Tag Archives: travel

The Writing Year Ahead

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It is only fitting at this time of year that we look to the year ahead. I’ve taken stock of my life and I know that there will be some challenges ahead in 2015, but at least I have a vague sense of direction now.

I’ve been trying to find a way to make sure my fiction writing doesn’t fall to the side around the travel and paying work commitments. It is easier said than done, as 2014 has already taught me. That makes me more determined to hit the targets I’ve set for myself.

I have a few key goals for the writing year ahead.

Publish – I have two books in the final stages of preparation for publication. One of them has been waiting on a graphic designer for a cover and the other has just been sent for copy edits. My dilemma is that they both sit under different genres, so I’m not sure I’ll publish them both under this name. I have to not let the debate hold things up too much.

Creating – I have another two books outlined ready for writing this year. I use Scrivener which is amazing for getting set up – I’ll try to do a blogpost about how to get the most out of that in the coming year. If I can write two books a year, which I think is perfectly doable, even with the craziness of my life, then that’s the foundation for 2016 already laid.

Travel – I still want to do this, even if it is a double edged sword. This year, travel commitments have shafted my writing schedule. But going to new places is an enriching experience which informs my writing in countless ways. I don’t want to live a life without it. So my goal for 2015 is to make the most out of each experience and try to see it through the eyes of a writer whenever possible.

So there it is, a brief overview of my hopes and dreams, underpinned by a bit of a plan, for the next twelve months. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed and hopefully you’ll have a plan too – good luck with whatever you decide to do with your year. I hope it’s a good one!

And it wouldn’t be fair to start the year without an inspirational hedgehog to move things along….

Contact for credit

Contact for credit

Notebook find of 2014: Field Notes

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As a writer, I constantly need to have a pen and some paper handy to capture ideas when they come to me. Honestly, my memory is absolutely terrible for things like that. Which is fine – I have a system so I can write things down and stop worrying about them, rather than trying to keep a gazillion things in my head at the same time.

This year on my travels I discovered Field Notes. I liked the idea of them at first, but was a bit uncertain as to whether they would actually work for me. So I’ve given a few a go…

fieldnotes

I think they are the kind of brand that you either love, or really don’t get what all the fuss is about. I love the appearance of them, but I had a few reservations about the practicality. At only 48 pages long, I get through one in about a month, sometimes a few weeks. It makes going back to find something you may have only written last Thursday tricky if it is in a separate notebook. But they are slim enough to fit in a back pocket or pretty much any bag without being too bulky. In my opinion, they look better too once they’ve got used and a bit battered.

I’ve found that working with the grid layout (available in the standard  books and some of the colors editions) is great for using with the bullet journal system. I have to share my personal/writing schedule with one other person and my work schedule with at least three others, so I’ve come to terms with the fact I won’t use the calendar element of the system anyway.

If you can get your hands on one, then I’d give them a go. They don’t sit nicely in the corporate world (with the possible exception of the latest Ambition Edition) but they are fun. Sometimes, having a tool that you want to use and try out is just the encouragement you need to get writing and thinking again after a dry spell.

They won’t be my only pocket notebook of choice for 2015, but they will be a nice break from a Moleskine or Leuchtturm in between.

A mini travel break…

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So, I have added up the numbers and I spent more time outside the country than I did inside it this year. That is quite the achievement. It also means that this year was the first one in a long time where my life has had such a huge impact on my writing, rather than the other way round.

I would love to say I have managed to achieve some kind of balance and that everything has been nice and simple. The reality, no matter what you read or how much you prepare, is that when you are on the road or anywhere outside the predictability of your own environment, then the world will most likely throw you a curveball. People who seem switched on all the time seldom really are. I certainly have never met anyone who is doing it all, all the time.

Now the holiday decorations are up and I have nearly a month of no travel. Even though it is a busy time of year with friends and family, it does mean I will be able – in theory – to establish some kind of routine again. I find myself disproportionately excited about this. I hope it will be a time of consistency and progress; something I sorely need if I am to start 2015 correctly on all fronts. Paying gigs have all been delivered on time and sometimes that has been at the cost of my own work that matters to me most.

