Walking through portals
Stepping stones to other dimensions
Hello writers and walkers 👋🏻
In our last edition we wandered around our favourite libraries and found writing prompts hidden in the pages of books. Thanks to everyone who got in touch to tell me how much you enjoyed it and to share your own experiences of libraries and book-borrowing.
This time, we’re heading back outdoors. So grab your notebooks, pencils and boots – and keep your mind wide open as we get ready for our wildest adventure yet.
Walking
Did you know that all around the world there are portals to other dimensions? Often hidden in plain sight, they come in every shape and size you can imagine. And once you know how to spot them, you’ll notice them everywhere.
Sometimes they appear as literal doors…
At other times they appear as littoral doors…
You can often see right through them, and might even be able to walk around them. But have you ever wondered what might happen if you… stepped through one…
portal, n.
A door, gate, doorway, or gateway.
A lesser gate or entrance; a side entrance.
A natural entrance, as of a cave or mountain pass.
The entrance to a tunnel.
A feature consisting of upright stones in an arrangement resembling a doorway or entrance passage. (See: portal stone).
A means of entering another world or dimension, or of travelling instantaneously from one place or time to another, often imagined as a door or window.
Some are sought out by hikers who mistakenly believe they’re Ordnance Survey trig markers. But if you happen to be walking by one on the right day of the year, when there’s no one else around, and the light flows in from a particular angle, you might discover that it’s actually a portal…
You’ll often find them in nature. Entering one of these is as easy as following a path…
Or heading into a cave…
Some are so small that you can only pass through them using your imagination…
While others manifest as reflections of the sunset…
Some take the form of ancient monuments that attract crowds of onlookers, eagerly waiting for the sun to activate them at just the right moment…
And in busy places, like city train stations, they’ll only reveal themselves if you’re alone…
And some portals need no introduction at all…
So on your next walk, I invite you to keep an eye out for a portal. But when you find one, make sure you tell someone where you are before you disappear through it!
Writing
Your writing prompt this time is simple but has the potential to lead you in all manner of creative directions. Once you find your portal, answer this question:
What’s on the other side?
Let me know if you find a portal, and what you discovered on the other side, by leaving a comment👇🏻
See you on the other side,
Sarah
More from The Writer’s Walk
Walk yourself happy with an imaginary stroll.
The archway was of brick construction and where the mortar had crumbled between the brickwork, delicate clumps of blue and yellow flowers had settled. Streaks of silver paint had been spray painted over some of the flowers creating a psychedelic hue to the foliage.
Once through the archway, I found myself on a cracked tarmac path, leading me around a series of unmown lawns, the tall grass heavy with seed in the late July heat. Eventually the path stopped in front of the ruins of a small country house, which according to the faded explanatory notice, had burnt down mysteriously in the early part of the last century.
Fabulous!
One of my favourite stories of all time is M John Harrison's "A Young Man's Journey to Viriconium" (there also exists a version of it called "A Young Man's Journey to London") in which a couple of elderly men have devoted (wasted?) their entire lives to the hunt for a portal to the fantasy city of Viriconium (or London), which they are told is through a mirror in the toilet at the back of a bookshop cafe, somewhere in West Yorkshire.