An Author’s View of … Dogs

I own a Schnauzer.

She’s a beautiful dog that comes up just below my knee. We call her Smudge on account of her pepper-and-salt coat, which has a rather smudged appearance. It’s as though when she was created her maker could not decide precisely what colour she should be and so threw in a few random streaks of black, grey and white. She does have a kennel name, but I forget what it is – I think it is Something-or-other With Style!

Smudge gets lots of attention from other dog walkers when I take her out (more than me generally) and lots of very positive comments about what a beautiful dog she is, although having a full-faced beard she is usually mistaken for a ‘he’ rather than a ‘she’.

Having said all those positive things about her, I do sometimes wonder what on earth I am doing with a ‘wild’ animal in my house? I know dogs have been domesticated for centuries, but still, in essence they are a strange thing to have wondering around your living space.

So what has this to do with the title of this blog?

Well dogs serve a very useful function to us authors. As a breed, we authors are very in-doorsy types. Generally we are tucked indoors with little notion of what is going on in the great outdoors. Dogs provide us with the ideal excuse to get way from the keyboard and get out into the fresh air and get a bit of sunlight on our faces. That in itself is very helpful, but Smudge also serves another important function for me.

So far I have not suffered from writers’ block. But I do sometimes struggle with the sequence of how I am going to write my novels. I am not one of those authors that gets everything written down in a torrent of words and then cuts and pastes them into the preferred order. Very occasionally I do come across a paragraph that is better suited in a different part of the story, but generally I write in the order that things are supposed to happen. And sometimes that is not always immediately apparent. So a long walk with Smudge is what is needed – so off we go. A lovely walk through the woods and fields of Oxfordshire will invariably cause things to fall in place. Indeed on occasions a whole new chapter has formulated itself by the time I call Smudge back and reattach her lead for the short journey back to my study.

So if you do not have a dog, I suggest you source one; even if you have to borrow one, because the walks do wonders for the old creative juices.