Climbing Mountains
At the weekend, I climbed a mountain. Kind of. The mountain was Ben Nevis. But the climbing was done on my staircase rather than in the Scottish Highlands where Ben Nevis actually is. The reason I was doing this was to raise money for charity. It was also, I suppose, to prove a point to myself. A point about overcoming obstacles and reminding myself I am more capable than I often think I am.
The total number of times I went up and down stairs was 517 (or 6,721 individual steps). That’s a lot of times going up and down, and as I was climbing and descending, my mind wandered (as my mind has a habit of doing) onto how climbing stairs (or climbing a mountain) has a lot of parallels to the climb we face as writers. Someone else made this exact same analogy on social media. And since this is fresh in my mind, I thought I would explore it a little further in my craft article this month.
WHAT’S GOING ON IN MY WORLD
The Stair Climb Challenge
So, I’ve done my climb. And I’ve been overwhelmed by the sponsorship I’ve received so far. I'm raising money:
to fund free places on my #WriteBeyondTheLightbulb courses. A place on the course costs £105. I currently have over 50 low-income writers on my wait list for free places and it would be lovely to offer a few of them a chance to take part.
for Anno's Africa, a UK based children's arts charity running educational arts projects for children living in slum conditions in Kenya and in cities and towns in Northern Malawi.
If you’re able to spare a few pennies, I’d be so grateful for your support:
Calendar of Events
Want to stay up-to-date with everything I’m planning over the next few months? I’ve recently added a calendar page to my website where you’ll find details of courses, workshops, and other events, as well as the dates you need to know for the Welkin Writing Prize:
Summer Workshop Series
Unique Selling Points (workshop): Identifying an Original Angle for Your Story
1st July (19:00-20.30 BST)
When most stories have already been told, how do we find the glint of uniqueness that makes our particular take on the world truly worth telling? This 90-minute workshop explores the different layers of uniqueness we might consider as we hone in on a story. With the aim of giving writers plenty of new ideas and writing tools, we'll cover uniqueness of plot, uniqueness of premise, uniqueness of character and uniqueness of voice.
Beyond These Shores (panel discussion): Exploring the Historical and the Speculative (with guest panellists TBA)
5th August (19:00-20.30 BST)
What is the lure for a storyteller in exploring the historical or the speculative? What are the things to consider when writing in these genres? What strategies are useful in bringing such stories to the page? And what are the pitfalls to be aware of? This 90-minute panel discussion on historical and speculative stories puts two flash fiction superstars in the spotlight and will no doubt be full of nuggets of gold, not just on how to write in these two genres, but on how to write in general.
I Hear Voices (workshop): Evoking Tone through Word Choice, Images and Style
2nd September (19:00-20.30 BST)
What is voice? What are its key components? What feeds into it? And how do we bring it to the page? This 90-minute workshop explores voice from different angles. With the aim of giving writers plenty of new ideas and writing tools, we'll cover the difference between author voice, narrative voice and character voice as well as exploring the nuances of word choice and descriptive imagery.
Write Beyond The Lightbulb Courses
COLOURFUL CHARACTERS: 4th-17th August 2025 (**BOOK NOW**)
GLORIOUS WORDS: 8th-21st September 2025 (email me on matt@mattkendrick.co.uk to get your name on the priority list)
GO WITH THE FLOW: 13th-26th October 2025 (email me on matt@mattkendrick.co.uk to get your name on the priority list)
LYRICAL WRITING: 10th-23rd November 2025 (email me on matt@mattkendrick.co.uk to get your name on the priority list)
Editorial Services
Working on a novel, novella or other book-length work? I’m currently taking on a select number of editorial projects for May, June and July.
First Steps Review: gentle guidance on the first 10,000 words of a new project (£150)
Structural Review: detailed report on a completed work (see website for pricing information)
Submission Review: feedback on your submission package (10,000-word extract, synopsis, cover letter) (£160)
The climb as analogous to learning our craft
So many people think writing is easy. But as I often mention, writing is a really tricky skill to master. If writing were easy, everyone would be churning out Pulitzer-Prize-winning novels every other month. But to get to that point (almost, but not quite, at the summit of the mountain), we have to learn the art of story structure, the art of world building, the art of character creation, the art of sentence construction, the art of imagery. We have to learn how to best harness our ideas. We have to learn resilience. We have to learn endurance. I could probably list a hundred things we have to learn and each of those things is like another mini mountain. And we are climbing all of those mountains simultaneously. And because there is always more to learn, because none of us can never know everything there is to know about writing craft, we can never get to the top. But realistically, it’s not about getting to the top. It’s about continuing to put one foot in front of the other. It’s about always striving for better. But it’s also about knowing that sometimes, good enough is good enough.
The climb as analogous to the writing itself
I talk a lot in these newsletters about flash fiction, but right now, I’m writing a novel, and I know that many of you will also be writing novels. Or maybe you’re writing a novella. Or a memoir. Or you’re bringing together a collection of short stories. Or poetry. Or flash. None of these (unless you’re some sort of wizard) can simply be conjured in an afternoon. They take time. Sometimes they take several years. Sometimes they take decades. We set off from basecamp full of excitement and energy, but that climb towards the finished novel (or novella or memoir or collection) is not always easy. When I was climbing my staircase, I definitely found some climbs easier than others. The very first one wasn’t a problem at all. Number 464 (when I was ready to throw in the towel because my spoonie body had gone into full-on flare mode) was particularly hard. On some of the climbs, I had to rest halfway up. On some of them, I had to crawl the last few steps. The period of time between climbs also varied. And all of this is similar when tackling a longer writing project. Very few of us are able to maintain a steady pace of progress. Very few of us are able to write at the same standard or at the same speed for every chapter / story / poem we put on the page.