This is a time for dreaming. Dream big and start small. I have a day booked for reviewing my business plan, setting my writing goals and looking forward to see how I can make the travel work better for me in 2015. I will lock myself away with a coffee and be brutally honest with how the year has been, its successes and failures. Then the tough work really begins.

After all, if you aren’t happy about something, change it.

NaNoWrimo – What to do next…?

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Winner-2014-Square-Button

So, I completed NaNoWriMo (congratulations to everyone else who did too), which always gives me a nice sense of accomplishment to round off the year. I’m now faced with the dilemma of what to do next.

Much of the information (and there are many useful articles) about the next steps after hitting 50,000 words are aimed at people who have only written this much for the first time. It’s all about how to finish the novel you’ve started or how editing works. For me – and perhaps for you – the dilemma is slightly different.

You see, 50,000 words is not a complete novel. My story got a little bit beyond that as part of the writing for the month, but it is still not complete. However, I still have two books I should be editing instead, both of which should ideally go back to my proof readers before the madness of Christmas starts to descend. But editing is, in comparison, boring to writing new stuff. Shiny! Squirrel! Chase it! That is the mentality of my brain unfortunately, and something I really need to kick in the butt in 2015.

More importantly, there is a worry that if I lose momentum on the writing, then it will become harder to come back at some point, maybe a few months down the line, and just pick up again where I left off. I don’t want to have to battle with inertia in order to rediscover my characters and the tone for this particular book.

Normally, I might have a bit more time on my hands in order to accomplish both, but December is so far shaping up to be another travel-intensive month. I have spent more of the last 30 days in hotel rooms than I have my own bed. Which is fun, sometimes exciting, but it puts the kibosh on having some kind of routine and structure to just write. Sitting down with my bullet journal and looking at all the outstanding and new writing tasks I have listed there just made me realise what a juggling act this is all becoming. And I really don’t want to have to cancel Christmas…

So, do I do what I should do (edit) or what feels more natural to do (finish of the book)? Sadly, I suspect this is a dilemma for which there is no correct answer!

Apologies for the whining in this post. Here, have a complimentary hedgehog to make up for it:

baby-hedgehog-cup-mug-pics

Understanding Your Inner Writer

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This is a sabbatical post while I am away on my mini writing retreat

As I am currently focussing inward, I thought I would draw your attention to this post on how we can get closer to our true selves. I know that I usually stick to the topic of writing rather than over-arching personal development stuff, but given that I feel this is part of informing who we are, and therefore what and how we write, I thought it was appropriate.

I travel a lot. There is something unsettling, on some level, about so much time on the road. It stops you from getting comfortable and complacent. It is hard to be motivated and inspired to write every day when your life is routine and comfortable. Perhaps that is why so many great books come from people who were going through a bad spell? As much as the experience itself informs what they write, that sense of urgency which comes from not knowing what life will be one day to the next is a powerful tool. It is there to all of us, to some degree, if we choose to use it. Travel doesn’t automatically have to be to some far flung part of the globe (although that is always nice). It can be a bus ticket to somewhere, anywhere, that you haven’t been before and looking at this new place with new eyes.

The easiest one, I suppose, is embracing time alone. Most writers work in a solitary fashion, but more often than not, we do so whilst surfing the net claiming to be writing. Yes, you know what I’m talking about. I’m not talking about that time alone. I’m talking about the truly quiet time, when we think about not only writing itself, but where it fits in our lives. Is it a hobby, something secret that you want to keep just for yourself? Or do you have dreams of being published some day? Would you like to be traditionally published, or self-published? Take the time to truly visualise your dream.

I suspect that although I have scheduled this post, that is what I will be doing right now. I don’t feel guilty or selfish about it. I do it because it needs to be done, because it will not only make me a better writer, but also a better person.

And who doesn’t want that for themselves, really?

Taking a writing sabbatical

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I always have a few weeks a year where I escape for a little while to unwind and really focus on writing. This is never anything to do with the business side of things. Okay, that’s a small lie, it’s mostly not to do with the business side of things. It’s all about creation. That means plotting and planning new projects, working out when they can be done and what I want to do next. In other words, the fun stuff.

In the next few days, I will be off to do just that. I have a collection of notebooks (one for business, one for new ideas and another specifically for the series I have been working on for several years). It used to be that my suitcase was filled with books for these trips, but now I have replaced them with a kindle and notebooks take up the extra space instead.

