writing | Paula Wild

August 17, 2024August 19, 2024

Light on the Serengeti

A few people have asked why I have a picture of the Serengeti plains on the bio page of my website.

The answer is simple: this is my favourite photo from a trip to Tanzania. In fact, I like it so much, I recently had it enlarged into an 18 x 36-inch canvas wrap that now hangs in my house.

It was taken when our two safari jeeps stopped literally in the middle of nowhere, away from the kopjes where extensive lion prides lolled and the life and death drama of wildebeest and crocodiles along the Mara River. I wasn’t the only person struck by the raw, open beauty; our little herd of thirteen humans was mostly silent, except for a few whispers.

Some people ask why I didn’t choose a photograph with animals. Believe me, I have tons of photos featuring elephants, leopards, monkeys and more. But, to me, the Serengeti image goes deeper. It’s about the land and sky, the smell and feel of Africa, and the way the sun touches it all. It’s a place, once visited, that is never forgotten.

The immensity of this landscape that can stretch beyond human sight vibrates with a silence that is palpable. Eyes scan the horizon while ears feel wide open, hearing only the gentle rusting of golden grasses.

There was a sense of wonder and anticipation, knowing that even though the land appeared bare of life, there was the possibility that at any moment, a lion, cheta, zebra or buffalo could set paw or hoof in our viewscape.

Even though it’s hanging in the hall, I can see the Serengeti image from my bed. If I wake up at the right time, the sun shines in through a window, highlighting only the sky portion of the picture. It looks like the sun is rising in the Serengeti.

While the morning light works its magic, I often consider the vast landscape of my life – some behind me, some yet to come — and all the possibilities there are to explore.

As a writer, these often revolve around my current project. Will I finish the chapter I’m working on today? The entire book by the end of the year? Or will the story suddenly follow a different tangent, taking me on a new journey?

The endless potential for combining ideas and words is an aspect of writing that I’m particularly fond of. And now the Serengeti reminds me of that every day.

March 30, 2024

The pros and cons of writing with a view

Waves pounding on a rocky outcropping, an eagle perched in a fir tree, the sky drenched in pink and orange as the sun slips beyond the horizon. Every writer dreams of a view like this. But is it beneficial? Does it beckon the creative muse? Nudge you into writing faster and better?

In my thirty-plus years as a writer, I’ve worked in many spaces. The first was at a desk in the corner of the living room. My nine-year old stepdaughter had a tough time understanding why she wasn’t supposed to interrupt me.

But I’ve also been lucky enough to write where I had views of water, treed areas and wildlife. I fondly recall the little summer house I rented as a private writing retreat from Shannon and Brian on their island sanctuary in the Nuchatlitz archipelago.

I loved my writing retreat in this little cabin and spending time with Shannon and Brian at Nuchatlitz.

My favourite writing space, however, was in an Arts & Crafts heritage house I lived in for decades. Two huge transom windows provided expansive views of dogwood trees, large flowering shrubs, and maple trees with leaves as big as dinner plates.

Visual memories include a snowfall of pink cherry blossoms, a hummingbird piercing a small owl’s breast with its beak, and a deer licking the inside of a feral rabbit’s ear.

This is where I wrote a weekly arts column for the local newspaper, hundreds of articles for mainstream and alternative magazines and six non-fiction books. But this was not my most productive writing space. That was a tiny room upstairs.

An engrossing book to work on, The Cougar demanded my full attention. The phone and even the sound of my partner walking around in other areas of the house were unwelcome intrusions.

So I took my laptop to the grey room. The only furniture was a bed, a desk and a bookcase. To my delight, I couldn’t hear anything in the rest of the house. And I didn’t have access to the Internet, so another distraction was eliminated.

There was an unexpected quirk, though. The desk faced the window, and I couldn’t work with the light shining in my eyes. There was no room to move the desk, so I closed the blinds. Then I realized that light from the other bedroom shone in the open doorway, creating glare on my screen. I shut the door, only to discover that the light from the overhead fixture also created screen glare. So, I turned it off.

I didn’t know if I could write solely by the light of my laptop screen. But strangely, it worked. I felt like a captain at the helm of a spaceship careening into outer space. I couldn’t hear anything, see anything, or google anything. It was just me and The Cougar. And I wrote up a storm.

