Nature Writing

Much of my writing is about Florida’s natural world – its waters, birds, trees, even clouds. When my first book, The Young Naturalist’s Guide to Florida, was accepted, the editor sent every chapter to a different expert in that subject, and on one expert’s advice, the editor asked me to rewrite a short paragraph.  She read it to me over the phone. I thought a moment and changed the wording to incorporate the correction, to which the editor replied, “That’s not very poetic.”

Poetic? I thought I was writing science! Do I have to make it “pretty” too?

Then I remembered a quotation by Patricia Santelmann I had copied down many years ago. She wrote:

“Nature writing demands a stylistic excellence that other work does not have to achieve. The reader will simply quit unless you entice him every step of the way with clarity as well as beauty.”

I always read slowly, because I want to absorb not just what the writer is saying but how they say it. And many of the nature books I have read do, indeed, express their point with both clarity and beauty. Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson are quoted over and over because they state their case so eloquently.

The science must be accurate, just as the history in a historical novel must be accurate. But nature writing must entice by its beauty, too.

So you don’t write nature stuff?

I’ll bet your novel includes bits of nature. Is your character observant about where he is? Nature is everywhere. How does your character address it? With fear? With awe? With curiosity? With pleasure?

How do you feel about the natural world?

Are you afraid? Of snakes? Of spiders?

Is it awesome? Lightning? Mountains?

Are you curious? About how birds fly?

Does it give you pleasure? Sunsets? Falling snow?

Write how nature affects you into your character’s response or reaction.

Maybe you will become more observant yourself. Is your character slogging through a swamp? Have you ever waded through a marsh? Did you notice the dampness? the moldy odor? the sudden change in temperature when you stepped out from under the deep shade? Have your character notice.

Have you sat quietly outside at dusk and listened when the birds chirp and murmur quietly as they settle down for the night? And then did you hear the nocturnal frogs and insects begin their evening chorus? You might even be fortunate enough to see the fireflies come out.

Maybe your character should notice some of these things, too, if it is appropriate in your story.

Don’t make your character afraid of everything nature has to offer.

So many children that come to nature centers have never stepped off the sidewalk. They are afraid of sand in their shoes, of noises in the bushes, a spider web ten feet over their heads, of getting “dirty.”

Have you stepped off the sidewalk lately? Have I enticed you to go outdoors into a wooded place to catch up on your ability to see and hear and know?

Such insights might improve your story.