3 Mistakes Environmental Writers Make: Take 3

In just a couple days, I’ll be heading to Oregon for the Earth Joy Writing Book Tour! I’ll be blogging here daily to share insights, discoveries, and images along the way…

Today we continue our reflections on the 3 mistakes environmental writers make. (See the last two days’ posts for steps 1 and 2.)

3. Don’t look. Book.

As writers, we can have a push-pull relationship to the writing world. We crave community to a certain extent, and we certainly want recognition, but we hoard our solitude and can find ourselves feeling off-balance from too much openness.

Environmental writers have a particular paradox in this regard because we know that creating community is essential for environmental action.

But sometimes this leads us to track others’ writing and research like hungry dogs and we forget to do our own best work.

You are meant to write what no one else can write.

No one else has your particular story, your quirky list of 20 things you love about nature, your own way of observing what is around you through the lens of your own body’s history.

Stop looking at what others have written and begin to write from your own unique perspective.

Writing tip: Take a hiatus from reading for one day.

Instead, every time you reach for your phone or computer or tablet or book beside your couch, pick up a journal and write by hand instead.

Research shows that 20 minutes of handwritten journaling can lead to healing of chronic stress and create brain activity similar to meditation.

Try this for one day, and see what unique writing you can do.

 

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I’d love to hear how journaling helped you write in new ways today. Leave a comment below and let me know how Earth Joy Writing is helping you be a better environmental writer.