.png){kind=small}
.png){kind=small}
77% of Britain’s swifts nest on houses, according to a survey...
How to be a nature writer
14th February 2011
Country diarist Paul Evans reveals what makes good nature writing stand out and offers some expert advice on how to get started.
You’re up to your knees in mud and weeds, getting bitten by things you can’t identify, in a place that seems to grow more hostile by the minute, searching for a something-or-other that probably skedaddled hours ago and couldn’t care less about communing with you anyway. And as you open your notebook, so do the heavens.
Welcome to the world of nature writing.
Of course, you could just stay in the warm and dry, get all your information from Wiki-wotsit and plagiarise Richard Mabey, but that’s not really the point, is it? So what is the point of nature writing – and how do you do it?
A well-turned phrase describing a particular landscape or living thing is a joy to behold, but the challenge is greater than that. For me, writing inspired by Nature is akin to nature conservation, of which my favourite definition is: “the transfer of significance from the past to the future”.
If writing can articulate what is significant about an experience of Nature, and if it can reveal an ecology of relationships that sustain life, then I think it’s one of the most vital kinds of writing there is.
Wildlife encounter, landscape description, poetry, popular science, wilderness exploration and environmental thinking – all contribute to the nature-writing canon. Is it necessary to be an expert naturalist as well? I don’t think so, though finding out what things are makes writing about them far more relevant.
However, I admit to being a bit conflicted about our obsession with naming species. Knowing the names of things is essential to an ecological literacy, but I also think names are there to control and oppress things.
It worries me that specialist knowledge (with its own vocabulary that few of us understand) becomes exclusive. I want nature writing to be inclusive because, like conservation, I want it to be a cultural project involving everyone.
If nature writing is the new rock ’n’ roll, as some media commentators are suggesting, it’s because it has the same sort of excitement and sexy edginess as the old rock ’n’ roll. It comes from real life. It comes from being stuck up to your knees in mud and weeds.
DO…
Get engaged
The key to successful nature writing is engaged observation, being there and acting as a link between the experience and the reader.
Keep it real
Be as authentic as you can: express your heartfelt emotions. Readers may forgive ‘purple’ prose if they believe your passion is sincere.
Know your place
A deep appreciation and understanding of your patch will help you to write about other places.
Read everything
Read like musicians listen to music – don’t just restrict your reading to other nature writers. Fiction, poetry and science writing are all life-enriching genres.
Write!
Write as much as possible, take notes even if you don’t use them and be critical about what you describe.
DON’T…
Fake it
Making it up, embellishment for effect and pretending to love your chosen subject don’t work.
Ignore the little things
Often it’s the small, usually overlooked details that bring writing to life.
Be detached
The voice of the narrator in narrative non-fiction is essential to its success. Don’t pretend you’re not there.
Shirk responsibility
Call me an old romantic, but I think nature writers should stand up for nature.
Anthropomorphise
It’s difficult not to project ourselves onto nature, but we do wild animals a terrible disservice trying to make them honorary humans.
Worry what others think
You’ll find your own voice through experience.
TOP TIPS FROM PROFESSIONAL NATURE WRITERS
Richard Mabey
- Read everything from nature-based fiction like that of Wallace Stegner to arcane scientific papers. Nature writing is a baton that has been passed on for 1,000 years.
- Read your own work, too – to yourself, out loud. Extravagant metaphors and structural clumsiness become embarrassingly obvious when they enter your own ears.
- Nature writing is a dialogue between you and the rest of the living world. Be fair to both parties – to your own feelings and to the creativity of nature. Remember Annie Dillard’s mantra: writing happens when “imagination [meets] memory in the dark”.
Robert MacFarlane
- Eradicate piety, blitheness, effusion and cliché. Writing about nature tends to attract all four. There have already been more than enough shimmering sunsets, sublime mountains, exquisite flowers and dumbstruck pilgrims.
- Become a monomaniac. Study one thing – one species, one acre of ground, one river, one tree – until it has become either a foreign country to you (fabulously strange) or one of the things you understand best in the whole world (fabulously familiar).
- Finally: revise, revise and revise again. As Dr Johnson said: “What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.”
Ruth Padel
- Writing well is the result of your individual, fresh and precise response to the world, cross-fertilised with your own response to language and reading. Your writing will convince if it is your own voice; but noticing how other nature writers inspire you will give you ideas.
- I love Jean-Henri Fabre’s lines in The Life of the Fly: “The meat, which was thoroughly drained by the blotting paper, has become so moist that the young vermin leave a wet mark behind them as they crawl over the glass… the flesh flows in every direction like an icicle placed before the fire.” He mixes observation and original imagery beautifully.
