Okay, so I here I go. I haven’t got a clue what I am going
to write about, but I am long overdue to make another blog post, so I am just
going to ramble. What I will give you will be unplanned, uncut and unedited,
just a pure unadulterated ramble.
But before I get going I have looked up in my Concise Oxford
English Dictionary the definition of the verb ramble: 1. Walk for pleasure in the countryside, 2.
(often ramble on) talk or write at length in a
confused or inconsequential way.
Let’s
take a look at both of those definitions from a writer’s perspective. I don’t
walk as often as I used to. I have been a dog owner, but the responsibility of
caring for man’s best friend does not fit in with my work schedule. But when I
did have dogs I was out walking in the countryside every day. I have also been
a member of a local rambling club, and learned that the countryside is there to
be enjoyed all of the year round.
Getting
out and about on hills and dales, forests, riverbanks, lakesides and coastal
paths is just the nutrition that converts to creative juice that is enriched
with experiences, discovery that will fuel a burning motivation to write,
paint, or even compose a symphony. For some the solitude of a remote hillside
walk at the crack of dawn, alone with one’s thoughts (or alone with the dog as
the case may be) can be liberating for the mind, with no human interference
between the walker and what is natural around us. The walker/writer could be in
the Lake District thinking and making notes about the next chapter of a novel
set on the streets of Liverpool, it doesn’t matter, he will have been taken
into the warm embrace of mother nature, for a few moments that is needed to clear
the mind in order write. Elgar walking his dog over the top of the Malvern
Hills composing the Enigma Variations or
The Dream of Gerontius and Agatha
Christie articulating her sentences out loud in the remoteness of Dartmoor come
to mind. Whilst I, during the act of writing
this, have been interrupted by the phone twice, emails coming in, the washing
machine needing attention, to name but a few domestic disturbances.
For
others, the countryside is a more shared experience, with loved ones, friends
or indeed as I did many years ago as a member of the Rambler’s Association,
which I found to be educational in sharing knowledge and experience of the
countryside, inspirational inasmuch as the diversity of human behaviour that
one finds in any bunch of people put together who share a common interest. I
suppose the rambling club could take on both definitions of the verb ramble as
they do tend to ramble on as they ramble the countryside.
Which
brings me on to the second definition. Isn’t talking at length in a confused
and often inconsequential way what most of us do most of the time? It’s how we
communication. Sequential interchange of information where an appropriate
response is elicited every time only ever happened when a back story was
required to be written in, as an afterthought to complement the more athletic goings-on
of a 1980’s porn movie, (so I’m told). To ramble is to converse. What is a
conversation but verbal and non-verbal ping pong between two or more individuals
who each have their own unique voice. As a writer it is good to capture some of
the ramblings of others to make convincing but engaging dialogue.
Anyway,
that’s enough rambling from me for today. If you want to join in the ramble,
please feel free to ramble away in the comments box below. I'm going out for a walk.
