Spirit of Place (with writing prompts)
How travel, place, and home impact our writing (plus some photos of my visit to Jane Austen's house!)
I’m writing from a gorgeous airbnb in the Ealing neighborhood of London, where I am on vacation with my family this week. This is my 9 year-old son’s first time out of the country and before we left Boston, I said to him “I’m curious what differences you’ll notice about England when we’re there, but I’m even more curious what you’ll notice about the United States when we return.” It’s challenging to really see your own culture until you leave it and return. And nothing makes a place feel like home more than being away and returning, exhausted but full of memories.
Place | Home | Detail
This week we explore the question of place. How do you bring place/land/earth into your work? What places are specific to you and your history?
Spirit of place (or soul) refers to the unique, distinctive and cherished aspects of a place; often those celebrated by artists and writers, but also those cherished in folk tales, festivals and celebrations. It is thus as much in the invisible weave of culture (stories, art, memories, beliefs, histories, etc.) as it is the tangible physical aspects of a place (monuments, boundaries, rivers, woods, architectural style, rural crafts styles, pathways, views, and so on) or its interpersonal aspects (the presence of relatives, friends and kindred spirits, and the like). (from Wikipedia)
Jane Austen’s Home at Chawton
Yesterday, I was lucky enough to visit the house where Jane Austen wrote and revised all 6 of her novels. I could feel every one of her stories coming to life before me as I walked around the small town and learned about her life. One of the most revelatory things that Jane Austen did as a writer, was to write about her own surroundings; the daily trials and realities of her own life. Many of her plot-lines, from relying on generous relatives, to being forced to move to Bath unexpectedly, to her incredibly close relationship with her sisters are all things that happened to her and around her.
Evoking place through specificity
As writers, there is sometimes an inclination to speak in generalities in order to keep our work relatable, but the irony is, the more specific we get, the more universal our words become.
Brands, proper names for people and places, colors, specific kinds of wood/fruit/trees all bring us into the world of the creative and allow us to really feel the space and context of the writer or artist.
“Writing Down the Bones” by Natalie Goldberg is one of the best books on writing I've ever read, (and I've read a lot of them)! She has several great essays in here about detail; how to find it and use it to create vivid imagery for your reader.
Prompt: Set a timer for 5 minutes and simply describe the space you’re in in great detail. What can you see? hear? feel? remember?
Where are you from? What places have shaped you?
When people ask me “where are you from?” I struggle to find a simple answer.
I was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and lived there until I was 6. I moved to Central Illinois to a college town called Bloomington/Normal where I lived until I graduated from high school. I also lived in Madrid, Spain for a year when I was 14.
I then lived in Oberlin, Ohio, San Francisco, Chicago, San Diego, and now the Boston area.
And every single one of these places has shaped me into who I am. In every place I developed a new and unique sense of myself.
Prompt: Write an “I am from” poem, using as many specific details as you can.
Where is your heart home?
If I consider a slightly different question; where is your heart home? I find that I have a very different response.
I invite you to consider both questions.
Where are you from? and Where is your heart home? Are they the same place? Do they evoke a different internal experience for you?
Prompt: Write a poem after Kim Addonizio's “my heart”
Thank you for being here! I am loving this space and the connections I’m finding through Substack. If you are enjoying these posts, please consider sharing this post (it’s free!) so more people can find me. I’d also LOVE to see any poems or any thoughts you have based on the prompts, so please do leave a comment or message me!
ALSO!
Beginning in September, I will be hosting a monthly Zoom writing call for paid subscribers, so consider upgrading if you want to be invited! (pretty sure you have to upgrade from the web and not the app for now - let me know if you need help). We will meet for 90 mins once a month to catch up and chat about our work, do a little writing, and share writerly things together.