacqueline at JacquelineSuskin.com .

Transcript of Interview with Jacqueline Suskin

Joanna: Jacqueline Suskin is a poet, author, speaker, and creative consultant. Her latest book is A Year In Practice: Seasonal Rituals And Prompts To Awaken Cycles Of Creative Expression . So welcome to the show, Jacqueline.

Jacqueline: Thanks so much for having me.

Joanna: I'm excited to talk to you today. First up, just—

Tell us a bit more about you and how you got into writing poetry and books.

Jacqueline: I've been writing ever since I was a little kid. I feel like I'm one of those people who just sort of knew at a young age that words were the world I wanted to live in.

I didn't really know what that meant for a long time. I didn't know I was writing poems. Then the older I got, the more I was familiarized with that world, and I thought, oh, I've just always been a poet. So I ended up going to university to study poetry, and getting a degree in poetry, and then just continued to follow that.

It's really led me to some pretty incredible places, including this project that I've done for a long time called Poem Store, where for about 12 years, my only job was to take my typewriter around to public places and write poems for people on the spot.

So I really got this sort of direct connection with the way that everyday people connect with poetry . That has definitely illuminated my path as a writer.

Joanna: That is so crazy. I mean, what possessed you to do that? How did you make that a living? I mean, I have seen some people do that. As an introvert who just doesn't really want to speak to people in general, I just find that utterly terrifying.

Tell us a bit more about Poem Store.

Jacqueline: I mean, honestly, it happened by chance. I just met someone in Oakland who was doing that, and he found out I was a poet, and he invited me to come try it with him.

I had just purchased a typewriter, which was so strange, everything kind of aligned magically like that. That was in 2009. I did that as an experiment just to see if I could, and then I just realized almost immediately how special it was .

It was the perfect combination of my two skills. One is writing and the other is to connect deeply with people. So I just let myself follow it and see how far I could take it. I had no idea it would become my full-time job.

That was very clear, after about a year of doing it at farmer's markets and just kind of continuing the experiment, I was like, I think this is more than an experiment, I think this is something I should probably really give myself over to. Once I did that, it definitely took root and grew into a huge project.

I've written over 40,000 poems with Poem Store. I don't really do it in public anymore because I just kind of got burnt out.

It was a very young person's world to do that in. I had a lot of energy then, and now I'm a little older, and I feel a little more protective of my energy.

In the midst of all of that, that's how I got books published, that's how I met people. It was a really connective way to be part of the community and bring poetry to all types of different people.

Joanna: Wow, 40,000 poems. That's kind of incredible. On that, I mean, this is a very interesting thing, and I think goes to the heart of creativity.

I do know quite a lot of poets, and some poets insist that it takes a very, very long time to be happy with a poem and put it out in the world . You were basically doing a connection, and then a fast creative publishing type process.

How do you connect so deeply and so quickly, and then turn that into creativity in a finished product in a short amount of time? I know you're not doing that anymore, but—

How did you change that mindset of “it must take forever to do a poem” to going so quickly?

Jacqueline: Well, I like to hold both sides of it. I still, even throughout that whole process, wrote books. Those poems did take a lot of time, and craft, and working with an editor.

The painstaking, beautiful longevity of a single poem being on the editing board is something I'm still really familiar with and love a lot. Then I also think there's this freedom in just being able to have this poetic conversation with another person , which is basically what I was doing with Poem Store.

These poems that I would make in the moment, they're very spontaneous. so they're including that person's energy, and there's also a mystery there . Like I wasn't quite sure what I was going to write, and I didn't really know what I did write until I would read them the poem when I was finished.

Just yesterday, I work in a lot of schools now and just visit kids and show them what it's like to be a poet, teach them about poetry, and I brought my typewriter to class yesterday.

There's something really magical that happens when someone has a typewriter, and I think that that was also a big part of it.

There was like this deep lore of how is this person being so vulnerable out here in the world writing poetry, but then also, wow, this machine from the past, this is sort of like a time travel opportunity.

Joanna: I imagine some of those kids have never even seen a typewriter.

Jacqueline: Yes, and there's something about allowing oneself to be free creatively like that. Like those poems had nothing to do with my ego , right? Like, I'll never see them again. I didn't keep copies of them. Every once in a while, I would take photographs of ones that I really loved or something like that.

There was something so special about releasing that sense of control, and the need for perfection, and the need for such a clear certain outcome , that I think is actually really nice to apply to art making.

Although I really do value the craft and the focus and will continue to write books in that way for the rest of my life, I also will always allow myself to slip into that more improvisational sense of writing .

I mean, honestly, even just yesterday, it was a reminder that my imagination is this thing that's always growing and changing, and there's new language to uncover. It feels like a challenge in a playful way.I like, especially as being someone who is a writer for my profession, making any kind of outlet I can for that playfulness in my work.

Joanna: I love that. Well, let's talk about the books of poetry, the collections. I'm also fascinated with this, in that you have to choose poems to go into a collection, which are usually themed in some way. I own quite a lot of these collections of poems.

How do you choose the poems that go into a collection? How do you know when it's finished?

As in, okay, I am happy that this represents whatever that particular point in time is. It seems like quite a nebulous process.

Jacqueline: The choosing is really a fun process. I think, for me, what will happen when I know a book is coming into focus, is I will spend my time reviewing what I've been writing over the last year or two years in my journals, and I'll see a pattern or a theme .

For example, I made a trilogy of books about my time living in California, and each book in the trilogy is about a certain place that I lived.

What allowed me to choose those poems was that I saw this beautiful kind of exploration of place, and I thought, “Oh, I have an entire books worth of poems about my time living in Northern California. Oh, I have an entire books worth of poems about my time living in Los Angeles, and then another for Joshua Tree.”

I could see this theme. So then I went back in and added to it.

I thought about my core memories of those places and patched in what I thought was missing.

With all my books, it's been a similar process of sort of noticing that either there's a theme building up, or there's a collection of poems that are based on place or a certain time in my life. So that's kind of how the choosing happens with this reflection process.

Then there's how to know when a poem is done. I work a lot with clients one-on-one who are trying to create books or trying to polish their poetry.

I always say, you really do need to work with someone else at some point in the process , so that they can say to you, “Yes, this makes sense. This is clear. This is getting across the point you're trying to get across.”

You need to have that reflection of another reader, someone else's eyes on it, to give you the sense of closure that you might need.

Not every poem is like that. Some poems, randomly you'll write something that's just like, “Pow! That is done. That is good. I love it. That's very clear,” but I think that's very rare.

Joanna: I love that. So I also wonder about your poetry, and in fact, your books in general, because you have poems in this book A Year In Practice . I tend to read poetry from a physical book, sometimes I'll get an audio or maybe watch a video of a poet performing, but I'm one of those people who appreciates the physical layout of a poem.

That's often a place where people play with physical layout and the beauty of words on a page, as opposed to the beauty of the words. Do you know what I mean?

How do you incorporate physical beauty in the layout words on the page, or is that less important to you than just the words?

Jacqueline: I do love that. I love when people appreciate that because that is a big part of the craft. Deciding where to break a line, deciding what space goes between which stanza. I think for my work, a lot of times I'll be creating something that the line breaks are giving the pause and the cadence to the poem .

So I'm a huge fan of reading poetry aloud. Like every time I read a book of poems, I will read the poems out loud because I feel like there's a lyrical song-like quality to poetry, there's a rhythm.

The lines, and the way they break, and the way that the words appear on the page offer that. There's spaciousness around certain words.

I think for my work with the typewritten poems, then there's another quality of this kind of tactile, visual expression with the mistakes that I leave in, or just when the typewriter skips a beat, or when I go over a spelling mistake with just a few Xs, because on my typewriter, there's no way to backspace or amend mistakes.

