This is The Write Now Podcast with Sarah Werner, Episode 63: Tips For Writing While Traveling.

Welcome to Write Now, the podcast that helps aspiring writers and all writers to find the time, energy, and courage you need to pursue your passion and to write every day. I’m your host, Sarah Werner, and I want to thank you for putting up with my erratic posting schedule this summer. It’s been interesting. I say interesting, because I left my job a couple months ago now, and I thought that part of what that meant would be I’d have all this amazing free time that I could dedicate to doing the right now podcast full-time. Perhaps surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, that has not been the case. I’m about to say the most naive thing ever said, probably, but it turns out that if you leave your full-time job to write, writing becomes your full-time job. I know, I know. Ground breaking.

So while I’ve really been enjoying this new stepping stone, paving stone, I don’t know what to call it, this new place in my career, where I’m being paid to write articles and ghostwrite books and to do all sorts of other fun editing, writing sort of stuff, things just never turn out the way that you think slash hope they will. And maybe that’s okay. I could probably do an entire episode on all of the things that I did not expect when I left my day job. And you know what? Maybe I will. So you might see that coming up in the future, but today we’re not talking about that. We’re talking about the other thing that I spent my entire summer doing, and that is traveling.

Again, I have this problem with expectations where I set things up to be way outside of any normal realm of expectation. And so I have to preface this by saying that, because things in my life aligned themselves such that I was on the road for pretty much the entire month of August. I had a retreat with a friend in a nearby city, and then a road trip with my family and in-laws to St. Louis for a family reunion. And then I was able to attend Podcast Movement this year in Anaheim, which was awesome, and more about that later as well.

Going into it, I was like, “Yeah, all right, August is going to be my month of traveling.” And I’m an optimistic person, so of course I looked at this like, “Oh boy, all these things that I love, deeply concentrated into three weeks.” You can probably see where this is going. Because hey, if you’ve traveled before, you know how weirdly exhausting it is, even if you’re just sitting on an airplane, or sitting in a car, or driving the car. You’re sitting, but your body is moving, and I think something about that state of being does not let your mind be at rest. It does not let your body rest, unless you’re one of those magical unicorns who can sleep in a moving vehicle or on a plane, in which case I envy you.

So expectation was that three trips back to back would be exhilarating, and restful, and joy filled. And while it was fun, and interesting, and intense, I didn’t return in the rested state that I thought I would. But I did learn a lot about myself, about my family, and about what it means to be a writer while in transit, what it means to be a writer while you are traveling, while you are in motion, while you are in a state of not being entirely settled. And this can apply to you. If you travel a lot, if you’re a jet setter, if you travel for work, if you travel for fun a lot, if you are a habitual vacationer, if you are able to take extended holidays, or even if you simply have a long commute to work, maybe you have an obligatory family road trip or vacation, maybe your great aunt Diane’s travel companion, whatever the case may be.

Today, we’re going to talk about how to write on the road. We’re going to give you some tips for concentrating in what can be a very distracting environment, and how to really open yourself up to the environment all around you, and improve your writing. I want to open up by saying that writing is inherently wonderfully portable, when we’re talking about the bare necessities. And I say that because it is a lot more portable than some other crafts. So I play drum set, and imagine lugging a … I don’t even know how much it weighs, but lugging a drum kit. Even from room to room, moving it from one room to another room is just ridiculous. And if you are trying to practice your drums in a hotel room, or in a very cramped lake cabin with 10 other people, it doesn’t tend to go over so well. The same is true if you do tap dancing, if you carve life-size statues, or if your hobby is making wedding cakes. All of these are significantly less portable than writing.

Really, at its base, all you need for writing is a writing utensil and something to write on, something as simple as a pencil and a scrap of paper. I actually was carrying around a cocktail napkin in my purse for months and months, because I had been sitting in a restaurant waiting for a friend, and I got this great idea for a story. And so I had a pen with me, but not a piece of paper. So I just started writing this down on this napkin. And when I got home, I pressed it between the pages of my writing notebook. And I still have it, so there you go. That’s all you really need to capture your ideas.

