How to Steal from Nature and Improve Your Writing
One thing the greatest writers are famous for
Go out, go out I beg of you
And taste the beauty of the wild.
Behold the miracle of the earth
With all the wonder of the child. — Edna Jaques
Wordsworth. A name that’s worthy enough to be used as a synonym for the mother nature.
Wordsworth didn’t just sit down in a room and wrote whatever came to his mind.
He loved going on long walks to get close to nature and to silence the hustle and bustle of the industries lurking through every corner of England.
But that’s not important for us.
The thing that becomes important is how you can get inspired by nature and use the best of it to write whatever it is that you want to write about.
A few months ago, I watched an interview of Ruskin Bond, where he talked about his love for nature and how his writing skills could’ve been nothing if he hadn’t left the chaos of New Delhi and shifted in the mountains.
“…I thought if I escaped to the hills, and to an environment that suited me, I would do better work and be a happier person. And I was right. I’ve done reasonably good work here.”, Bond mentioned to the interviewer.
Bond’s love for mountains drew him to the hills, and he has been living there since 1980.
He particularly writes for children, but his stories are so simple, and yet, enthralling enough to keep even an adult hooked till the end of it.
It is always the same with mountains. Once you have lived with them for any length of time, you belong to them. There is no escape. — Ruskin Bond
Bond’s intricate narration carries the readers to a completely different world, a world where nature is respected as much as humans.
But how does Ruskin Bond captivate the imagination of readers in such a simple manner? Or, more importantly, what can you steal from nature to do the same with your work?
There’s a simple answer to that.
Spend time with nature
If you want to steal from nature, you have to learn to spend time with it.
This doesn’t mean that you need to explore a tropical rainforest or run down the steep hills of the mountain every week.
It may be as simple as sitting on the grass growing in your nearby community park or adoring the course of a river flowing through your city.
Try not to think about anything else when you’re doing that.
Various studies indicate that our creativity level increases when we’re surrounded by the greenery of nature.
In one such study, Strayer and his colleagues showed that hikers on a four-day backpacking trip could solve significantly more puzzles requiring creativity when compared to a control group of people waiting to take the same hike.
Personally, there’s not a single night when I don’t walk up to the roof of my house and admire the stars shining brightly in the midnight sky.
I have a routine for that. As soon as I’m finished with my dinner, I’m always headed to the roof. That’s just my way of being with nature.
And that’s the reason I use stars and the midnight sky as a metaphor in most of my poems. Here’s one I wrote a few days ago.
We’re all meant to shine
in our own beautiful ways,
perhaps that’s why death turn us into stars
so that we can dazzle the whole world
with our light.
Everyone loves different parts of nature. You might like sunsets more than the stars, or you might be fond of the beach more than the mountains. It’s up to you.
The trick is to get as close to nature as you can.
Spend time with nature just as you would spend time with your families.
I had a friend who would hug a tree whenever he would feel alone, like literally wrap his arms around the tree.
Whenever I come back from the hilly areas, I’ve noticed that my writing improves quite significantly.
I use more metaphors in my poetry, and as long as the memories are fresh, I find it pretty easy to draw upon from nature itself.
In a recent study conducted by Peter Aspinall at Heriot-Watt University, it was found that when the participants walked through an urban green space, the brain electroencephalogram (EEG) readings indicated lower frustration, engagement, and higher meditation levels.
However, the EEG readings indicated higher engagement levels when those participants moved out of the green area.
This higher engagement level might be the reason why people feel more ready to take on the task at hand after a nice trip.
Perhaps that’s why scientists recommend taking breaks after continuously working for a few months.
If you’ve ever been through writer’s block, your friends, or even a complete stranger in a Facebook group, might have advised you to spend some time in the mountains or to take a little break from writing.
Chances are, you might’ve already done that and felt the power of nature pulling you back into the game.
That’s what nature does to people. It not only draws us close to ourselves but also helps us in being more creative.
If you’ve read your fair share of literature, you will find that even the greatest writers like Blake and Wordsworth stole from nature. So the question arises: Why shouldn’t you do the same?