I think that things like that give a different life to poems . Especially, if a poem is just a block on the page as like a narrative or prose narrative—which I do write poems like that a lot—I think it's definitely still an invitation to kind of slow down.

I think that's the difference a lot of times between just straight up prose or narrative fiction or something, is that you get this chance to have space around the words that are usually delivering something very, very macro, very large, as a condensed space, and as few words as possible, honestly.

Joanna: Let's get into A Year In Practice . It's a great book, I really enjoyed it. Of course, people can listen to this whenever because it does have all the seasons in it.

How should we consider the seasons as they relate to a calendar year, specific writing projects, and also times in our lives?

How might they overlay each other?

Jacqueline: When I was creating this book, I looked to the earth for many things. A lot of my life revolves around my connection with the planet . Especially as a creative person, as a writer, as a professional artist, I feel like a lot of times what I'm searching for, what I'm honing in on, is some sort of a methodology that allows me to have a consistent routine.

That changes throughout the seasons of my life, depending on what's happening in my life, what other work I'm doing, where I live, what personal things are happening in my world.

This project started many years ago when I lived in Los Angeles, and in Los Angeles the seasons are very subtle. You have to really be paying close attention to understand that there even are seasons, and what they're telling you is even more subtle.

So I think for a poet, that's actually an incredible invitation because I think subtlety is something that I love to lean into and kind of see what is really under the current of this. What small hints and arrows am I missing if I just kind of rushed through this? Subtlety asks you to look closer and slow down.

So I really learned about the seasons in a new way when I was living in Los Angeles, and this book kind of came out of that. I was like, okay, in the winter, I need to give myself some kind of space to slow down and turn inward a little bit.

Even if you're living somewhere where there isn't snow, or there isn't actual cold weather to deal with that kind of forces you to be in hermit mode, you need to give yourself that because your human body kind of requires that.

There's not a lot of space for that in our society. I did an interview with someone once about the book, and they were like—

“Basically, your book is suggesting that we rest a lot.”

I think that's a big part of the creative practice that can easily get overlooked because we're really concerned with product and outcome . It does feel really good to finish something or to fully indulge in creativity and let yourself be really fervent with whatever your ideas are.

I also think that noticing the season at hand and reeling it in for winter allows you to then move into spring where there is this charge, and there is a charge of energy that you can carefully and slowly approach so that you don't get burned out.

Then you go into summertime, and that's a major time of togetherness. Like that's when we're together, when we're sharing our work, when we're taking in work, but in a group. I imagine always in the summer, it's like when you're allowed to fully be out.

You're not having one foot in the door and one foot out, like you might be in spring. That care then kind of translates into the fall where you start harvesting and gathering again for your winter introversion or for your winter seclusion period. So there's a lot of energy in fall for noting:

What will I need in my creative cave? What can I do for myself now? What can I finish now before I kind of start to turn off a little?

So I love winter, and I feel that winter is a really appropriate time for creative gestation. Then the seasons that follow, there's a lot of choice that's involved.

You made these choices to turn inward and to focus and to kind of calm and take your foot off the pedal a little bit, but then when you come back into action in spring, it isn't like you just then slam on the gas. The truth is, is that winter kind of starts and stops for a long time, and spring is very moody. That really affects our creative practice. It really affects our ability to show up for our ideas that maybe we've been brewing during the wintertime.

Joanna: In the bigger level, I was thinking as I was reading the book, there are different phases of our life . So you mentioned that your Poem Store, you're not doing that anymore, that was like a phase of life that you have now moved on from.

We all have the seasons, that sort of macro level. So for me, for example, the perimenopause years were like a winter, in that I really struggled to do a lot . I needed, or I should have, given myself more grace and more time, but it really felt like a winter.

I've come through that now, and I feel like I'm really in a spring, like a reinvention. That's sort of a number of years over different parts of our lives that sort of mirror, I guess do you find that they do mirror the annual sense?

Jacqueline: Yes, and I really like considering the seasons of our lives. I think the main thesis for this book is just:

How can we remember what the energetic quality of this season is and then apply that during our life whenever we need it?

So sometimes we need a winter, we need to go inward, we need to rest and recuperate. That might happen in the middle of summer. I think it's more of learning this gift of this language that the seasons offer.

The earth is just saying like, “ Here, this is what all the other animals and all the other plants are doing right now . You're a part of that, maybe you could consider doing that also.”

Then thinking how that applies to the greater practice of just living and kind of knowing, okay, I've memorized what goes on during this time of year for myself, or I've memorized what it feels like to sort of downshift. How do I apply that?

I've done the work of memorizing it, so it's almost like now I can flip the switch. I can make the choice and say that's the energy I need right now. That doesn't really happen unless we give ourselves over to learning it and practicing it.

That's, I think, why I wanted to have the word “practice” in the title of the book, and to consider practice not just being creative practice and artistic practice, but truly the practice of living and engaging with life in a healthy and beneficial way that might be forgotten very easily, because there's so many things in our daily lives that steer us away from that.

Joanna: So as we're recording this, we're coming into spring. I was telling you before we started recording that the sun is out here in the UK, and it feels like, yay, spring has finally arrived.

I love in the book, you have this poem called “Emergence,” and I actually have on my wall, I have a little card that says, “Trust emergence,” which I feel reminds me that something will emerge. Even if the garden has been bare in the winter, something will start to sprout. So can you talk a bit about that?

Why does the word “emergence” call to you?

How can people understand that that will happen? I think it's really hard, hence why I've got it on my wall to remind myself.

Jacqueline: I think this really does just circle around the theme and the thesis of the book of this remembering, even this concept of emergence and that something will emerge, something new will happen .

How incredible is it to see the flowers and the perennials all pop out of the ground every year? It's never something that I'm not in awe of. It always almost shocks me.

I think there's something in that that's change is the written law of the universe. It will always be happening.

We will always be shifting and growing and changing, something different will always emerge. That's the nature of life.

We forget that. We get stuck in these feelings that nothing will change, that things are the way they are. I think that that's partially just what it is to be human. I think we get caught in our minds. We get caught in a feeling. We get caught in our bodies.

We forget that, yes, like something new will come, and that as it does emerge, the way we respond to it, the way we notice it, the way we meet it, and what we do with it, and the pace that we do all of that with it, really matters.

So I think, again, that memorizing. Well, how do you approach emergence? How do you keep yourself in line with the fact that that will come? What will you do before it does?

I love using the metaphor of the plant world because I think that the plant world is so reliable in this way, where if something emerges too soon from its cave of growth, from its safe underworld below the soil, it might get killed in the frost .

That's what happens every spring, there are these frosts that happen, where winter kind of makes its last stand. If we're not careful, coming out into the world after our moments of inward retreat, we could have that experience as well. We could get a little burned. We could get burnt out.

Some idea that we bring to the surface too soon before we're really ready could then get kind of snuffed out a little bit by the fervent energy of spring, and then things get lost. I think that's kind of what I think of when I think of emergence.

Joanna: You mentioned fervent energy there, which I love, because I feel that is the energy right now as we're talking. Everything's growing, and it's a bit mad out in the flowerbeds.

This is a problem that authors have is that often there are so many ideas. There are some people who struggle to find ideas, but many of us, I'm sure you included, have so many ideas. I don't know which one to focus on. I wondered, since you do so many different creative things, how do you know—

When all these things are springing up and emerging, how do you choose your next project?

Whether it's a collection of poems, or a full-length book, or all the other things you do?

Jacqueline: I'll try to stay in the logical realm with this because, for the most part, I actually think that that's a very intuitive experience. When I choose a project, it's usually because some kind of door opens. There is some pathway that is easeful, and I noticed that.