I like to take a sabbatical to focus on writing because that is the thing I love. It is the thing that, if I won millions on the lottery, I would still continue to do with as much time and energy. But if writing is not your thing, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take some time off from regularly scheduled life and reset for a while. Research is continually showing that the most successful people in all areas of life regularly take a break to recalibrate.

The value of taking a break has been apparent to me for years. Juggling two work streams, family, relationships and other commitments can be exhausting, and I know I am nothing special. This is the reality most of us live in now; the 9-5 is dead and most moms can’t afford to stay at home full time even if they wanted to when the cost of living is so high. Life has become about fitting too much in and it is no wonder that most of us feel like we’re on the edge of a precipice just getting through each day. So no matter what it is that takes up the space in your mind, escaping it all for a while (by that I mean for more than just Sunday afternoon when the only thing you are capable of doing is watching TV) is one of the best things you can do to look after yourself.

There may be cocktails, there will hopefully be sun. There will be guilt-free reading and some time to look after my body as well as eat and drink nice things. Mostly, there will be time to vacate the real world, digitally switch off and get back in touch with what I really want from life, not what life is wanting from me.

If there is one thing you do for yourself over the next year, try to do the same. Trust me, it’s worth it. So are you.

Fixed Schedule Writing On A Fluid Travel Plan

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It’s no great secret that I don’t spend all day, every day in one place. Travel is my passion, my way of recharging, my way of getting the most out of my writing. I love the newness of it all.

I love the sun.

So whilst that makes me sound like the committed adventurer who lives some kind of scattered life, the one thing I value above all else is routine in my writing. These things, sadly, do not seem to mix very well.

Some days I’ll be writing from my home desk, other days it will be a hotel room. Increasingly I am finding myself fond of knocking out a few hundred words in a coffee shop by hand. Regardless, it means that some of the rigidity in my schedule that I require to actually 1) produce material, 2) stay sane, is becoming more difficult to maintain. My output, unfortunately, has drifted off a little and I need to find a way to get it back.

Solutions

A couple of things have started to help get this back on track:

Being honest about my energy: If travel commitments mean a late night and exhaustion one day, getting up an hour later should be allowed. This doesn’t always work for me though, so I’ve found that getting up and focussing on more routine tasks, like website maintenance and reading articles, is a better way to get those tasks off my list that I would usually do at the end of the day or weekends.

Write when I don’t feel like it: I prefer to do creative tasks first thing in the morning when everyone else is asleep. When that’s not possible, as above, it means either stuff doesn’t get written or I make myself do it later in the day. It’s still all about carving out time. As this isn’t my naturally creative time, that means spending more time in places that do add a spark of inspiration. Hence the increase in coffee shop exploits.

Becoming better at taking notes: If I’m on the road, with a mixed up schedule, ideas come to me at odd times. Flashes of inspiration or sentences that I know will one day become the start of something bigger. I’m trying to make sure that these always get captured in a notebook so I can dig them back out when the right time comes.

So that’s what I’m trying to achieve. Creating some kind of balance in a crazy world. I feel like I’m still grasping the basics of this, so I’m totally open to new ideas and suggestions if there is something working for you?

On the road again…

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I’m lucky that I get to travel as much as I do. The world is an amazing place, and stories can be found everywhere. Even odd little facts can form the background to give writing depth.

I’m spending a little bit of time now travelling back halfway around the world. This will be followed by at least a three month spell in one place, doing the actual writing part of my life. Which, truth be told, is my favourite bit. But there is also something really special about that pre-writing phase, where you gather ideas and experiences. You might not always know where they are going to fit into the world you will one day create, but the best ideas hang around in the back of your brain, just waiting for the right moment to turn into something beautiful.

The downside to the travelling is that I tend to fall off the creation bandwagon. I have a very fixed writing routine most of the time, which is not always possible when working with timezone shifts. My self imposed goal of 1,000 words a day is not easy when I don’t have full access to my laptop or the internet. I use Scrivener as it’s a great way to create a story bible for those tales which are complex, so going analogue is only a partial solution for me.

I’m definitely up for experimenting with any tools, tips and tricks that anyone has for keeping myself on track with this. It would be good to have a fool proof system in place before my next trip.

Until then, I’ll just keep gathering ideas…