The upshot? Having a view to write by is lovely but not necessarily the most effective.

That said, no matter where you shape your stories, it’s always a good idea to periodically give your eyes a break from the screen. That’s the perfect time to find a window with a view. And if you have time, to go outside into it.

Top image is the view from one of the windows in my former heritage house.

December 21, 2020December 21, 2020

Lighting up the dark…

2020 turned into a weird blip in the 21^st century, where life as we know it, took an abrupt and life-changing shift. For many, it has been marked by fear, boredom and frustration.

And now it’s the shortest, darkest day of the year. Winter Solstice, the official beginning of winter. What could be more bleak than that?

But when I look outside, I can’t help but smile. My neighborhood and many others are ablaze with colourful lights and displays. The holiday sparkle began early this year. I believe it’s humankinds way of lighting up the dark in the midst of a global pandemic.

Reflecting on my personal life during the Time of Covid, I also see some light. One of my most rewarding experiences was a Covid-safe writing retreat at Cluxewe Resort on Northern Vancouver Island.

Welcome sign and my cabin at Cluxewe Resort

My cabin provided a view across Queen Charlotte Strait to the BC mainland, a stunning estuary a short distance to the rear and, perhaps most important of all, time.

I opted to not hook up to Wi-Fi or turn on the big screen TV so my soundscape consisted of eagles calling, pounding surf during a big storm and raindrops beating a staccato rhythm on the metal roof.

Nature was my only distraction and with it came a feeling of space, as if the vastness outside had seeped into my mind, providing room to ponder the book I’m working on and what direction it will take me. The oasis of that little cabin and the time and space it provided were precious gifts in a year of uncertainty and upheaval.

And, although there is still an abundance of darkness in each 24-hour stretch, light is on the way. The Winter Solstice means minutes of light will be added to each day and, even better, Covid-19 vaccines are on the way.

As 2020 comes to a close, I hope everyone can find some time to think about what lights up their life (even during Covid) and take at least one small step to make that happen.

Top image by Dzenina Lukac

May 4, 2020May 4, 2020

Creativity and Covid-19

Covid-19 and the resulting restrictions are like living in a science fiction movie only the end doesn’t arrive in two hours. We fret about toilet paper, people who invade our two metre space and loved ones that are now kept at a distance. The tilt in our world was sudden and the future remains uncertain.

People cope with stress and change in different ways. My instinct was to sleep and for the first month I clocked in nine hours or more a night plus an afternoon nap. I haven’t slept that much since I was a teenager.

My partner’s coping crutch is chocolate. During the first week of physical distancing, Rick brought home two giant slabs of chocolate cake, two pounds of Belgian chocolate and two boxes of chocolate cookies. At some point, we realized that excessive sleeping and gorging on chocolate was not sustainable long-term.

I turned, as I have for much of my life, to writing. To me, writing is a place in my mind where there are many doors and endless opportunities for exploration and adventure.

But on occasion, it’s difficult to access this place. For a while, Covid-19 was an invisible wall resulting in lots of white space on my laptop screen. And I wasn’t the only one. Artists abandoned their easels; some writers didn’t even turn on their computers.

So, how to prime the creativity pump in the midst of a global pandemic? Unfortunately, there’s no magic trick to seduce the muse into a visit. But going for a walk can produce startling results.

According to an article by psychologist Sian Beilock in “Psychology Today,” an abundance of concentration can kill creativity. On the other hand, doing something that requires only a small amount of concentration such as washing the car, vacuuming the rug or brushing the dog often allows the brain to connect thoughts in new and perhaps unusual ways.

When I told chiropractor, Alicia Steele, that I frequently find solutions to writing problems while walking, she explained that the bilateral movement of arms and legs promotes activity in both sides of the brain.

Taking a break and doing something relatively mindless can enhance creativity. The trick is to not think about the problem you’re trying to solve.

As for stress, I’ve always found writing an escape from the worries my brain chooses to ruminate on and suspect many creative folks feel the same.

No one explains it better than Graham Greene in Ways of Escape: “Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a human situation.”

Photo by Rick James