Podcast: Listen & write #1 -Up close and far away

An early Sunday morning hello from me in the Hidden Valley... and a few creative prompts to get you writing outdoors...

Up close and far away - A hello on voice-note from me in the Hidden Valley I wrote about on Journey 1, and a few writing prompts - with transcription below ..

1. Go to a place that you consider to be a form of refuge, a place you can shed all concerns and stresses. Depending on your situation, this may be a real place, urban or rural, or it may need to be one in imagination or  memory or out through your window.

2. Choose a spot to sit in, focus on a vista that is far away from you. Settle in and take some deep breaths. Start with fixing your gaze on a point furthest away from you – whether sky, the horizon, waves, trees, rooftops in the distance, whatever’s there. Draw on your senses in unexpected ways. Notice texture in particular. When taking in a view, we tend to concentrate on sound and sight, so push yourself now a little further. If you had to give the far view a taste, a smell, what might it be? What memories or associations come up as you do this - stream write for 10-15  minutes. If you are not sighted, draw on your sense of sound, smell, taste.

3. Do the same for the middle distance and write for another 10-15 minutes.

4. Lastly, focus on what you sense and then what you see directly around you, perhaps concentrating on part of your own body – for example, the position of your feet and where they are in relation to the space. Stream write again.

5. Additional invite - pull all three pieces of writing together, not necessarily in a linear way and see what happens.