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Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.​  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

Don’t talk to me, I’m working!

15/8/2016

16 Comments

 
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Like many writers, I find walking conducive to the creative state of mind. So I enjoyed the thoughtful blog series put together by Kate Evans for Mslexia last year. The theme cropped up again recently on Caroline Lodge’s Bookword blog, with a link to research on the positive impact of walking on creativity. Of course, I always knew it “worked”, but gratifying to see my intuition backed up by experimental psychology.

I’ve been scribbling stories ever since I could hold a pencil, and a serious walker almost as long. As a child, walking was an opportunity to spend time with my dad, but it still left me a lot of quiet headspace to make up stories as we huffed and puffed up the hills of the Lake District, oblivious to the legacy of the writers, like William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter, in whose footsteps we trod. The etiquette I absorbed then, of greeting other walkers with a quick Hello and perhaps some banality on the weather, has stayed with me, such that I’m affronted when, rambling in the Peak District, anyone fails to acknowledge me as our paths cross.

But, unless I’m on Ranger duty, when part of my responsibility is engaging with the public, my sociability doesn’t extend to stopping for a chat. I might have acquired the basics of social skills, and even go so far as to enjoy a party, as long as it’s my own launch party, or that of someone whose work I deeply admire, but I’m still an introvert at heart. A period of time, alone with my thoughts, is essential for my well-being. Out in the wilds – or what passes for such in England – most people seemed to get that. They’re probably introverts too.

For want of time, and sometimes energy, some of my walking has to be done in a more urban environment nearer home. It’s countrified as towns go: I cross the road, squeeze through a gap between a padlocked gate and a hedge and, if the nettles aren’t too high in the summer and the snow too deep in the winter, I cross four fields to another road and, beyond, the tarred path around the reservoir. At under an hour, it slips easily into a writing day while still being long enough to induce that state of reverie in which ideas can take shape.

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I meet a lot of dog walkers here, many of whom I’ve been passing for years but never taken the relationship further than Good morning. And that’s how I like it. Occasionally, meeting neighbours I rarely see – because people round here generally exit their property cocooned in their in cars – or a former work colleague, I’ll manage to set my thoughts aside and chat for a little longer. I don’t welcome the interruption, but accept that humans are social beings and I can’t live totally within a bubble.

I’m less patient with the strangers who see a woman walking – even a woman walking at my fast pace – as an opportunity to offload whatever’s in their head. Those dammed extroverts, who can’t tell or don’t care that, while I might look as if I’m out for a stroll, I’m actually working. I’m willing to laugh at their jokes, whether or not I understand them, as we move in opposite directions, but I’m less happy when I find I’ve been sucked into a conversation. How’s that going to help my WIP?
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Charli Mills is much more generous with her attention. She’ll even listen to those who, following Trump, think they can drive out the goats. It’s understandable that, being homeless, she’s looking for community, while I’m erecting fences around the sanctuary of my mind. Perhaps if I were better able to hold onto a mind of my own, I wouldn’t find the interruptions so intrusive. But the tranquillity I feel is fragile, transient, which is exactly the topic of this week’s prompt.

There’s a scene in my novel, Sugar and Snails, in which a psychologist administers aversion therapy, which involves flashing images with undesired associations are displayed below conscious awareness. Alison Moore’s wonderful new novel, Death and the Seaside, is also about subliminal messages, both in psychology and in creative writing. I’m not sure if that’s quite the kind of transience I’ve chosen to explore in this week’s flash, summoned up, not on a walk this time, but slug slaying in the garden:

One distracted moment

He heard himself singing without realising, cheeks cracking into a smile. Those old songs transported him to childhood, secure in his mother’s arms. The singer crooned his marriage might be over, but he could start again with someone new.

It jarred when the song segued into an advert. Luke reached across to turn the volume down. His gaze left the road for seconds; the consequences stayed his whole life. Two dead, one crippled, the papers said Luke walked free. But he’d never be free from his conscience, coupled to that one distracted moment until the grave.


On the subject of music, mood and memory, check out my undercover soundtrack for Sugar and Snails. On the subject of literary walking, I’ll be leading a guided walk again in the footsteps of Jane Eyre in Derbyshire next month. If you’re interested in joining me let me reassure you that, not only will I be reading extracts from the novel along the way, I’ll be happy to chat with you as we walk along.
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Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
16 Comments
Derbhile Dromey link
16/8/2016 08:44:11 am

Hope all that forcing your way through the nettles is conducive to great writing. To me, urban environments are very stimulating places to walk, as long as they're not too crowded. There's a pulse and an energy in the streets that propels you forward.

Reply
Annecdotist
19/8/2016 12:41:46 pm

I’m usually trying to avoid stimulation, but I can also enjoy wandering urban environments, especially if I don’t have to worry about getting lost!

Reply
Norah Colvin link
16/8/2016 12:39:34 pm

Hi Anne, the introvert in me has to agree with you. About the conversations more than the walking. I'm not such a good walker but I am trying to walk most days around the island on my WiiFit. As much as walking out in nature would be great, with my WiiFit I don't have to talk to anyone, except myself! I don't have to be dressed respectably (although I am), and I can be home as soon as I've had enough!
Your flash is very telling. Unfortunately I think there's too many of these distracted moments. Last night, further south than here, an ambulance carrying two paramedics and a mother and daughter left the road, rolled, and hit a tree. The mother died (I'm not sure whether she or the daughter was the patient). The paramedic driving will be charged. What a sad state of affairs. I don't know what happened to cause the accident.
On another topic, there was an interview on TV here on Sunday night with two families, each with daughters, who once were sons. The girls are 11 and 15. The older girl is already having or had hormone treatment to suppress puberty, and the second girl is eager to start. The family has to go to court to get permission! Of course I thought about situations that you have written of, and thought that, although things have progressed since then, there is maybe still a way to go.