I think logically and practically what that looks like usually is like, okay, I'm feeling my way into a new project, there's probably a few at once that I've been thinking of, and all winter I've been brewing these ideas.

Then something will happen where I'll say, oh, okay, this is the easy way forward with this, and it's inspiring to me, and it's easeful. So that's the thing I follow. Then sometimes that peters out, and then I turned to the next thing.

So I think having your clear ideas of: what are the things that would make you feel great? What are the things that would inspire you? What are the things that you feel energetically pulled to do? Then also, what ease comes with those things?

Like if you choose a project, and then suddenly the next day, you notice that there's a grant proposal that just opened up that's in the same vein as that project, to me, that's a practical sign to try and put my effort in that direction.

I think following those practical signs is also very much like what the Earth does . When a plant is growing up and out of the soil, it's like, I'm going to lean toward the sun, and I'm going to make this easier on myself. I'm not going to grow in a direction that would make my growing harder. So I think that that's how I focus on things like that.

I let myself intuitively move towards what's easeful.

It's hard enough in the world to make a living in any way, so I think that if your artistic practice is your daily job, then there's a lot that rides on the ease of what you choose.

Joanna: That's interesting. I'm also intuitive. We actually talk about intuition quite a lot on this show, so I'm glad you said that. I do feel when I want to tackle a project, like this is ready now, it does emerge. It comes out. Some books, like one I'm writing at the moment, it's been years in germination—since we're staying with that metaphor.

Let's come on to summer because you use the word “celebration” in the summer section. This is something I, and many authors, struggle with. In fact, someone asked me the other day in an interview, “What's the favorite book you've written?” I was like, “The next book. It's always the next book.” So I wondered, what do you feel about this?

How do we celebrate what we have done, our past, as well as just moving onto the next thing?

Jacqueline: I think that's really interesting. I love the books that I've written.

I feel that there are some books that I've written because they were more of like a prompt. They were more of something that was almost like requested of me, either to continue my career moving forward or just to get something out of my brain that I knew was almost like taking up space.

I think that I don't judge the reasons why I make things, as opposed to just looking back and being like, “This is a good book.” I still feel that way, and I actually feel that way about all of my work.

That doesn't mean I don't have a favorite, but I do feel this sense of letting myself just enjoy the successes I've had , and the fact that I've written eight books and created over 40,000 poems in the world.

I love to feel that actually anything that comes after all of that is just like a cherry on top. I've already done all of this work that I'm really proud of. I kind of let myself live in that way, instead of feeling this push and rush to be more or make more.

I haven't written a bestselling book, but that doesn't make me feel badly about myself. It's more like, well, but I have written eight really great books that I am proud of . So there's something about this comparison that can happen in the world of artistry that I try to steer away from, and just sort of look at the facts.

I actually have in my book Every Day Is a Poem , which is all about cultivating a poetic mindset and the practice of poetry, I talk a lot about reflecting on one's life, and thinking of all of the skills that we have, and all of the things that we have done, and all of our accomplishments, but on a really simple level.

I love to consider all of the experiences that I've had, all the places I've gone, the friendships that I've nurtured , just the simplicity of being like, well, you know, I've enjoyed cutting a cold apple on a really hot day with a beautiful sharp knife. That feels like an accomplishment to me.

So if I'm reflecting, I'm just like, wow, I've done a lot. I've experienced a lot in this life. Instead of thinking that that's exceptional or special, I think that every human could do that. It's just about reframing the way you see your life.

Joanna: I think I always just feel like I have so many ideas and so many books I want to write. It's like once one is done and out in the world, and I've released it, and now it kind of belongs to everyone else, I'm just excited about the next one.

I think I struggle, like many people, with the idea of rest. There's always more to create.

Jacqueline: Yes, and I mean, I feel that way too. I have many projects that I'd like to complete in my lifetime. I think there's something to be said about—and this has definitely helped me—about just practicing patience with all of that.

I've had periods in my life where I have had a book come out every single year. Now for the past few years, that's been a little different.

I think at first, even like downshifting from my experience with Poem Store, which was just constant output, constantly creating and seeing this completed poem go off into the hands of a stranger over and over again, it really sped things up for me.

I think over the last few years, I've been practicing just slowness.

I have the word “SLOW” written in huge letters right above my desk, just reminding me that great masterpieces take a really long time, sometimes a lifetime.

I think the Earth really shows us that also. A Year In Practice is kind of revolving around that same idea of your whole life, and all of the seasons of your life, and what you create, it's all adding up to be this great masterpiece.

It's not just like a book that's published in your hand. It's also just like every moment by the end of your life adds up to be this really incredible artwork. Especially if you approach it that way, especially if you try to practice living your life artfully, then I don't think there really are mistakes to be made.

Joanna: Just coming back to that word “slow” because it's so interesting that you have that. I mean, I've got loads of things written next to my desk on all my little bits of papers and quotes and things. I do not have slow.

I do have, “Create a body of work I'm proud of,” which I think that resonates with what you're saying.

What are some practices that can help us slow down? Particularly in this world, a lot of authors now, we have to be on social media, we have to do things to keep our profile up so that people can find our books because it's pretty noisy out there.

What are your suggestions for slowing down?

Jacqueline: I think there's something in the creative practice that tells me, don't grasp, don't rush. So if I'm working on something, even just a single poem, if I'm working on anything creative, I will check in with myself and be like, am I rushing? Am I grasping at something here?

Or does this feel playful? Does this feel like I'm tending to a deeper emotion? That doesn't mean I won't end up writing really quickly on the page some great burst of inspiration, it just sort of allows me to review where I'm at internally.

I do think that that's probably my greatest advice is just that rushing through anything, it can easily feel like, oh, I'm just following the blaze of inspiration. If you look closer sometimes, if you just review the feeling, you might be like, oh, actually, no, I'm just trying to push through towards an outcome.

I don't think creativity really likes that. I think our imaginations are running rampant all the time, and if we slow down to tap into them, there's a lot there , but I don't think it requires us to be on the same pace as it.

We can grab maybe one piece of that, and then slowly nurture it and take our time with it. As opposed to feeling this sense of, I've got to rush and collect every little idea or image or concept that I have.

I think I heard an interview once with Tom Waits, where he was talking about where he was driving in the car. He would always think the muse is coming to him in these moments where he's like on the highway in his car, and he'd say, “Muse, don't come to me now, I'd have to pull over on the side of the road.”

There's something about that—I might be misquoting it—but there was something about that that really struck me when I was younger. Number one, if I have an idea in the middle of the night, I'm going to turn the light on and write it down in my notebook.

Then I think over the last couple years of practicing slowness, I've thought a lot about just letting poems kind of pass through me and not feeling so pressed to document everything.

That has actually released me from that feeling of pressure. You can have a really brilliant idea, and it can just be a brilliant idea that kind of moves through your body . That's it, and that's how it lives in the world, and it doesn't become something. There's a great freedom in accepting that, I think.

Joanna: In social media there's this sort of thing, if you don't take a picture of it and post it, it doesn't exist, it didn't happen. It's similar. We don't need to share everything. Not everything needs to be documented. So I like that kind of letting go.

Let's come to autumn. In the book, it's so interesting, you do use this phrase, “when the veil is thin.” I use that phrase pretty much in all my novels, in my memoir, as I feel this in certain places, and certain times, spiritual places, different times of year.

What do you mean by the veil being thin? How does it manifest in your work?

Jacqueline: Well, I think specifically in autumn, there's a sensation of being very close to death, because everything is losing its vibrance . All of the green is gone, the leaves are falling, everything is starting to go to sleep. So beyond the veil is winter, is the period of rest, is like the inner cave .

I think that when we're kind of hovering before going fully in there, there might be this opportunity to receive some information.

