Writers, Get Out.

I took a stupid walk today for my stupid mental and physical health, and I wrote a stupid haiku about some stupid birds I saw, and composed this stupid blog post in my head.

10/10, would recommend.

We all know that writing is most often an inherently solitary pursuit, and many writers that I know thrive in silence…or at least a manufactured environment that they can control however is conducive to their process and concentration and creativity.

But writers, I am telling you, because I reminded myself of this today: GET OUT.

You don’t have to take a 63-hour road trip or spend a summer in Vietnam or rent a Sonic-the-Hedgehog hot air balloon. I was SHOCKED at how quickly just being out in the world IN MY OWN NEIGHBORHOOD caused all my senses to fire.

And sure, you probably have a REALLY great imagination and can weave tales from inside your darkened room, but I’M TELLING YOU TO GET OUT. Move your body, experience weather, breathe, listen. Because if writing is in your blood, you will begin to put words to those experiences…new words, in new arrangements, and they’ll be richer because they’re drawn from direct experience.

Of course this CAN be taken further, and I have ideas and opinions about that (like authors should try a physical sport, and act on stage), but right now I’m just easing us into a gentle and super-duper reachable starting place: GET OUT.

Because as I’ve said before about poetry, writing is less about a product and more about a lifestyle, a way of experiencing the world and translating that into a shareable format. So just GET OUT, and your adorable little word-brain will do its thing, I swear.