Reply
Annecdotist
19/8/2016 12:47:25 pm

I imagine the climate makes a lot of difference regarding one’s passion for walking. Even over here, I don’t enjoy it so much on a hot summer day. I like the idea of you being able to walk much further by doing it indoors, although I don’t think it’s for me – many years ago I bought a small trampoline to exercise indoors but it was soon forgotten.
I’m now reading a novel that starts with the subject of my flash – not sure if it was lurking at the back of my mind when I wrote this – about the consequences of a man killing someone and not stopping. Aargh! It’s very gripping in fiction but I hope it’s something I never have to face.

Reply
Charli Mills link
17/8/2016 06:53:58 am

Great post, Anne and I love the image I have of you working "afield." Problem with my mind is that when it gears up, I lose sense of my body. If I walked in such a state I'd walk off a cliff! Walking for me is a distraction. People are, too but I'm inquisitive -- I want to get out and see things -- geology, birds. Or to hear stories. Otherwise I tend to be quiet: I'm listening or looking. Ah, but the more extroverted the person, the more draining it can be to encounter! You need a t-shirt that proclaims "Writer at Work" perhaps with a threat that to disturb the writer is to risk a novel death. :-) Great take on the prompt. Such a moment is one that a person can spend a lifetime trying to overcome.

Reply
Annecdotist
19/8/2016 12:51:06 pm

Thanks, Charli, I’m thinking about that T-shirt for when it’s time to replace the one emblazoned with my book cover! The problem is that I imagine extreme extroverts wouldn’t care.
I think a lot of us lose the connection with our bodies when absorbed in our thoughts, but it can happen at the desk too with poor posture etc. I like the idea of taking care of my body and mind together through walking, but doesn’t work for everyone.

Reply
Caroline link
17/8/2016 09:09:11 am

Thanks for the mention. I am exploring the walking-creative writing connection in other ways at the moment so you have given me more thoughts and leads.
Wish I could join your guided walk. Sounds just like my thing.
Caroline

Reply
Annecdotist
19/8/2016 12:52:46 pm

Look forward to those posts, Caroline, I’m sure there’s much more to explore.

Reply
Luccia Gray link
17/8/2016 12:01:18 pm

I love walking to get the ideas going! Dickens was a great walker, he did so for hours a day with his dogs. I wonder where he got the time to do so many things!
Shocking flash! A moment is all it takes to be born, to die, to fall in love, to be crippled... I once read that we make decisions in 7 seconds, however important or not, they are, throughout the day. Frightening when you think of it.
Btw, wih I could go on your walk. It's lovely living in Spain, but difficult to get to the UK as often as I'd like to :(

Reply
Annecdotist
19/8/2016 12:55:17 pm

Ah, that’s great to think we’re emulating Dickens, although presumably he walked in an urban environment as Derbhile suggests.
I’ve often thought about you when checking the terrain for my Jane Eyre walk, and would be great to have you walking with us, but even more of a trek for you than for Caroline.

Reply
Luccia Gray link
12/4/2018 11:41:50 am

I'm looking into the possibility of taking part in the walk. I wanted to ask you about accomodation, which would be a good location to stay, near public transport or not too far for an uber? For example is Chapletown too far?

Annecdotist
12/4/2018 11:50:19 am

Would be great to have you, Lucy. Did you get that this year’s walk is on 17 June? Also, I don’t think we’ll be able to look around the house this time.
I don’t even know where Chapeltown is! The walk starts and ends in the village of Hathersage which is on both a train and bus route, though services can be patchy on Sundays.

Stephanie Jane link
17/8/2016 01:05:18 pm

All so true and I have even been known to walk, nodding slightly in rhythm, with headphones on as if I am deep into my music so as to avoid an interrupted walk. One day someone might notice they're not plugged in to anything!

Reply
Annecdotist
19/8/2016 01:00:54 pm

That’s an intriguing idea, Stephanie, and I might try it. It makes me think of voice hearers who use switched-off mobile phones to talk into so they don’t come across as excessively odd. And the story, that might be apophrycal, of evoking envy when the individual’s phone was still functioning apparently when a train went through a tunnel.

Reply
D. Avery link
11/7/2018 02:08:44 pm

Ha! It worked, this retweeting that you do, because here I am almost a year later. I agree with this. Why can't people read another well enough to know when to just keep moving?
Does the t-shirt work as well? Do people say "Nice shirt" then buy the book?
I am glad I clicked on this from twitter because two good outcomes; I remembered what I forgot to order online yesterday, which is Sugar and Snails, so I will amend that. And in thinking about thinking and walking I now know where this week's six sentence story is headed. So thanks!

Reply
Annecdotist
12/7/2018 08:03:09 am

Results for both of us! Thanks for picking up on this.
I generally retweet old posts when I’m linking to them in another post I’m working on at the time. Otherwise they’re generally out of my mind. There’s probably a better way – e.g. if I was into scheduling and could schedule a few months ahead at the time of first posting.
I think extreme extroverts are so used to engaging other people in conversation they don’t register a reaction, but I’m a lot firmer with my personal boundaries than I used to be. If they were stopping me to talk about my books it would be a different matter!
I only wear the T-shirt at events and even then people don’t always notice. If they do we can share a smile about my wearing my advertisements.
Anyway, it’s worked for you – thanks for ordering my novel. I do hope you enjoy it.
I must check out your six-word story.

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