So I think receiving information in these moments where we feel close to death, or close to our hibernation mode, that maybe our minds are a little bit slower, maybe we're just starting to slow down, and so we're able to receive something on a different level than just this daily grind of like mental reception .

It's actually like, oh, maybe there's something that's a little bit quieter that's talking to you that wants to share information with you. I'm speaking of that in a planetary sense.

Though I also think as the Earth is calming and turning down, and maybe there's a lot of gathering happening, like if you think of all the squirrels preparing for winter, and they're doing this great method of gathering all their food and preparing, there's a sense of us doing that also.

I think as artists, and just as people, we're preparing for this inward turn that comes with that time of year. If we allow ourselves to look at that, there might be this great information download that happens then.

I think when I'm thinking of the veil being thin, I'm thinking of that quietness and that chance for this sort of exploration of something a little more spiritual or unseen that we don't necessarily have time for or that we overlook in other moments of the year.

Joanna: Have you experienced that in any particular places?

Jacqueline: Yes. As I said, I'm an ecstatic Earth worshipper . So for me, all of that information usually comes from being in places that are less populated by humans, or being in the forest, or even just being in the park.

I think being in the natural world and having that chance to downshift into that quietness, I think that is when I typically will receive either intuitive information or my imagination kind of comes into a different play.

I've had a lot of spiritual experiences, and I think the veil can be thin no matter what the time of year is. I just think that sometimes in the fall, it's a little bit more potent.

Joanna: Of course, with the various festivals that happen, Day of the Dead, it is a time of year when that is really focused on a lot more, this acknowledgement of death and the closeness of this other world that perhaps we don't live in every day, and certainly don't think about in the spring when we're just running around in the sun.

Jacqueline: Absolutely.

Joanna: So what's next for you? You have all these different things. You've got the various poetry collections and books.

What will you focus on next?

Jacqueline: Well, I have a book of poems that's finished that I'm just kind of trying to figure out who the publisher will be. So I'll probably start putting my energy into that. I'm really excited about that book. Then I have another idea for a book.

I'm about to move into this house that my husband and I have been restoring for the last few years. That will be a big shift in my life. I'll have a new studio space, and that always gives a lot of creative information. So I'm definitely gearing up for that.

Joanna: Oh, yes, moving house. That's a big one, isn't it? That really does change the energy.

Jacqueline: Yes, a new season for sure. A definite new season of my life. I'm about to turn 40. In November, I'll be 40. So there's a lot of big changes happening.

I always know that creatively, for me, space has a lot to do with what I create . That means like mental space, physical space. I think that I'm looking forward to that next chapter of having just a more grounded space and being able to settle into my home that I'll live in for the foreseeable future.

Joanna: Where can people find you and your books online?

Jacqueline: I have a website, JacquelineSuskin.com . I also have a Substack , if you look my name up on Substack. I do a lot of writing on there.

I'm on Instagram. @JSuskin is my Instagram. I try to keep all those things updated and put out a newsletter every month. So that's a good way to find me.

My books are anywhere you want to find a book, you can find my books for the most part.

Joanna: Great. Well, thanks so much for your time, Jacqueline. That was really interesting.

Jacqueline: Thanks for having me.

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Writer’s block—having difficulty producing new writing—affects almost every writer at some point, and it can be debilitating for our creativity. If you’ve explored creative writing, I probably don’t have to tell you how painful and challenging writer’s block can be.

In this article, we’ll look at writer’s block more deeply, asking “What is writer’s block?”—beyond its most obvious symptom (trouble writing) and into its underlying nature and causes. We’ll share standard advice on how to overcome writer’s block, and then offer additional suggestions based on a deeper look at the issue.

Writer’s Block: Contents

What Causes Writer’s Block

What causes writer’s block: a personal example, what is writer’s block: a deeper look, overcoming writer’s block: the standard advice, overcoming writer’s block: when the standard advice isn’t working, overcoming writer’s block: directly accessing creativity, how to overcome writer’s block: working with root causes, working with writer’s block: embodiment and connection, working with writer’s block: meeting our parts, courses to help you overcome writer’s block, “why do i have writer’s block”: what causes writer’s block.

In general, writer’s block is not caused by simple problems with easy solutions, such as “being too busy” or “not having anything interesting to write about.”

In general, writer’s block is not caused by simple problems with easy solutions.

These superficial issues can seem to be causing our writer’s block, if they’re the only ready explanation at hand. But if those were the real and only causes, we could easily get rid of writer’s block with simple advice like, “Wake up earlier,” and “What interests you? Write about that.” That advice doesn’t work, because these aren’t the real causes of writer’s block.

In the 1970s, two researchers at Yale studied writer’s block , and concluded that it had four main causes:

Feeling constrained and creatively blocked by the “rules” of writing.
Seeking external validation and attention through one’s writing, and becoming disappointed and angry if not getting it.
Feeling not good enough and paralyzed by self-criticism.
Feeling afraid of having one’s writing compared with the work of others.

These sets of issues have been labeled “apathy,” “anger,” “anxiety,” and “social hostility,” but to me that has that overconfident 1970s Ron Burgundy feel to it, rather than being a useful description of these people’s inner worlds.

Whether or not these are the official four causes of writer’s block, you can see what they have in common: they reflect places where our psychology makes writing fearful or unpleasant.

Fundamentally, writer’s block occurs when an element of our psychology makes writing fearful or unpleasant.

I can share why I sometimes have writer’s block, based on what I learned in a yoga-and-writing session earlier this year with our instructor Nadia Colburn :

That agonized handwriting (getting to emote in your handwriting is a big benefit of freehand writing) reads “DESPAIR. I HAVE NOTHING TO SAY.”

Later in the session:

This reads, “I WANT TO GIVE WHAT IS PERFECT LIKE HE DID”

So, of the four options above, my issues with writer’s block are largely reasons 3 (paralyzed by self-criticism) and 4 (afraid of having my writing compared with the work of others).

In my case, “I have nothing to say” means the following: my personal interest is in spiritual writing, and I don’t feel far along enough in my own spiritual journey to be able to contribute anything the world really needs. So “Feeling not good enough and paralyzed by self-criticism” does fit the bill. “Despair” is an additional bit of what that feels like in my case.

“Like he did” refers to a personal favorite spiritual writer, whose writings feel to me like a very high bar that I don’t know if I’ll ever approach—in which case, why am I adding yet more inferior words into this world? So, “Feeling afraid of having one’s writing compared with the work of others” does fit, although in this case it would be me doing the comparing.

Let’s look at writer’s block more deeply. As we can see in my example, writer’s block is not a simple issue of needing a jolt of excitement or discipline. Instead, as The New Yorker reports in an article on writer’s block : “Many symptoms of writer’s block are the kinds of problems psychiatrists think about.”

I would say this more straightforwardly: writer’s block is a topic within mental health.

Writer’s block is a topic within mental health.

Please don’t take that the wrong way. By mental health, I mean “our level of inner well-being,” and, for all of us, it varies , for reasons . For example, although I’m great one-on-one, I am personally terrified of crowds of new people. So, depending on the situation (it varies ), I struggle with people, and those struggles are for reasons which I only partly understand. This is the kind of thing I’m referring to, and it’s the shared experience of everyone who’s ever lived.

There is still sometimes stigma around acknowledging that our minds actually do struggle. So I want to emphasize that I don’t feel that my own or anyone’s experiences of writer’s block are in any way an occasion for self-blame, shame, or stigma.

Rather, I’m simply saying that, just as our psychology can help us or hinder us in our other life pursuits—meeting friends in a new place, recovering from a career setback, and so on—it can help us or hinder us in our writing. In other words, writer’s block is about how we feel about ourselves and our world.

Writer’s block is about how we feel about ourselves and our world.

