Unleaded – Fuel for Writers

I love traveling!  It is full of new faces and places, new experiences and adventures, and for some inspiration!

I have a friend that sets aside time during every vacation she goes on to write.  Write, I tell ya!

No, she doesn’t lock herself in her hotel room…instead she picks a nice spot somewhere by the pool or in the bar or on the roof or in the library that while full of that vacation sort of energy is quiet enough to allow her to pick up a pen and get to it.  I admire her for  that, because Lord knows I can’t do it.

I find I tuck things away, I try to hold onto images and experiences.  I try to make them as real as I can so I can pull them up again when I get home.  While I’m there (wherever I am visiting), I may see things that tug at my imagination, but it is always more profitable for my writing for me be removed from the place I have visited.  My yearning for escape always leads to great stories…and those memories I’ve made and kept can be mined for details to include or even jumping off points.

When I went to Hawaii, I walked across a lava field.  The heat and smell of that place, the care with which I had to place my feet, and the strange rippling of the stone gave me a great idea for a short story involving Pele and a favorite Bounty Hunter character of mine.  When Iwork on that story I am always transported back to that day.

So next time you are on vacation, how it’s going to impact your writing?  Should you go prepared to write?  Or wait until you’re home again to pick up the pen?

Today Renee is talking about reading, and how it is more than just a product of writing, but actually integral to the process. Transcript available soon.

Audio File: You Must Read – (An Unleaded, Fuel for Writers Podcast)

Today’s episode is from Renee and talks about how important it is to make sure you get out of the house when writing is going well, but especially when it isn’t going quite so well. Transcript available soon.

Audio File: Get Outside – (An Unleaded, Fuel for Writers Podcast)

According to Don DeLillo, writer of Americana and Underworld – one has to grow into novelhood. He says: “I was a semiconscious writer in the beginning,” – “Just sat and wrote something, or read the newspaper, or went to the movies. Over time I began to understand, that the only way I’d get better was to be more serious, to understand the rigors of novel-writing and to make it central to my life, not a variation on some related career choice, like sports writing or playwriting.

The novel is different. . . . We die indoors, and alone. Eventually discipline no longer seemed something outside me. There’s no trick of meditation or self-mastery that brought it about. I got older, that’s all. I was not a born novelist (if anyone is). I had to grow into novelhood.”

I guess I’ll just have to keep practicing and grow into my novelhood.

Audio File: Growing Into Novelhood – (An Unleaded, Fuel for Writers Podcast)