Stumbling blocks and wrong turns
Whether we think about the mountain as an image for our overall writing journey or as an image for the writing itself, there will inevitably be stumbling blocks and moments of doubt. On one of my stair climbs, I tripped over and fell flat on my face. A few were aborted because I didn’t have the energy to get to the top. And the same thing happens with our writing. We face the disappointment of our work being declined (by lit mags, agents, publishers, competitions), we face the sadness of bad reviews, we face the frustration of writer’s block, we face the wall of our own self-doubt. There are so many things that can metaphorically trip us up. And that makes the climb even harder. Suddenly there are hurdles to be hurdled and hoops to be jumped through.
Then we face the possibility of making wrong turns. This isn’t something I had to deal with on my stair climb. The staircase was always the same. It never varied. But if I’d been climbing Ben Nevis, by myself, without a route map or any signposts, I would inevitably have taken many, many, many wrong turns. And this is equally an inevitability with our writing. Sometimes we write whole pages that end up being cut. Sometimes we have to scrap everything we’ve written and start completely from scratch. As I was climbing, I tried to remind myself that it was much better to embrace the inevitability of stumbling blocks and wrong turns than it is to fight against it, and I think the same holds true for our writing. If we fight against stumbling blocks, I think we’re more likely to crumble at their sudden appearance. And if we fight against wrong turns, we can end up forging down the wrong route just because we’re too hard-headed to turn back.
The climb as analogous to character journey
Alongside my climbing, I facilitated a mini writing festival, and as part of that, I taught a couple of workshops. One of those was on character motivation and the barriers our characters face on the climb towards their goal. Our character wants to reach the top of a mountain (or staircase). That’s where the thing they want or need is to be found. But if we make it easy for them, we wouldn’t have much of a story. It’s in the wrong turns and stumbling blocks (yes, those very same things that get in our own paths as writers) where the magic happens. That’s where we find tension. That’s where we find emotional resonance. We might also think about how a staircase (or mountain) is similar to the story structure we generally want to build. The steps at the start are small. They are easy. But then they become steeper and steeper. And sometimes by the climax, the climb is cliff face.
Other things I thought about on my climb
They say that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. And that’s so true. Often, the mountain in front of us can be so daunting that we stop before we make a start. Taking the first step on our writing journey, taking the first step in writing a novel, or even taking the first step in writing a piece of flash fiction, can be overwhelming. But it is only a single step. Single steps aren’t too bad. If you break down a mountain into millions of tiny steps and focus on those individual steps rather than the whole mountain, the task in front of you hopefully becomes much less daunting.
There is joy in the journey. You wouldn’t think that climbing a staircase 517 times would be particularly fun, but I actually found a strange joy in it. Yes, I think that joy would have been heightened if I’d been on an actual mountain with beautiful scenery and a clear blue sky. But as it was, I was left with my staircase and my imagination. And I found a joy in the climb just as I find a joy in the climb of writing my novel. I don’t agree with hard-and-fast writing rules, but I do think that if we can find joy in what we’re doing, (a) we’ll be happier human beings, (b) we’ll achieve our goals more quickly, and (c) the art we produce will have more sparkle than if we treat it simply as a task to be done.
It’s not always about reaching the summit. When I started training for this challenge, there’s no way I thought I’d actually reach 517 stair climbs. And there were several moments over the weekend where I thought probably I had done “enough.” I’m so proud of myself for keeping going, but even if I hadn’t kept going, even if I’d stopped at 200, 300, 400, I still would have been proud of the climb that I’d managed. And I think it’s a good idea to take the same approach with our writing. If our only definition of success is reaching the summit then many of us (probably most of us) are doomed to fail. But if we look at success as a scale, that gives us much more to celebrate. Each milestone word count can be celebrated. Each chapter or story or poem can be celebrated. Each submission can be celebrated. Each idea can be celebrated. And as we celebrate, we should definitely all be better at taking a pause, and turning around to admire how far we’ve climbed.
We don’t have to do this alone. I was so grateful that so many brilliant writers kept me company over the weekend by turning up to the readings, workshops, chats and challenges I organised as part of my online festival. They gave me such a boost. And I get the same in regard to my writing. I have so many wonderful writing friends who encourage me and keep me going. We often think of writing as a solitary pursuit. But it doesn’t have to be. And in fact I think it’s wise to surround ourselves with a community of cheerleaders who will give us pep talks when we hit a stumbling block, who will guide us when we take a wrong turn, who will help us celebrate the various milestones as we climb.
We’re often more capable than we think we are. As someone who lives with a chronic illness, I’m very good at talking myself out of things because (a) I don’t think I’m capable, (b) there might be consequences, (c) I might fail. But what I’ve come to realise (it has taken me a long time!!) is that this approach means I end up not doing anything at all. My life becomes small as a result. But if I push myself, if I challenge myself as I have done this weekend, then yes, sometimes the result is a “failure”, but sometimes it isn’t. And even the “failures” can be reframed as success. “The result wasn’t what I wanted but I enjoyed X, I learnt Y”. With the successes, there are sometimes consequences. But those consequences tend to fade much quicker than the buzz of the thing itself. And this is the same with our writing. We can talk ourselves out of things, or we can allow ourselves to have a go. Sometimes we’ll fall flat on our faces. Sometimes success will come at a cost. But many more times we’ll surprise ourselves with just how capable we are, and before we know it, we’ll be standing at the top of our virtual Ben Nevises, wondering why we didn’t push ourselves to do this before.
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And if you’re able to spare a couple of pennies, I’m very grateful to those of you who choose to buy me a virtual coffee each month. It allows me to keep this newsletter free and accessible to all.
Congratulations on doing it, Matt! And it was so good to be part of a couple of your sessions. Hope you're not feeling too sore now!