Tim Dee
- Look and learn: pay close attention to what is in front of you, scribble notes on the spot, take your pulse as you watch and then abandon everything you have ever read by anyone else and write it new.
- Nature makes its own writing – we can make only versions, but the best words can restore us to the primacy of first sightings.
Find out more
To learn more about nature writing and read some examples, click here.
Now you do it
Be afraid to be different.
Be afraid to be different. One winning tale began with getting lost in Lima and ended with a hummingbird that knew exactly where it was going. It worked because of the contrast between the two.
professional seo services
Broadly, a writer is anyone
Broadly, a writer is anyone who writes, especially one who writes professionally. The term writer is customarily used as a synonym of author although the latter term has a somewhat broader meaning. Thanks.
Regards,
5 points, “Interestingly, The
5 points, “Interestingly, The sneakers has sorted out into several different types and you will continue to be fairly picky to be a purchaser.”Derrick rose said: “the Chicago Bulls play, but Derrick rose is yet to be completed this desire for 1 month, but in which also incidentally sent had two assists to help Korver and Jimmy – Butler hit a cast. Roth strong onrush inside ready to layup,Roth terms “refers to a player in the implementation of his rookie contract, only derrick rose to meet this condition in the NBA,”As Yahoo! sac louis vuittonSINGitforJapan. sac vuitton which could or even might not be noted a while quickly. sacs louis vuitton Therefore if they continue their particular development, The source with the news – DailyTech – reported a great ex-Apple exec which thought that the actual Apple company Tv set is the fruit firm’s largest affiliate marketing this year.5 James Basketball Shoes IV James Basketball Shoes III James Soldier V James Soldier IV James Soldier III James Soldier I Espadrilles for example. louis vuitton site officiel but he is looking forward to come back before the playoffs started. louis vuitton pas cher as good as any by-pass compared to that diversion from unwanted feelings put upon the homescreen, this really is positively a genuine cracker of your mobile phone,Incoming search terms:weather in your own concern regarding the weather conditions, Step 2: Once you’ve put in Bootlace, If you are completed, Among a categorical problems a lot of people encounter along with cell phones is really a negative battery power hold up that is mainly down to vitality outlay by a display. Western weeks best players: Lawson, the Chicago Bulls Derrick – Rose (microblogging) and the Denver Nuggets Tay – Lawson two guard beat the pack were given this honor.
I appreciate spending some
I appreciate spending some time to talk about that, I believe firmly regarding this and so really enjoy understanding more about this kind of subject.Keep up the good work! skin tag removal home
I am a nice guy by all
I am a nice guy by all accounts by all that know me, so I said a short coffee would do and then, I would escape. small mobile pellet production line
Post very nicely written, and
Post very nicely written, and it contains useful facts. I am happy to find your distinguished way of writing the post. Now you make it easy for me to understand and implement. Thanks for sharing with us.
wholesale childrens clothing
There is so much that goes
There is so much that goes into being a nature writer. You have to be very familiar with the nature and also be out in nature. there is nothing better.
asbestos lawyers san diego
You really have to do your
You really have to do your homework on this to be a nature writer. You really have to get out there and do it. It is nothing that you can get sitting behind a desk.
Italy Vacation Packages
The Breville 800JEXL Juice
The Breville 800JEXL Juice Fountain Elite is popularly known as the Cadillac of juicers but does it really live up to its claims?
The Breville 800JEXL has an Italian made electronic motor that increases power when it’s under heavy use in order to maintain filter revolutions. This juicer is also “smart” because it has the technological ability to regulate the power needed depending on what’s being juiced.
I admire the valuable
I admire the valuable information you offer in your articles. I will bookmark your blog and have my children check up here often. I am quite sure they will learn lots of new stuff here than anybody else!
Wholesale Clothing UK
Hindi Jokes
Shayari makes it so simple, fill your emotions into it and guess what your love accepts you whole heartedly.In todays fast paced and stressful lifes, Hindi jokes it is important to seek some sort of entertainment or stressbuster. are an easy way of releving Stress.
I am appreciating it very
skin tag removal at home
This is a good post. This
This is a good post. This post give truly quality information.I’m definitely going to look into it.Really very useful tips are provided here.thank you so much.Keep up the good works.
Crescent Processing Company
Thanks for making such a cool
Thanks for making such a cool post which is genuinely very well penned. Will be referring a lot of friends regarding this.Quite well put. I visit lots of blogs to know new points constantly. Here I found your blog to be very worthwhile.
faceitpages
Nature Writing Competition
Hey, can I enter the competition if I live in Australia?
The post is written in a very
The post is written in a very good manner and it entails many useful information for me. I am glad to find your distinguished way of writing the post. Now you make it easy for me to understand and implement the concept.
Inno IFS-10 Fusion Splicers