How Travel Benefits Writing

In Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates (Random House 1996), author David Cordingly describes how the thirty-year-old Robert Louis Stevenson began writing Treasure Island while on holiday with his family in the Scottish mountains. They had a summer cottage, and Stevenson’s stepson and father delighted in listening to the chapters as he wrote them, giving him suggestions for characters and plot. Stevenson quickly finished the first fifteen chapters and had a contract to publish the story in installments when his writing stalled. He returned home from vacation and corrected the proofs, but made no further progress with the writing.

Because of his precarious health, in the autumn, Stevenson went with his wife and stepson to Switzerland. Upon arriving, he rediscovered inspiration and described his experience as: “down I sat one morning to the unfinished tale; and behold! it flowed from me like small talk; and in a second tide of delighted industry, and again at a rate of a chapter a day, I finished Treasure Island.”

 

Robert Louis Stevenson

Last Tuesday on WWK, when Sam Morton wrote about finding his muse, Warren Bull commented that he found his muse in travel. I’ve had that experience, too.

I’ve often read that the cure for writer’s block is to change activity, because the subconscious works while the mind is preoccupied with other pursuits. Even switching from typing to hand-writing can be enough to turn on a light bulb.

Just recently, I had been puzzling over the back-story for a character when I had the opportunity to hand-write the word “pharmacist.” A day later, it came to me what my character had studied in college and why she took a different route from working in a drug store.

Whenever I travel, I find ideas come at me from all directions. Not just spurred on by the new venues and people I see, but because I feel freed to make connections that seemed impossible or at least elusive at home.

I began wondering about this phenomenon and came up with the following reasons why it occurs. When you travel you:

(1) Have to face your fears. Even though you may have trepidation about the journey or regret about what you’re leaving behind, once you start, you've committed to dealing with your apprehension and facing the situation as you encounter it. The moment of decision is over and the moment of action has begun.

(2) Have to leave your comfort zone. Travel takes you out of the safety of your nest and forces you to roost in foreign territory. You have to pack to accommodate your needs, but you have to travel lightly, so you can't be weighed down with baggage. You have to carry the essentials. It's freeing not to have too many things to tie you down. And, if you're serious about writing, you have to figure out how to fit it into your travel schedule. I’ve found my iPad with bluetooth keyboard to an be ideal companion, particularly since it also contains an e-Reader with many downloaded novels to be read!

(3) Have to move. Motion provides its own momentum. For me, time spent driving from one place to another is never wasted, but gives me a chance to think about my writing and helps me come to new conclusions.

Inspirational travel doesn’t have to be long distance. It might simply be a change in routine, or in the way you move. This year, I’ve taken tap dancing (to be described in a later blog) and exercise classes. The activities seem to have enhanced my creativity and writing output.

Recently, seeing new and unexpected signs in familiar locations has given me story ideas. One was at my neighborhood Chick-fil-a (which I mentioned in my comment to Sam’s post about finding your muse). The restaurant was advertising a “father-daughter date night.” Since seeing the post card announcement, I’ve plotted a story and written the first draft, going back to the Chick-fil-a to type it, while sipping coffee and eating fruit. I haven’t figured out yet what to make of the sign I saw at Dunkin’ Donuts (on a steep overgrown slope behind the drive-through lane, the sign read, "City Park--No Dumping," and the area looked like a prime location for a hidden body), but I’m willing to continue patronizing the store until I can work  it out!

Where have you gone lately, and how has it influenced your writing?