Darkness & Creativity
Writing with the Seasons - December 2021, #1
Welcome to ‘Writing with the Seasons,’ a collection of writing prompts, ideas and inspiration that follow the rhythms of the natural world as the year unfolds. Everyone who booked a place at the recent Write & Shine December Festival received these weekly dispatches in December 2021.
Here we are in the darkest part of the year. The early December light is muted and the air chills the skin. Trees are releasing their leaves, plants fade and blooms droop. The afternoons feel like evenings. Every so often we might spy a robin or a blackbird, a goldfinch or a crow. All the while, people dash around with hats on and heads down.
We remain in this cool, dark phase for a few weeks until winter solstice on 21 December, when the days start to lengthen a little every day.
Winter offers us the chance to embrace dreaminess, slowness and silence. Jeanette Winterson agrees. She says: “I find myself responding to the changes in the light, and adjusting my ways from outdoors to indoors. I read more in the winter, write more, think more, sleep more. I don't plan any of this–rather I don't resist the seductions of darkness.”
While we humans fight against winter’s darkness, some mammals have learned to adapt. As the cold weather approaches, the red-toothed shrew can shrink its head and brain mass by 18 percent. Its spine shortens and major organs also reduce. Amazing! Then, as the weather warms up in spring, this tiny creature regrows its body. The evolution of the shrew offers an invitation to consider our own response to the dark days. How does winter affect your body and energy level, your thinking and writing?
Another animal that seems at home during these darker days is the fox. At dusk, they seek food and mark their territory. Seeing a wandering fox is always a fascinating experience: their eyes flashing in the dim light. Franz Marc’s The Foxes (above) offers a beautiful depiction. A painter and printmaker, Marc used the relationship between colours to suggest specific feelings: blue for masculinity, yellow as femininity and red to show nature. The resulting tone of the piece is fragmentary, dreamlike and full of reverence.
Try this creative writing prompt on darkness: Find your shadow or a shadow in the room right now. Observe how it moves, if it does. Which animal does it remind you of? Does it suggest any colours? Now, begin a piece of freewriting with the line “Dear shadow…” and start writing freely, without too much thought. Your only job is to keep the pen moving.
I hope we all find solace, peace and creativity during the darkness of winter.
Gemma x
Further wintertime inspiration
Katherine May’s Wintering is a perfect read for this time of year. It’s all about cold weather and weathering dark times.
Tate Modern invited light artist Chila Kumari Singh Burman to takeover its website and shop this December. Chila filled each with items inspired by her artwork: bright neon objects, music, and ice cream.
Read Jeanette Winterson article: Why I adore the night.
Writing with the Seasons is brought to you by Write & Shine, a programme of morning writing events and online courses.