Rest and thinking time

I was glad to read in the university student newspaper Exposé (which Frog brings home) that Hilary Mantel – author of the multi-page novel Wolf Hall (which I couldn’t read) – considers three hours of writing new material more than enough for one day. (Working on material you’ve already written is another matter.) And as far as I remember from his autobiography, Roald Dahl wrote for two hours in the morning, then had an alcoholic drink, some lunch and a rest, before tackling another one and a half hours.

Rest, and thinking time, are vital to creative writing, as I keep telling myself – and keep forgetting – but walking is one of my ways of finding both.

Here some pictures from my walk this morning. It was my favourite sort of day – cloudy and still – and there was a Christmassy nip in the air. This is my default walk. It takes an hour and I can get to it straight from the garden.

I love this view, from the top of the field behind the house, and today the light was so mysterious. The sea is just over the horizon. You can see it from slightly higher up.

This path goes uphill for half an hour and gives me my aerobic exercise (or would do if I didn’t keep stopping to rest). It was looking particularly beautiful today, now that the leaves have started to turn.

You’ve seen these three beech trees before. They stand sentinel in the field at the top of the hill. I sit underneath them to look at the view and write my daily pages. They seem to accept me.