A Walk Through the Water Meadows: First-hand Research

           Lee Gutkind wrote that “a writer could…gain international renown (and some have) without wandering so much as a mile from his or her home.” As I continued my research after the last blog post, delving into Keats friends and the significant events of Keats' life, I initially disagreed with Gutkind. Keats visited Winchester two-hundred years ago – how could I possibly obtain the same level of in-depth research available to nonfiction writers writing about the present?

Then, after researching online, I discovered that Keats’ walk – discussed in the previous blog – is a regular tourist attraction in Winchester, with a path mapped out for people to follow. The route spans from Winchester Cathedral to St Cross Hospital, passing by the Water Meadows alongside the river Itchen. Although the city of Winchester has been modernised since 1819, the tour emphasised that the path through the Water Meadows remained unchanged. 

Winchester Cathedral

St Cross Hospital

       I decided to take the walk for myself. I wanted to put myself in Keats’ shoes, aiming to understand what he might have felt.

        I was not disappointed.

A bridge over the river Itchen

The River Itchen

The path through the Water Meadows

By taking the walk, I was able to immerse myself into my piece, taking notes on the environment around me, as well as the influence this had on Keats in his letters. It also provided the opportunity for photographs. I can use these as visual references for my piece, gathering the smaller details needed to create compelling scenes in my narrative.

By throwing myself, as a writer, into the footsteps of my subject, I have also been able to think about how my narrative will be structured when I start writing it. When comparing the walk to other events in Keats’ life - debt, troubles with his lover and publishers, his writers block – there is a striking emotional contrast, which I now want to include in my piece. I could use the walk as a central narrative thread throughout, placing it beside the hectic parts of his life. This is a choice that I can consider as I continue to work on my piece. 

Decision Time - My Choice and its Initial Research

I have decided to write my piece about John Keats. This is because his short stay in Winchester (12^th August 1819 – 3^rd October 1819) is a significant period of his life, which is detailed by historians and Keats’ own letters. Will Adams, although having an interesting story, is not as well documented. This makes engaging the reader more challenging since, as highlighted by Theodore A. Rees Cheney in Writing Creative Nonfiction, “the mentioning of concrete, realistic details about life raises emotions in the reader.” Without these, the story of Will Adams cannot be made to suit the creative nonfiction form.

Selected Poems & Letters of Keats, by Robert Gittings
One of the many reference books now collected on my desk.

With the decision made, I began my initial research by studying Keats himself, primarily through reading the letters he wrote during his stay in Winchester. Through his own perspective, I could gain a stronger sense of who he was as a person, how his stay in Winchester affected him, and what he did while he was there. These will be essential when developing the characterisation and plot for my piece.

During this research, I discovered that Keats took a regular walk in Winchester, from the front of Winchester Cathedral to St Cross Hospital. This walk, on one autumn day in September, inspired him to write the famous ode, To Autumn.

To Autumn - Read by Ben Whishaw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwn6Xaz_uLM

This has the potential to be an interesting basis for a narrative, as it has the concrete details necessary for a scene, with wider significance for the reader. This builds upon an idea in creative nonfiction known as the Ladder of Abstraction, where small actions showcase wider, abstract concepts for the reader to consider. I aim to replicate this in my piece, as achieving this makes for effective nonfiction.

As I read his letters, however, I became aware of other characters, such as Fanny Brawne - his lover and obsession at the time - and Charles Brown, who accompanied Keats to Winchester. Finding more information about them, as well as more information about the walk, is crucial to discover more scenes for the piece, and aids in portraying the dramatized events accurately. This follows Lee Gutkind’s view of the nonfiction writer’s role: “Nonfiction writers cannot alter the facts, but they can capture…them much more dramatically.”

Two Men. Two Tales. Two True Stories to Tell.

John Keats and Will Adams: Two men with two compelling stories to tell. However, I must choose the one which will best suit the form of creative nonfiction, in order to develop an effective creative piece.

The First Idea - Will Adams

Will Adams was born in my hometown, Gillingham. He was the first Englishman to travel to Japan and rose to become adviser to the Shogun, a high position in the Japanese military. His website indicates that he's "one of the most influential foreigners during Japan's first period of opening to the West."

Yet, this is his memorial: A neglected clock-tower at the edge of a motorway.

Despite his achievements, Will Adams remains a disregarded figure in history. This provides a true story not yet explored by other writers. Furthermore, the contrast between the events of his life, and the dusty memorial commemorating them, proposes an interesting question: why should we strive to achieve, if no one will remember us?

The Second Idea - John Keats

John Keats: a renowned poet of the Romantic Era, writer of To Autumn and Lamia, as well as many other famous works. Despite dying at 25, many hold him as a staple name in English Literature, myself included.

So imagine my surprise when I discovered that he had visited Winchester, where I currently live.

His stay was a calming respite from his hectic life at the time. This can create an empathetic narrative not yet shown by other writers: the man, not the poet, trying to find a sense of peace within his life, all the while transitioning into his eventual demise.

Three Important Questions

“Enlightening a reader is the unalterable mission of all nonfiction," says Lee Gutkind in The Art of Creative Nonfiction. While this is important, there are also two other aspects that I must consider as a nonfiction writer: narrative and historical accuracy. Therefore, I have broken down my decision making process into three questions:
.

·         Can I make the narrative engaging?

·         Can I portray the story with the historical accuracy it deserves?

·         Can a wider message be gained from the narrative?

With any luck, these will help me make my decision.