Why going for a walk can help you become a better writer

Lendal Bridge crossing over the River Ouse in the early hours of the morning. 

Whenever I have a day off work, I always go for a walk in the morning.

I get out of bed, get changed, have breakfast, brush my teeth, and then it’s time to go out and get some fresh air.

No phone. No watch. No devices.

Just me and my own company as I walk through the city of York and make my way down to Museum Street. From there, I make my way down to Dame Judi Dench Lane and I continue my stroll down the path that runs along the River Ouse.

I continue walking down the path until I reach the bridge crossing over the river from Water End, just before it bends to the left and continues up towards Rawcliffe Bar.

But for me, I turn right and continue up to Water End before turning right again onto a street that ends in a pathway which runs through the grounds of St Peter’s School.

It is down this pathway that I reach a car park behind the train station, continue through another alleyway and finally reach the rear entrance of the Museum Gardens. After that, it is just another quick stroll through the gardens before I end up back where I started on Museum Street.

The leaves are starting to turn orange and fall off as we move away from the coolness of Autumn and into chillier Winter.

I go on this walk because it’s the only time when I can disconnect from the rest of the world. It gives me space to wake up and unwind without the temptation of my phone hanging over me like a carrot on a stick.

It’s also the only time when I allow my mind to wander more freely – to ruminate over my thoughts as they fly around like a flock of birds that have been set free from their cage after waiting patiently for hours on end to be released.  

Sometimes, these thoughts can be completely random and are nothing more than just that. More often than not though, they’re often about something that my mind has been preoccupied by for a while.

They could be about a topic that has been making appearances on the news lately. Perhaps it’s an idea for a book that I’m excited to write about. It might just be me fantasising about being a world-class actor who is great at everything. Or it might just be about something that happened at work that I wish I could have handled better if I had known X, Y and Z.

When I allow myself to observe these thoughts, I give myself space to make sense of them.

Often when I’m busy making my lunch, washing the dishes or having a conversation with a friend or colleague, my mind insists on observing these thoughts even when I’m trying to focus on the task at hand.

In the early hours of the morning, it is fairly quiet along the River Ouse before it picks up again with people passing by on their way into town for the day.

When this happens, it can create a tension between the part of my mind that wants to stay grounded and the other part that is determined to sit on autopilot all day and watch the buzzing thoughts race by.

This can be really stressful to endure because it makes it feel like my whole life is just constantly switching back and forth between play, stop and fast-forward. Often by the middle of the day, I’m already exhausted and burned out even though I still have another half of the day left to go.

However, I find that by going for a walk, I can give that impulsive part of my mind room to take over and roam as freely as it wants to. Rather than trying to wrestle with it constantly, I give it permission to ruminate through whatever thought comes to mind.

True, my thoughts still race around and my mind can be desperate to catch every single one of them, but at least I give myself space to just sit with them and see what happens.

Because sometimes, when I pay attention to these thoughts, they can have something valuable to say – something that I never noticed when I was too busy doing something else.

There are often people from the York City Rowing Club practicing their rowing skills at this time of day, since City Cruises usually begin their boat tours at around 10am each day.

For example, yesterday morning, I was thinking about the book that I’m writing right now about my trip to Peru, and about the stuff that I was going to include in it.

Obviously, I knew that I wanted to talk about my time there during the two weeks that I spent in the country. However, I also thought about the history of Peru and the civilisation that predated the Spanish Invasion in the 1500s.

You see, during the trip, we went to visit some sites in and around Cusco like the Salt Mines, Pisac, Ollantaytambo – and, of course, Machu Picchu! (who could have guessed?)

And I thought about these sites and what they tell us about the Incas, who were the people that ruled this land before the Spanish came over and invaded.

As I ruminated over these sites, my mind started to think about my book. I thought about the chapter where I would talk about our visit to Machi Picchu, where, as I talk about our hike around the site, I could use the chapter to digress from the main story to talk about the site’s history.

What is this site? Why was it important? What happened here?

These were questions that occupied my mind as I thought about our visit to Machu Picchu and I realised that these were questions that my readers would likely have as well.

Rather than leave these questions unanswered, I could tell my readers more about these sites and the Incas more generally, so that way they could finish the book having learnt more than they previously anticipated. In essence, my book didn’t just have to be a memoir – it could also be a history book as well!

The Carpinus betulus “Incisa”, also know as the Cut leaved Hornbeam, is one of the six Champion Trees in the Museum Gardens, some of which are nearly 150 years old!

It was an idea that made me really excited because I knew that it would make my book so much more engaging to read, seeing as most of my (English) audience are likely unfamiliar with the Incas - or know very little about them.

I knew that this would help me not only flesh out my book but also make it feel so much more alive as well!

It was a prospect that engaged my mind as I continued my walk and I remember coming back home feeling more invigorated than ever to get on with writing my book.

I guess what I am trying to say is, yes, our minds can be annoying when they get distracted at the most inconvenient of times. However, rather than trying to control it by force, it’s important to give yourself time and space to just let it wander and do its own thing.

That is not to say that going for a walk is the only way to do this but it’s certainly the most popular one, especially amongst writers, because even famous people like Charles Dickens and C.S. Lewis have spoken out about how going for a walk every day helped them to improve their own writing.

And even though it might seem like such a simple habit, it can really make all the difference when it comes to refining your craft and building the discipline you need to get yourself sat down and working.

So if you’re a budding writer and you’re struggling to come up with ideas or are struggling to improve your writing, maybe you just need to go out for a walk and let your mind wander.

Because if you’re constantly busy with your life and not paying attention to your thoughts, you might be missing out on some crucial insight that might actually help you get out of your creative rut.

And you never know, the mind can take you to some highly unexpected places.

But only if you allow it to.

St. Mary’s Abbey was built and completed in 1086, not long after the Norman Conquest in 1066. It was one of the wealthiest medieval institutions in the country before Henry VIII ordered the closure of all the monasteries in the country after the country broke off from the Catholic Church. Its ruins now sit and can be viewed in the Museum Gardens just next to the Yorkshire Museum.