And this brings me to my first writing tip for traveling. And I think there’s going to be seven of these. So the first of seven, before you leave for your trip, make a list of everything you need to write. Now this can be every single thing. So if you’re used to working in your office with your giant manual typewriter, and six pads of paper, and a bubble gum scented pen, and a candle that reminds you of the south of France, and three perfectly preserved robin’s eggs, then write all those things down. I’m not kidding. Once you have your list, I want you to go through it, and look at what’s practical, and what’s not practical to travel with. So those preserved robin’s eggs might not be a good idea to take with you on the road. That 900 pound manual typewriter might not count as an essential. So go through your list and pare it down to essential and non-essential. Or if you prefer the terms must have, nice to have, and not necessary, however you like to break that down.

While you’re doing this, it is a really good idea, if you can get this information ahead of time, to consider the place where you’re going. Consider whether it might have technical limitations. So a perfect example of this is, I know when I go to my parents’ house, there will not be any internet. My parents do not have internet, and I have to prepare for that. And so before I go, if I’m working on a story in Google Docs, I make sure to save it offline, or put it in another format that I can actually use to write in while I’m at their house. If you are going to a Lake cabin with no electricity, consider doing writing by hand. Consider the limitations of the place you’re going into adjust your list accordingly.

Now, if you’re the type of writer who says, “But Sarah, I simply cannot write without my three perfectly preserved robin’s eggs at my side”, or, “Sarah, I can’t write unless it’s on a 900 pound manual typewriter”, then I would urge you to consider this a challenge. It’s like that old fable of the, what is it, the magic ballet shoes and, “Oh, these magical ballet shoes, they’re helping you to dance perfectly.” And then the day of the recital, you don’t have your magical dance shoes, but you’ve learned the steps, and you go out there and you dance beautifully anyway. I’m not saying that the typewriter and the robin’s eggs aren’t important, just that they might not be as crucial to your writing as you may think. So make a list, bring the right things, and don’t forget your toothbrush.

Tip number two, take advantage of travel time. I have this horrible, horrible propensity for getting car sick. I remember so many family trips where we would pull over to the side of the highway so Sarah could puke. It was really not very glamorous, traveling with me. Most of the time, what made me carsick is that I would try to read. I would be in the back seat, bored out of my mind, and I would have a book with me, because who doesn’t have a book with them wherever they go. And I would try to sneak in a few pages, thinking that maybe this time I wouldn’t get sick. Oh boy. And every time I got so sick, you guys. I got so sick. And just forget writing. I would try writing while I was on the road, and it was the same thing except worse, because in addition to the car sickness, I would also not be able to read what I had written afterward, because cars are bumpy and roads are terrible.

But that did not mean the time was entirely lost. As I stared out of the car windows, or the bus windows, or the airplane windows, I found that my mind was active in a way that it normally wasn’t. I found myself thinking new and different and interesting thoughts, and forming ideas that I might not have otherwise. I learned that, just like being in perpetual motion makes it difficult to rest, it also provides great fodder for brainstorming, and thinking up ideas for your work. I began to think of driving time, or a car time, or airplane time, as thinking and brain development time. I stopped trying to distract myself with ever fading into static radio stations as we passed from city to city, I stopped trying to amuse myself with car games that were never really all that amusing. I probably did not entirely stop pestering my siblings.

And I call it thinking slash brain development time, because you can spend the time brainstorming or chewing on a particular aspect of your story, or, let me tell you about the glorious day that I realized you could check out books on tape from the library. I had a blue Walkman, and I would check out novels on tapes, and it would be 12 or 16 tapes per novel. And I would log that around with me, and listen to books in the car, which is another great way to stimulate ideas for your work. So tip number two, instead of trying to just kill the time or pass the time, use the time. Don’t distract yourself, use the time to brainstorm, to formulate ideas, to work out problems with your novel, or your poem, or whatever it is you’re working on.

