Writing about very personal subjects | Pinnacle Newsletter #40
#40 Writing about very personal subjects
As outdoor writers, most of the stuff we write about doesn’t hit too close to home. Although walking and wild camping are important aspects of who we are, it’s rare – in my experience, anyway – that these subjects can really punch us in the gut, for the words to sear us as we write them. But, sometimes, a piece of outdoor writing can do just that.
Due to my dad’s illness, I didn’t manage a trip to the mountains last winter until the season was almost over. In fact, I had planned a visit to Glen Coe the week he died, but something told me that it would be a bad idea to go, and my intuition was correct. By the time I felt able to return to the mountains, it was March and most of the Lakeland snow had gone.
My walk over Fairfield and Helvellyn was like no other I’d ever done, because I had been changed by loss, and the way I perceived both the landscape and my place within it had also changed.
Of course, it was always going to be destined for a feature. When Emily at TGO gave me the go-ahead to start writing, she warned me that it might be more challenging than other pieces I’d done. She also said that if I found it too personal and raw then we’d drop it and she’d take a different piece instead. At the time, I couldn’t see why I’d have any issues, and found these warnings puzzling.
Normally, I can write a feature in a couple of days. This one took me more like a month.
Part of the problem was that I wasn’t just writing about a backpacking trip. I was also writing about my dad, and my relationship with him, and the way in which I build narratives and stories in my head. I was conscious of the need to tackle these subjects with honesty and truth. It was bloody hard. I binned three drafts without even reading them and a fourth went through several major revisions between pencil and keyboard. Doubt filled me even after I’d finished it. When my wife read the manuscript she said it made her want to hug me.
I still wasn’t sure about the piece when I sent it to Emily, but she told me I should think about submitting it for an award. I’m taking that as a good sign!
Writing about very personal subjects is hard. We invest a great deal of ourselves in such work. Like the emotions and thoughts I went through on that mountain ridge, the process takes time to mature, and can’t be hurried. Fast writing is not always your best writing, and this is even more true for material that comes from close to the soul. Be honest. Take your time, and seek feedback – you’ll be even less objective about your own words than usual.
You can read my feature ‘Summits & Skylarks’ in the February 2019 issue of TGO, which is out today.
In other news…
Delighted to announce I am now a member of the Outdoor Writers & Photographers Guild. Looking forward to getting involved.
Recently published
What I’ve been reading this week.
2018 in review: mountains, editorial work, writing, and more – a roundup of my 2018.
Skills guide: Modernise your mountain navigation – this long-form feature, first published in UKHillwalking, is an introduction to home-printing maps, using smartphone navigation, web-based planning platforms, and more.
Mountaineering and Memory – mountain record-keeping is a very personal thing, so compiling this piece was fascinating. It’s great to see the notebooks of other hillwalkers.
From my Commonplace Book
Here the crystals gleam and glitter, shadow-bathing, holding on to their essential selves.
—C. Nicholson, Among the Summer Snows
Until next time,
Alex
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