In my own case, I have no trouble writing , as far as that goes. What has tended to block me is my sense of inferiority, unreadiness, as a writer of spirituality, which I never even fully noticed until the workshop with Nadia. It’s an emotional block.

As the Yale researchers found, most experiences of writer’s block follow this theme. Writer’s block is not about writing per se , but about our feelings around writing: feeling judged by others, feeling rejected, feeling inferior, feeling stupid, feeling hunted by self-criticism, feeling stifled and oppressed, feeling alone.

Writer’s block is not about writing per se , but about our feelings around writing: feeling judged, rejected, self-critical, and so on.

The role of writing itself is simply that it triggers those feelings in some people. We’re disciplining ourselves to find words that seem worthy to write down, and then sharing those words out for others to scrutinize (or ignore!). Many parts of that process can be very heavy emotionally. If the process activates painful feelings in us so strongly that we can’t proceed, we call that writer’s block.

If writing activates painful feelings in us so strongly that we can’t proceed, we call that writer’s block.

Based on this knowledge, let’s look at some advice for overcoming writer’s block. Simple behavioral fixes really can help with writer’s block in some cases, and not in others: it depends exactly what’s causing it for you. We’ll look at different approaches below.

How to Overcome Writer’s Block

The standard advice for writer’s block offers simple behavioral fixes.

The standard advice for writer’s block focuses on simple behavioral fixes and optimizations, such as:

Break your writing project into manageable chunks. For example, you can set a timer for a set number of minutes and “do nothing but write” during that time. Take refreshing breaks between sessions.
Eliminate distractions. For example, you can disable your internet access as you write.
Don’t get caught in perfectionism as you write a first draft; remind yourself that the draft doesn’t need to be perfect, or even good.
Find a physical environment and time of day where you feel most inspired and creative, and make it a habit to write there and then.
Establish a ritual around your writing. For example, you might have a particular song or drink when it’s time to write.
Do something calming (meditate, stretch) before you start writing, to soothe any anxiety you feel.

If these types of straightforward advice solve your writer’s block, that’s great: whatever its cause may have been, you’ve found a way to work with your system to move past it.

If simple fixes don’t work for you, you’ll need to change your approach.

However, if the fixes above don’t work, you’ll need to change your approach. When these behavioral fixes do try to engage the deeper causes of writer’s block—the internal challenges we discussed above—the result is advice like this :

“Consciously stop any non-productive comments running through your head by replacing them with productive ones. Rather than labeling yourself a ‘bad writer,’ think about what parts of the writing process you excel at (idea generation, conclusions, sentence style , etc.) and plan to allot more time for the steps that take you longer.”

To my eye, this is not very curious about the writer’s inner world. It feels like ignoring calls from a collections agency one-by-one as they come in (call up one of your friends instead!), rather than figuring out what the agency wants and what to do about it.

If the standard advice for how to overcome writer’s block isn’t working for you—as it hasn’t for me—then read on.

The New Yorker article acknowledges the deeper causes of writer’s block, but describes the Yale researchers finding a moderately successful fix for writer’s block that doesn’t address those causes. The fix has to do with producing dreamlike mental images:

“These writers would sit in a dim, quiet room and contemplate a series of ten prompts asking them to produce and then describe dream-like creations. They might, for example, ‘visualize’ a piece of music, or a specific setting in nature. Afterward, they would visualize something from their current projects, and then generate a ‘dreamlike experience’ based on that project. In multiple cases, the exercises led, over time, to the alleviation of writer’s block—even in the absence of therapy… Emotional blockages did exist. But he was wrong to assume that, in order to move past them creatively, writers needed to address their emotional lives. In fact, the process could go the other way.”

I think this is valuable advice, from the following standpoint: we don’t have to heal ourselves first ; the writing itself can be healing.

We don’t have to heal ourselves first ; the writing itself can be healing.

But I find the broader implication—that, yes, you can just ignore the causes of your fear of writing by accessing your creativity directly—to still be rather ignorant.

The article expresses dismay that everyone’s mind is different: “Unhappy writers, it seemed, were unhappy in their own ways, and would require therapies tailored to address their specific emotional issues.”

The objection seems to be, “Who’s got time for that?”

“Therapy” here means “professional talk therapy”—you would need to pay for a person’s time, and there’s no guarantee it would work. Under those conditions, I suppose I agree with the objection. It still seems rather dismal.

If, after we’ve “tried everything,” our writer’s block continues to haunt and confuse us, it’s likely because we’ve been trying behavioral fixes for what is ultimately an inner, personal conflict in how we experience ourselves and our world.

If our writer’s block continues to haunt and confuse us, we’ve likely been trying behavioral fixes for a deeper inner conflict.

As an example, let’s return again to my own writer’s block. Is setting a kitchen timer and taking regular breaks really going to help me with the following dilemma: Why would I want to put more inferior words into the world?

Timed or untimed isn’t the issue, nor that I write without a set writing ritual, or with access to the internet. Again, I’ve been struggling with an emotional block, something so painful in how I feel about myself and the world that it shuts down my writing.

If we want to work with those directly, how do we do it? Read on.

Not coincidentally, I first even noticed my writer’s block directly—saw it for what it was, including its causes—in a workshop that combined the very energetic embodied practice of kundalini yoga with short episodes of freewriting.

I’ve written about the experience here , but overall I’d like to advance a few things that are extremely important to the positive result I had, both in Nadia’s description of her teaching and in my own experience:

Come Into the Body

To feel into the things we carry, we need to feel into our bodies. We as a culture are needing to come out of the rational-head-on-a-stick model we inherited, as useful as it can be.

So much of our emotional life is in the body. Our feelings are called “feelings” rather than “musings,” because we feel them, physically.

In particular, the body stores our trauma: the things that scare us for reasons we don’t understand (or, more precisely, don’t remember), which is a topic utterly relevant to writers’ block.

Our traumas, large and small, are deeply embodied. Just changing our thoughts or attitudes won’t address them, and this is why we can’t simply talk ourselves out of writer’s block.

That our traumas, large and small, are deeply embodied, and not addressable by trying just to change our thoughts or attitudes, is a finding so important that it is the title of the seminal book on trauma: The Body Keeps the Score . This is why we can’t simply talk ourselves out of writer’s block.

In Nadia’s workshop, we spent minutes just getting into full experience of our bodies, and the writing came from there. Nadia’s direct advice is as follows:

Here’s more detail on that same advice from a later workshop I attended with her: “When we’re writing we often disconnect from our body; see if you can stay connected to your body and your breath as you write, so you’re not just writing from your head, but from lower down.”

Feeling and Writing into Blocks

Nadia says, “Yoga gave me tools to unlock what my body was carrying.” This doesn’t have to be through yoga, but the idea is that writer’s block , or any other emotional-energetic block in the body, is not something to route around or ignore. Instead, it’s something to feel into, kindly.

Any energetic block in the body is not something to route around, but something to feel into, kindly.

This involves directly experiencing the energy block, in the body, as part of a gentle, embodied practice like Nadia led. Then, as you feel into the block, you can give it voice, through writing itself. The jagged handwriting I shared at the top of the article started as energy: as feelings in the body (tension in the upper stomach, constriction my throat), which then found words to express themselves. The reason the letters are so jagged is because I was allowing this energy to flow and shift, including through my hand as I wrote.

You can write into blocks to explore them, and this is an important method of letting the why of your writer’s block express itself, as happened in my case.

Blocks as an Energy Source

You’ll also find that the energy stored in emotional blocks—including writer’s block—can power your writing.

Again, writer’s block isn’t really a bland, “I can’t find cool things to write about”-type experience. Instead, it’s an “I feel like I’ll never be good enough”-type experience, or “I know I’m better than other people, and I don’t want to give them a chance to disagree by criticizing my writing”-type experience, or any of the other inner conflicts on or off the Yale researchers’ list.

