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Tag: road tripping

Finding the right place to write part 2

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A couple weeks ago I posted about one of my favorite places to write.  Here’s another spot I like (although this one tends to be more for reading than writing, at least recently).

Although this spot tends to see more traffic than spot #1 (photographers and birders watching the bald eagles in nearby trees, joggers and bikers and dog walkers along the path), it’s right next to the river, providing a soothing backdrop of the water going over the dam. There are multiple places to sit: park benches on that overlook on the right, rocks on the river bank, and grassy spots perfect for a blanket.

Plus this is really close to where I live, so I can easily stop by when I need some time to read, write, or just sit and think.

Finding the right place to write

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Like most people, I have the best intentions when I sit down in front of my computer to tackle a project, be it writing a story, researching a setting, applying for jobs, etc.

And like most people, I tend to get distracted. There are forums and instant messages and Cracked.com, a cat grooming herself on my feet wanting to be noticed and fed, snacks and drinks and late night burger runs, Spider Solitaire, and so on.

Fortunately, I’ve found a great place to write:

There’s no internet except what I can get with my phone. Very few people around. A clean bathroom. A great view (visible from my car too; I don’t sit outside if it’s cold or rainy).

Where do you go to write, read, or just get away from life for short bursts?

    The benefit of embracing failure

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    This blog post is late – I wanted to write it this morning – because I had to make an emergency 400-mile road trip today.  Yes, that’s right.  A 400-mile (each way) emergency road trip.  And it couldn’t have tied in with a better post.

    I recently finished a book by Oliver Burkeman called The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking.  I’m one of those people – a cynic irritated by those irrationally happy in the face of dismal circumstances – so I thought this would be a good book for me.

    And to add to my cynic nature, I also have a BS in psychology.  I wrote my senior thesis on the link between money, motivation, and happiness.  So I know that the crap you learn in books like The Secret – if you want something hard enough it’ll magically happen – is completely false.

    So if believing isn’t good enough to make you happy, what else is there?  Turns out it’s the complete opposite.  Just internalize this:

    • Life sucks sometimes.  Good things happen to bad people.  Bad things happen to good people, and they’ll happen to you, no matter what you try to do to prevent it (cancer, death, job loss, etc).
    • Just because bad things happen to you, does NOT mean you’re a failure.  It simply means life didn’t work out like you wanted; move on to plan B.
    • Even better, anticipate Plan B.  Plan C.  Plan D.  That way when something bad happens – when you fail, when life fails, when God fails, whatever – you can shrug your shoulders and move on.

    Which gets me back to why I’m currently 400 miles from home.  I’m in the process of applying for grad school.  I thought I had everything in – references, essays and applications, transcripts – with a week to go before the deadline.  I was patting myself on the back when I received my school login info and saw that they hadn’t received one copy of my transcripts yet (but the department I’m applying to had).

    I had several options to deal with this.  I could cry while calling every day, hoping that my transcript would magically appear in time.  Yeah, bad idea, especially because this program only takes students every 3 years.

    Okay, plan B: request a new copy be sent.  Yes, but last time that took 10 days.  I have 1 week, and the school doesn’t expedite.

    So I went with plan C: drive to my college (400 miles away) and pick up multiple copies of my transcript in person, then express mail one of them, hand deliver another (school I’m applying to is only an hour away), and still have an official copy in case I need one.

    And thus here I am.  I won’t be a failure because I moved on to the next option.

    What does this have to do with writing?  Everything!  When you submit a story, realize that there’s a good chance it’ll get rejected, especially when you send it to a market with a 2% acceptance rate (just got a rejection from a market like that today).  When you get a rejection, it doesn’t mean you suck as a writer and you should stop writing; it means you send your story out again.  It means you evaluate your story and make edits if needed, then send it out better than before.

    Embracing failure means you realize you could fail, and you make contingency plans when (if) you do.

    What do you think of this philosophy?

    Writer’s toolkit

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    Every writer needs a toolkit.  And I’m not talking about things like character development exercises or plot outlines or grammar shortcuts.

    A physical toolkit.

    Whenever I leave my apartment, I take mine along.  It’s a small backpack filled with essentials for dealing with unexpected inspiration:

    • my laptop – it’s a tiny netbook, perfect for travel.
    • spiral notebook – Jessica Loftus covered this pretty well.  I like having one in case there’s no internet connection, or no chance to use my laptop, or I just want to write something by hand.
    • pens – lots of pens.  They’re easy to lose, and easy for people to borrow and not return.  You can never have too many pens, especially clicky ones (my favorite).  My bag currently has four, with another two in my purse and several in my car.
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    • camera – in addition to thinking about stories while wandering around, I love to take pictures.  Sometimes it’s a random object that catches my eye, or interesting landscape, like on a recent trip to northern Wisconsin.  Or sometimes I decide I want a certain image for a book cover, like a wooden dock on a lake for a story I’m thinking about putting out for Kindle.
    • random toiletries – contacts case and solution, deodorant, lotion, etc, in case I end up wanting to stay the night somewhere.  It hasn’t happened yet but it might.
    • snacks – often when I’m wandering there aren’t a lot of options for food other than overpriced gas stations, so I keep my backpack supplied with healthy stuff like homemade granola bars, almonds, and cheerios.
    • Nalgene bottle – I hate paying for water, so I try to use my Nalgene bottle as much as I can.  I’ve had it for over a decade and it’s accompanied me all over the world.

    Do you have any writing-related stuff you take with you everywhere?  Any suggestions for what else I should put in my bag?

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