Being In Place, In The Moment

A Place Writing Craft Note

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Permission to Be Present

The difficulty for place writers, especially those who’ve suffered years of constraint drafting documents in business mode, is giving yourself permission to simply be in the moment.

Because it can feel self-indulgent, you question whether this is all too idealistic. Surely you can write about a landscape or a seascape or a street in your town without standing there for hours, watching, loitering, squandering time.

But no, this is exactly what you need to do.

Sometimes, it’s hard to slow down and simply be in the present. But this is important. It’s a valuable means of engaging sensory perception.

Being-in-the-present is a Place Writing methodology. It is research.