Number three, this one is a lot easier said than done. Tip number three is to set and realize realistic boundaries with your travel companions. This is not something that I can tell you how to do, but it’s something I will advise that you try doing for yourself. What I mean by that is, everyone’s situation is going to be different, and every trip is going to be a little bit different. You might be on your own heading toward a writing retreat, in which case you can do whatever you want and not worry about your travel companions, because you don’t have any. But if you are wedged into a minivan with nine other people, this might take some finessing.

So take into consideration the purpose of the trip. The second trip I took this summer was a road trip to St. Louis for a family reunion, and to spend my grandfather in law’s 90th birthday with him. Considering the context of the trip, it was socially imperative, not to mention polite and loving and kind, to spend as much time with family while we were there as we could. It’s probably not the best idea to slip away from someone’s 90th birthday party to go work out a story arc in the restaurant bathroom. So first and foremost, understand the context of your trip, realize what’s possible, what’s realistic.

But at the same time, ostensibly if you’re listening to this, you are an adult of sorts, and as such you have dominion over your own time. So maybe it’s acceptable for you to say, “Hey, I’m having a great time, but at 6:00, or at 8:30, I’m just going to head down to my room and do a little bit of writing, I have to catch up on a deadline”, or what have you. If you are in a tiny lake cabin with 25 of your closest friends and family, it might not be realistic to say, “Hey, at 9:00 PM, I’m going to need this main room silent so that I can write”, but maybe you can slip off to a nook somewhere, and put in your earplugs, and get a little bit of work done, and just let people know, “Hey, maybe don’t bother me during this time.” So again, this one’s a little flexible depending on the situation who you’re with, where you are, but set and realize realistic boundaries with your traveling companions if you have them. If you’re traveling by yourself, go crazy and write whenever you want.

Number four, we’re going to go back into naive territory, but just stick with me on this one. Number four is, be as open and wide eyed as a child. I don’t mean that literally, so don’t walk around with your eyes bugging out all creepy. And I don’t mean it in a sappy way. I’m going to explain what this one means with a little bit of a story. So as adults, we tend to have expectations for things, regardless of whether we intend to or not. I was going on my very first mission trip to inland Jamaica, so not the resort beaches, but the middle of the Island where there’s mountains, and people who do not live in great conditions.

And I had all of these expectations and preconceived notions of what it meant to go on a mission trip. I went looking for something in particular. I was looking for a meaningful experience. I was looking for, specifically, an experience where I could help change someone’s life for the better. But I was one 20 something year old young person in Jamaica for five days. And maybe I had a positive impact on some people’s lives, or one person’s life. And more likely, they had a positive impact on mine. But either way, sometimes when you are looking really, really hard for one thing in particular, you miss a lot of other amazing things going on around you. So if you go somewhere, say to France, and you have a laundry list of four things you need to see, and that’s it, and you see the four things, and that’s it, You might be missing out on things that can inspire you in your work on details that your novel will really need, or you may not even be seeing things in the right way.

So when I say be open and wide-eyed as a child, what I’m saying is relax your expectations, put on the brakes where your drive to see the Eiffel tower or the Louvre is concerned, and try to really open yourself up to really seeing the world around you, to letting inspiration come to you. It’s like the phrase, be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it. When we go into a situation with a closed mind into set a very rigid expectations, we miss out on a lot of the best things in life.

Number five, realize that for a writer, everything is research. So tip number four was more for things that you wanted to go see, or trips that you wanted to take, or experiences that you were looking to have. This tip is about, Hey, I’m being dragged by my family to this place that I really don’t want to go, and I’m feeling very bitter and resentful full about it. That’s okay. Turn it around. Turn it into a research project for your writing. Pay attention to what you see, pay attention to new scenery, pay attention to the plants and the animals, and the way that the sky looks when the sun sets. Pay attention to the people that you see, listen to the way that they talk. Look for quirks. Look for the way that they dress, and see how it’s similar to or different from the way you dress, from the way you talk, from the way you act. People are fascinating, and endlessly so. Even if you’re just going one town over there will be interesting people there.

