Overstrand to Paston – photo by Merryn Henderson
The 26 walks that provide inspiration for 26 Steps start at a place name beginning with each letter of the alphabet and take the writer to a place starting with the next letter in the sequence.
Each writer took a black and white photograph and drew a map as a visual guide to their journey as well as recording their thoughts, feelings and observations in a sestude – a form that requires 62 words exactly.
As a writer, I enjoy a constraint. Despite their name, they actually open up creative processes and often give me a way of tackling the terror of a blank page. Having a reason to write and a framework to do it in helps me to focus in on ideas and encourages me to think in new ways as I seek to fit the brief.
Meeting the brief is what I do professionally for my copywriting clients too, meeting their requests for writing for different formats, audiences and purposes. Short copy, long copy, writing for video, writing for an advert, writing for a website – they all have their constraints.
For 26 Steps, the constraint of following the alphabet from place to place meant that writers took in a range of landscapes; rivers, woods, farmland, coastal fringes, urban areas and mountains. The writing has a similarly varied theme, from lyrical wanderings, to urban humour, from physical geography to the landscape of the mind via history and memory.
The third section of the journey takes us from Wales to the Scottish Borders, through the industrial history of North East England to a Norfolk pilgrim’s path, through the alphabet from K to P and includes the first of my contributions (more of that later).
Step 11: Knighton to Lower Harpton, Powys by Sandy Wilkie
Step 12: Llandegla to Moel Famau, Denbighshire by Ed Prichard
Step 13: Morebattle to Nisbet, Scottish Borders by Joan Lennon
Step 14: North Shields to Old Hartley, Tyne and Wear by Michelle Nicol
Step 16: Overstrand to Paston, Norfolk by Merryn Henderson
Follow the journey on twitter #26Steps.
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