All those cases have something in common: they’re very painful! There’s a lot of energy there.

When your writer’s block reveals its actual source and nature, you’ll likely have plenty to talk about.

When your writer’s block stops being a random weird thing you banish with an egg timer and a favorite cola, and reveals its actual source and nature, then it’s quite likely that you’ll have plenty to talk about. You may also have plenty of energy to do the talking, as with my jagged handwriting.

To explore any of these elements, you can look at Nadia’s teaching, or any other process that combines deep bodily awareness with writing into blocks.

I can’t do full justice to it here, but I’ve been reading a book called No Bad Parts , by Richard Schwartz, and applying its exercises in my own life. It’s changed both my perspective and my day-to-day life by an extreme amount—perhaps more than any other book I’ve ever read.

The book’s core thesis (and of the broader literature known as Internal Family Systems, IFS) is that our minds are not single but multiple: we have many “parts,” each in their own role. By the time we reach adulthood, many of these roles are stuck and confused.

Imagine a normally nice person who has “a mean streak” or “a bad side.” The idea is that that “streak” or “side” is real : it is one of many parts of that person, with its own goals, fears, and perspectives. It is not just an odd and inexplicable “habit” affecting a single, coherent individual.

How does this apply to writer’s block? Well, writer’s block is similarly “odd and inexplicable.” How could a person who loves and values creativity find their own creativity blocked? How come we keep telling ourselves to “just write it, it doesn’t matter what other people think”—and yet we never do? It just doesn’t make sense, if we’re the single, rational, straightforward unit we often assume we are.

Writer’s block happens when we can no longer silence parts of ourselves—that are bound up in shame, inferiority, craving the approval of others, fearing rejection, and so on—enough to keep writing.

After exploring the perspective in No Bad Parts (known as Internal Family Systems, IFS), it’s impossible not to see writer’s block in terms of parts of ourselves—parts that are deeply bound up in shame, inferiority, craving the approval of others, fearing rejection, and so on—feeling so much pain and conflict when we write that we cannot continue.

In general, we’ve never even noticed these parts for what they are (as I hadn’t with the energies I was voicing in Nadia’s course), let alone begun the healing process of reconnecting with them. When we can no longer silence these parts enough to keep writing, we call it “writer’s block.”

Parts Give More Detail

Working with writer’s block using this perspective is very similar to what I did in Nadia’s workshop. The only difference is looking at the conflict in my body not just as an energy, but as a part —a miniature personality. The emotional block I felt is not “my” overall sense of inferiority (which I don’t have!), but is within a system of feelings and beliefs held by a part of me.

This part feels inferior, and is in conflict with other parts of me—say, the parts that would love to write a book, or that feel that what I might have to say may not be perfect, but it is surely worth saying.

Crucially, this part, and all parts, are a friend, not an enemy. The book title says it beautifully: No Bad Parts . When a part is in pain, I don’t need to convince it otherwise, silence or distract it so I can do what must be done, or anything else aggressive, hostile, or bypass-y. I need to listen, and discover why it feels that way.

You can actually communicate with your emotional blocks—including whatever is giving you writer’s block.

The big discovery here is that you can actually communicate with your emotional blocks—including whatever is giving you writer’s block. They aren’t just energies unspooling in the body, but they have stories, fears, goals, and perspectives of their own, which you can actually learn!

That process of reconnection and discovery—which unfolds through energy moving, as happened to me in Nadia’s course—is the healing process itself. It also makes a great energy source for writing, as I mentioned above.

If you want to get into this, I strongly recommend reading No Bad Parts . Do the exercises in the first few chapters. (The book is front-loaded in the value it delivers, which is nice.) From personal experience, it has really addressed my own writer’s block.

If you do get into this, please proceed with caution: it is like opening pressurized containers, to an extent that has repeatedly surprised me. Make sure to have good supports around yourself.

Many students of ours take our classes to find community, accountability, inspiration, and other forms of support. If you’re looking for another way to tackle your writer’s block head on, take a look at these courses on embodiment and journaling:

Courses on Embodiment

Sing the Body Electric: Poetry of the Body
Telling the Stories Your Body Holds
Writing the Body: A Nonfiction Craft Seminar
Writing Chronic Illness

Journaling Courses

These Fragments: From Journal Pages to Personal Essays
Where the Diary Ends and the Essay Begins
Creating the Visual Journal
From the Source: Journaling for Self-Knowledge and Creativity

Courses for Inspiration

It Starts with Play: Get (Back) Into Writing
Finding Inspiration in Dreams

You can also take a look at our upcoming online writing courses .

Working with Writer’s Block: Final Thoughts

No one wants to suffer writer’s block. So we ask, quite understandably, “How to overcome writer’s block?” “How to get rid of writer’s block?” and so on.

On the other hand, given its actual underlying causes, trying to “cure” or “banish” or “get rid of” a severe case of writer’s block, without addressing those causes, could be a bit like looking for a trick to silence the hungry kittens in your pantry so you can get back to composing your violin sonata. Even if you succeed, the whole thing is rather sad.

In this article, I’ve given you a detailed description of the causes of writer’s block, and a lot of options for addressing it—from the simple and straightforward to the profound and weird. In general, I’d say try simple first, just on the off chance you have a mild case. If that isn’t working, get weirder, and you may find yourself healing your actual issues too.

I hope this helps you, and happy writing!

Frederick Meyer

14 comments.

Thank you so much for this article, Fred. I’m glad I’m not alone in finding the standard advice unhelpful! Very keen to explore your suggestions.

Thank you so much, Kerry! 🙂

appreciate the article.

curious if i know the writer; Frederick, did you ever spend time at a retreat center in Vermont?

Yes, same person – hi Greg, wonderful to see you! 🙂

This is unbelievably relevant to where I am in my writing journey at the moment. For me, “Feeling constrained and creatively blocked by the “rules” of writing” and “Feeling afraid of having one’s writing compared with the work of others” are contributing factoring to my own writing block. There’s so much to unpack, and this is going to take several re-reads to fully digest this. Incredibly useful – thank you Frederick!

Thank you very much, George!

The only item on your list that I suffer from, in part, is being locked by the rules of writing. Mostly my writer’s block comes from indecision and an inability to craft a story with all the elements of character description, character arc, goals, a compelling conflict and antagonist. I steer away from themes involving police procedurals and legal stuff since I know very little about them and they seem overworked in the market. But thanks for your post.

Thank you, Robert! Yes, that sounds maybe like a “how-to”/overwhelm issue rather than necessarily a deeper internal block. Or, maybe: not knowing how to proceed is causing overwhelm (I’d get overwhelmed trying to repair a motorcycle even if I was excited to), so it’s technically an emotional block, but an easy one to address since the main need is additional knowledge.

We have a self-guided course on novel writing , as well as many online courses on fiction storytelling . Have a look! We’re happy to offer specific suggestions anytime (you can just contact us through our contact page).

Thank you, Frederick, for this informative and well-written article on writer’s block. I have no doubt that once you overcome any confounding emotions, you will be able to write well and deeply on a subect as infinite and vast as spirituality.

I look forward to reading more of your writing.

Thank you so much, Rebecca! I really appreciate your encouragement. 🙂

Thank you for this article, Frederick. It is exactly what I needed to read at exactly the right moment. I’m sure I will re-read it many times in the coming weeks as I contemplate all that it holds. I always find value in the articles you write, but this one hits such a chord, I had to comment and say thanks.

Thank you so much, Carol! 🙂

The most thorough investigation into writer’s block I’ve read. I’ll be reading it again, too. Thanks, Fred!