I think it was Bill Nye who said, “Everyone you meet knows something that you don’t”, so take advantage of that. Do research. Observe. And if you’re feeling a little bit extroverted or brave, meet some people, listen to their stories, or maybe just say hi and give them a friendly wave. Whatever you’re comfortable with. Just remember that for a writer, everything is research, even that trip you really don’t want to go on.

Number six, journal everything. You may not want to lug your entire set of writing equipment with you wherever you go, but wherever you go, make sure you do have a little notebook and a pen or a pencil with you, or maybe even just the note taking app on your phone. I love taking pictures when I travel, but pictures can capture 100% of everything. Pictures can capture the way something looks, but they can’t capture the way that a bonfire smells on the beach at night. They can’t capture the way that your grandmother’s voice cracks when she talks about how much she misses your grandfather. A picture can’t explain the feeling in your heart when you climb the 875th step, or you hold a baby sloth, or you dive into the ocean for the first time. Try preserving some of your memories and words. I think that you’ll find them useful later on in your writing.

All right, our last tip, number seven. After all this talk about fitting in writing while you’re traveling, tip number seven is don’t panic about writing every second during your trip. While traveling can be great for a writer, sometimes rest is good too. I have spent trips frustrated out of my mind, desperately searching for two seconds of peace and quiet in which I can work on a scene from my novel, or in which I can fiddle around with the wording in this poem. I have spent angry weeks with crowds of people, simply unable to slip away and write. It happens sometimes. Don’t let it tie your stomach up in knots. Sometimes you will travel and there will be no time for writing, and every once in a file that is, believe it or not, okay. Sometimes it’s okay to just sit and breathe, and look at all the people around you, and focus on being a person. So if you can’t find the time to write, don’t let that ruin your trip.

These are my seven tried and true tips for writing while traveling. If you have any that you use, I would absolutely love to know what they are. You can let me know when you email me at hello@sarahwerner.com. That’s S-A-R-A-H, W-E-R-N-E-R. Or you can let me and other listeners know in the comments for the show notes for today’s episode, episode number 63, which you can also find along with the show notes for today’s episode, at sarahwerner.com. And hey, while you’re out at sarahwerner.com, make sure you sign up for my email mailing list. It’s awesome. I feel like I need a better tagline for that. I’ll workshop that and come back.

One of the things that I would really like to hammer home about this podcast is, I don’t create it alone. Technically I do, because right now I’m in my office, speaking into my tube of audio foam, staring at a microphone. But I don’t do it alone. I have so many people in my life who are supportive of this show, and I am so grateful for every single one of you. I wouldn’t make this if it weren’t for you. So thank you for listening. Thank you also to my wonderful and amazing Patreon supporters. Patreon is a secure third-party donation platform that allows people to pledge a dollar per episode, $2 per episode, whatever you think the show is worth to you. You can go ahead and do that at sarahwerner.com/patreon, that’s P-A-T-R-E-O-N. Or you can hop on over to patreon.com, and search for Sarah Rhea Werner, or the Write Now Podcast.

Special things this week go to official word champion Elise Jane Tabor, official cool cats Sean Locke and Rebecca Werner, official bookworms Matthew Paulson, Gary Medina, and Lilith black, and official caffeine enablers Phillip Flint, Chris Kuropatwa, Barbara Miller, Harrison Werner, Colleen Cotolessa, and War Writer. Thank you all so much. I would not be able to do this show without you. So thank you.

I love talking about writing, I love teaching people about writing, and I’m so glad I get to do that here with you. So thank you for listening. Thank you for supporting me in so many ways. Let me know how your next trip goes, how you’re able to focus on your writing if you’re able to find the time and space to write, and if not, then that’s okay. Until next time, this has been episode 63 of the Write Now Podcast, the podcast that helps aspiring writers and all writers to find the time, energy, and courage you need to pursue your passion, and to write every day, even when you’re on vacation. I’m Sarah Werner, and no matter where you go, you will always be a writer.