I have taken to writing outside whenever I can, breathing energy into the work and freeing me from the evil clutches of the desk. I head to parks, beaches, verandas, wherever I can find a breeze and a view. It has totally changed the feeling of my latest work-in-progress, a Middle-Grade novel. To me the story feels more raw and true (but I may be humouring myself. No one else has read it.)
I recently pitched a Writing Safari workshop for kids to the Northern Rivers Writers Centre in Byron Bay and they were kind enough to let me run it. The workshop was based on my own outdoor writing practice so, with 18 kids and teens, I hit the parks and beaches and we let shipwrecks, kooky characters, the ocean and our own sand creations flow into our work.
Here are a collection of images (by Nat Caldwell) from that memorable two-day beach writing safari. (NB to writer’s centres in Noosa, Port Douglas, Bali, Hawaii, Fiji and the Maldives, I am available to run this course again.)
While writing this post I discovered a whole world of outside writers. Here is a particularly Great Post on writing outdoors with kids on ‘I’m a Teacher, Get Me Outside Here’ blog
http://creativestarlearning.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/creating-writing-friendly-outdoor.html
Get outside and let the world seep into your work.