Hi, Donna—thank you so much! 🙂

40 Facts About Elektrostal

Written by Lanette Mayes

Modified & Updated: 01 Jun 2024

Reviewed by Jessica Corbett

Elektrostal is a vibrant city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia. With a rich history, stunning architecture, and a thriving community, Elektrostal is a city that has much to offer. Whether you are a history buff, nature enthusiast, or simply curious about different cultures, Elektrostal is sure to captivate you.

This article will provide you with 40 fascinating facts about Elektrostal, giving you a better understanding of why this city is worth exploring. From its origins as an industrial hub to its modern-day charm, we will delve into the various aspects that make Elektrostal a unique and must-visit destination.

So, join us as we uncover the hidden treasures of Elektrostal and discover what makes this city a true gem in the heart of Russia.

Key Takeaways:

Elektrostal, known as the “Motor City of Russia,” is a vibrant and growing city with a rich industrial history, offering diverse cultural experiences and a strong commitment to environmental sustainability.
With its convenient location near Moscow, Elektrostal provides a picturesque landscape, vibrant nightlife, and a range of recreational activities, making it an ideal destination for residents and visitors alike.

Known as the “Motor City of Russia.”

Elektrostal, a city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia, earned the nickname “Motor City” due to its significant involvement in the automotive industry.

Home to the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Elektrostal is renowned for its metallurgical plant, which has been producing high-quality steel and alloys since its establishment in 1916.

Boasts a rich industrial heritage.

Elektrostal has a long history of industrial development, contributing to the growth and progress of the region.

Founded in 1916.

The city of Elektrostal was founded in 1916 as a result of the construction of the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Located approximately 50 kilometers east of Moscow.

Elektrostal is situated in close proximity to the Russian capital, making it easily accessible for both residents and visitors.

Known for its vibrant cultural scene.

Elektrostal is home to several cultural institutions, including museums, theaters, and art galleries that showcase the city’s rich artistic heritage.

A popular destination for nature lovers.

Surrounded by picturesque landscapes and forests, Elektrostal offers ample opportunities for outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, and birdwatching.

Hosts the annual Elektrostal City Day celebrations.

Every year, Elektrostal organizes festive events and activities to celebrate its founding, bringing together residents and visitors in a spirit of unity and joy.

Has a population of approximately 160,000 people.

Elektrostal is home to a diverse and vibrant community of around 160,000 residents, contributing to its dynamic atmosphere.

Boasts excellent education facilities.

The city is known for its well-established educational institutions, providing quality education to students of all ages.

A center for scientific research and innovation.

Elektrostal serves as an important hub for scientific research, particularly in the fields of metallurgy , materials science, and engineering.

Surrounded by picturesque lakes.

The city is blessed with numerous beautiful lakes , offering scenic views and recreational opportunities for locals and visitors alike.

Well-connected transportation system.

Elektrostal benefits from an efficient transportation network, including highways, railways, and public transportation options, ensuring convenient travel within and beyond the city.

Famous for its traditional Russian cuisine.

Food enthusiasts can indulge in authentic Russian dishes at numerous restaurants and cafes scattered throughout Elektrostal.

Home to notable architectural landmarks.

Elektrostal boasts impressive architecture, including the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord and the Elektrostal Palace of Culture.

Offers a wide range of recreational facilities.

Residents and visitors can enjoy various recreational activities, such as sports complexes, swimming pools, and fitness centers, enhancing the overall quality of life.

Provides a high standard of healthcare.

Elektrostal is equipped with modern medical facilities, ensuring residents have access to quality healthcare services.

Home to the Elektrostal History Museum.

The Elektrostal History Museum showcases the city’s fascinating past through exhibitions and displays.

A hub for sports enthusiasts.

Elektrostal is passionate about sports, with numerous stadiums, arenas, and sports clubs offering opportunities for athletes and spectators.

Celebrates diverse cultural festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal hosts a variety of cultural festivals, celebrating different ethnicities, traditions, and art forms.

Electric power played a significant role in its early development.

Elektrostal owes its name and initial growth to the establishment of electric power stations and the utilization of electricity in the industrial sector.

Boasts a thriving economy.

The city’s strong industrial base, coupled with its strategic location near Moscow, has contributed to Elektrostal’s prosperous economic status.

Houses the Elektrostal Drama Theater.

The Elektrostal Drama Theater is a cultural centerpiece, attracting theater enthusiasts from far and wide.

Popular destination for winter sports.

Elektrostal’s proximity to ski resorts and winter sport facilities makes it a favorite destination for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter activities.

Promotes environmental sustainability.

Elektrostal prioritizes environmental protection and sustainability, implementing initiatives to reduce pollution and preserve natural resources.

Home to renowned educational institutions.

Elektrostal is known for its prestigious schools and universities, offering a wide range of academic programs to students.

Committed to cultural preservation.

The city values its cultural heritage and takes active steps to preserve and promote traditional customs, crafts, and arts.

Hosts an annual International Film Festival.

The Elektrostal International Film Festival attracts filmmakers and cinema enthusiasts from around the world, showcasing a diverse range of films.

Encourages entrepreneurship and innovation.

Elektrostal supports aspiring entrepreneurs and fosters a culture of innovation, providing opportunities for startups and business development .

Offers a range of housing options.

Elektrostal provides diverse housing options, including apartments, houses, and residential complexes, catering to different lifestyles and budgets.

Home to notable sports teams.

Elektrostal is proud of its sports legacy , with several successful sports teams competing at regional and national levels.

Boasts a vibrant nightlife scene.

Residents and visitors can enjoy a lively nightlife in Elektrostal, with numerous bars, clubs, and entertainment venues.

Promotes cultural exchange and international relations.

Elektrostal actively engages in international partnerships, cultural exchanges, and diplomatic collaborations to foster global connections.

Surrounded by beautiful nature reserves.

Nearby nature reserves, such as the Barybino Forest and Luchinskoye Lake, offer opportunities for nature enthusiasts to explore and appreciate the region’s biodiversity.

Commemorates historical events.

The city pays tribute to significant historical events through memorials, monuments, and exhibitions, ensuring the preservation of collective memory.

Promotes sports and youth development.

Elektrostal invests in sports infrastructure and programs to encourage youth participation, health, and physical fitness.

Hosts annual cultural and artistic festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal celebrates its cultural diversity through festivals dedicated to music, dance, art, and theater.

Provides a picturesque landscape for photography enthusiasts.

The city’s scenic beauty, architectural landmarks, and natural surroundings make it a paradise for photographers.

Connects to Moscow via a direct train line.

The convenient train connection between Elektrostal and Moscow makes commuting between the two cities effortless.

A city with a bright future.

Elektrostal continues to grow and develop, aiming to become a model city in terms of infrastructure, sustainability, and quality of life for its residents.

In conclusion, Elektrostal is a fascinating city with a rich history and a vibrant present. From its origins as a center of steel production to its modern-day status as a hub for education and industry, Elektrostal has plenty to offer both residents and visitors. With its beautiful parks, cultural attractions, and proximity to Moscow, there is no shortage of things to see and do in this dynamic city. Whether you’re interested in exploring its historical landmarks, enjoying outdoor activities, or immersing yourself in the local culture, Elektrostal has something for everyone. So, next time you find yourself in the Moscow region, don’t miss the opportunity to discover the hidden gems of Elektrostal.

Q: What is the population of Elektrostal?

A: As of the latest data, the population of Elektrostal is approximately XXXX.

Q: How far is Elektrostal from Moscow?

A: Elektrostal is located approximately XX kilometers away from Moscow.

Q: Are there any famous landmarks in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to several notable landmarks, including XXXX and XXXX.

Q: What industries are prominent in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal is known for its steel production industry and is also a center for engineering and manufacturing.

