Hilary Mantel’s words can not fail to be an inspiration to any writer; they’re beautiful. They provide those shivers that force you to face your own humanity. I must confess that I started Wolf Hall only to get intimidated by its sheer size and abandon it, but after watching a Culture Show Special featuring an interview with the great woman, I picked it up again.
Mantel is a fascinating character, full of reflection and nuggets of pure wisdom. Her, as good as, visionary approach to writing makes her a compelling speaker on the subject of her art and her own autobiography. She confesses to making her surroundings boring, so that all excitement is reserved for her writing.
Inspired, today I am attempting this very technique and it is not as easy as it first sounds. First there is the visual stimuli. Not so easy to dispose of as my work space is crammed with the clutter of busy living: receipts, used train tickets, a bowl of hardening raisins, fabric, ancient scripts in Greek, cards, stacks of notebooks, paint brushes, a brochure for exercises classes at the gym, hundreds of little printed worlds and too many blank canvases.
As I type, the mobile phone beeps with a message. What could be in the text? The anticipation to read it, breeding its own excitement. Is modern-day living altogether too stimulating to indulge creativity? Has it all got too complicated, so as to dull our imaginations? There is certainly always something to do now. Something to listen to, to watch, to interact with. Where can we find the space to think, with so much to occupy us day in, day out?
Have we lost touch with the art of doing nothing? Does it follow that if we no longer have the space to think, the consequences for creativity are drastic?