Q: Are there any universities or educational institutions in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to XXXX University and several other educational institutions.

Q: What are some popular outdoor activities in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal offers several outdoor activities, such as hiking, cycling, and picnicking in its beautiful parks.

Q: Is Elektrostal well-connected in terms of transportation?

A: Yes, Elektrostal has good transportation links, including trains and buses, making it easily accessible from nearby cities.

Q: Are there any annual events or festivals in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal hosts various events and festivals throughout the year, including XXXX and XXXX.

Elektrostal's fascinating history, vibrant culture, and promising future make it a city worth exploring. For more captivating facts about cities around the world, discover the unique characteristics that define each city . Uncover the hidden gems of Moscow Oblast through our in-depth look at Kolomna. Lastly, dive into the rich industrial heritage of Teesside, a thriving industrial center with its own story to tell.

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Top Things to Do in Elektrostal, Russia - Elektrostal Must-See Attractions

Things to do in elektrostal.

5.0 of 5 bubbles
4.0 of 5 bubbles & up
Good for a Rainy Day
Good for Kids
Good for Big Groups
Adventurous
Budget-friendly
Hidden Gems
Good for Couples
Honeymoon spot
Good for Adrenaline Seekers
Things to do ranked using Tripadvisor data including reviews, ratings, photos, and popularity.

1. Electrostal History and Art Museum

2. Statue of Lenin

3. Park of Culture and Leisure

4. museum and exhibition center.

5. Museum of Labor Glory

7. Galereya Kino

8. viki cinema, 9. smokygrove.

10. Gandikap

11. papa lounge bar, 12. karaoke bar.

Category : Elektrostal

Subcategories.

This category has the following 13 subcategories, out of 13 total.

Elektrostal by medium ‎ (4 C)
Elektrostal by year ‎ (67 C)
Architecture of Elektrostal ‎ (8 C, 1290 F)
Culture of Elektrostal ‎ (13 C, 3 F)
Economy of Elektrostal ‎ (8 C)
Elektrostal. Official insignia and awards ‎ (16 F)
Events in Elektrostal ‎ (2 C)
Nature of Elektrostal ‎ (13 C, 187 F)
Panoramas of Elektrostal ‎ (3 F)
Society of Elektrostal ‎ (4 C)
Sports in Elektrostal ‎ (3 C, 8 F)
Transport in Elektrostal ‎ (5 C, 6 F)
Yalaginskoe pole ‎ (214 F)

Media in category "Elektrostal"

The following 200 files are in this category, out of 222 total.

Cities in Moscow Oblast
Settlements in Moscow Oblast
Cities of Moscow Oblast under direct regional administration
Elektrostal Urban Okrug
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12 Nature-Inspired Creative Writing Prompts
Creative writing prompts are excellent tools for writers who are feeling uninspired or who simply want to tackle a new writing challenge. Today's creative writing prompts focus on nature.
Unlocking the Secrets of Nature's Narrative Power
Illustrating the use of sensory details in nature-inspired storytelling, this image shows a writer's desk with nature elements emerging from the pages, symbolizing nature vividly described in stories.
How to Use Nature to Inspire Creative Writing
How to Use Nature to Inspire Creative Writing. Hurricane Florence is upon us. The news has been scaring the living poop out of the N.C. residents and understandably so. Hurricanes can be so detrimental. In this article, I will demonstrate how to use nature — in this case a hurricane — to inspire a creative article.
Creative writing: A world of pure imagination
The creative process of writing science-inspired fiction can be rewarding — and the untapped niche is rich in opportunities for originality.
9 Nature-Related Writing Prompts
I write a lot of fiction, and writing prompts are great ways of kickstarting creativity. As I've said elsewhere, the creative process can really benefit from some random, chaotic ideas!
How to Write Engaging Non-Fiction: Nature Writing
Nature writing is a broad, dynamic, and fertile genre, full of many different kinds of books. Learn trade tips from a commissioning editor.
A Pocket Guide to Nature Writing
A Pocket Guide to Nature Writing. In this glorious Pocket Guide, Kerri ní Dochartaigh highlights the value of Nature writing, whilst sharing her personal tips, resources and opportunities on how you can get inspired to write. What do we really mean when we talk about 'nature writing'?
Getting Started in Nature Writing
Gain an appreciation of different forms of nature writing and produce your own texts in a supportive environment with this online course.
Free Creative Writing Prompts #18: Nature
The joys of nature can be used for writing with these free creative writing prompts. Try to write them outside.
What is Nature Writing?
Nature writing is a form of creative nonfiction in which the natural environment (or a narrator 's encounter with the natural environment) serves as the dominant subject. "In critical practice," says Michael P. Branch, "the term 'nature writing' has usually been reserved for a brand of nature representation that is deemed literary, written in ...
Write fiction to discover something new in your research
Creative writing can help you to approach your science from a completely different perspective — and boost its impact, says Amanda C. Niehaus.
Exploring Nature Writing Course
This introductory online nature writing course will immerse you in the world of nature writing. Learn some basic practices and techniques.
In Bloom: Nature Writing Workshop
In Bloom: Nature Writing Workshop. with Dana De Greff. "The land knows you, even when you are lost.". ― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Whether you live in an urban area or in the countryside, this workshop aims to get you out of your head and into nature.
Words That Heal: Creative Nature Writing
CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISES IN NATURE. Writing is therapeutic. Writing in nature - meditative. Writing helps to give direction to our thoughts. From clouds of voluminous chatter in the mind, words drop on to paper like gentle rain, turning into streams of sentences. These streams follow their own path to uncover what is hidden and discover ...
The Seasons Of Writing With Jacqueline Suskin
How can you adopt the seasons of nature in your writing? How can you allow periods of rest as well as abundance? Jacqueline Suskin explores these ideas and more in this interview.
Writer's Block: What Causes Writer's Block, and How to Overcome It
Writer's block—having difficulty producing new writing—affects almost every writer at some point, and it can be debilitating for our creativity. If you've explored creative writing, I probably don't have to tell you how painful and challenging writer's block can be.
Elektrostal
Elektrostal ( Russian: Электроста́ль) is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia. It is 58 kilometers (36 mi) east of Moscow. As of 2010, 155,196 people lived there.
40 Facts About Elektrostal
40 Facts About Elektrostal. Elektrostal is a vibrant city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia. With a rich history, stunning architecture, and a thriving community, Elektrostal is a city that has much to offer. Whether you are a history buff, nature enthusiast, or simply curious about different cultures, Elektrostal is sure to ...
The 10 Best Things to Do in Elektrostal
Things to Do in Elektrostal, Russia: See Tripadvisor's 801 traveller reviews and photos of Elektrostal tourist attractions. Find what to do today, this weekend, or in May. We have reviews of the best places to see in Elektrostal. Visit top-rated & must-see attractions.
Category:Elektrostal
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Nature writing prompts to spark creativity and connection

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The Seasons Of Writing With Jacqueline Suskin

Transcript of Interview with Jacqueline Suskin

Tell us a bit more about you and how you got into writing poetry and books.

Tell us a bit more about Poem Store.

I've written over 40,000 poems with Poem Store. I don't really do it in public anymore because I just kind of got burnt out.

How did you change that mindset of “it must take forever to do a poem” to going so quickly?

There's something really magical that happens when someone has a typewriter, and I think that that was also a big part of it.

How do you choose the poems that go into a collection? How do you know when it's finished?

I could see this theme. So then I went back in and added to it.

How do you incorporate physical beauty in the layout words on the page, or is that less important to you than just the words?

How should we consider the seasons as they relate to a calendar year, specific writing projects, and also times in our lives?

“Basically, your book is suggesting that we rest a lot.”

How can we remember what the energetic quality of this season is and then apply that during our life whenever we need it?