The travelling muse

Willowmound · Feb 19, 2007

How well does you muse travel?

I'm off for greener pastures on the other side of the world. This is all very exciting. But I do worry a little about my muse. She doesn't travel well. I know this from holidays past. That's fine if the travelling is only for some weeks or a month. But this time the travelling is for good, and even though I of course will settle down somewhere, the nature of this endevour is such that I might be moving around for a bit before getting to that.

So what do I do? My muse is averse to any adventure that doesn't actually take place on paper. I hear Stephen King's muse is the same. That doesn't help me one bit. Are there any tricks?

How does one tie a muse to a hotel room chair?

swvaughn · Feb 19, 2007

Willowmound said:
How does one tie a muse to a hotel room chair?

With duct tape.

When I travel, I buy two notebooks and a package of pens (Bic Cristal Stick medium point black ink, but that's neither here nor there). One is for My WIP. The other is for Everything Else.

I print out my WIP (or the last few pages, if it's already fairly long), fold the pages in half, and shove them in one notebook. The other stays empty.

Before I leave, I tell myself these notebooks are only for writing. I remind myself that by the time I get back to a computer, I will have so much typing to do that my fingers are going to be sore for a week. I demand that I absolutely not use these notebooks for anything except writing.

(I do use them for other things, anyway. But I still manage to get actual writing in them too.)

There's something writerly about sitting at a desk in a motel room with a notebook and a pen, and the liquid beverage of your choice (coffee for me). And if you spill the drink, the paper will dry - unlike a laptop, which will die.

Good luck with the move, Willowmound - it sounds exciting!

PeeDee · Feb 19, 2007

My muse works just fine when I travel. Actually, I tend to NOT work on whatever my Work In Progress is when I'm on the road. I tend to wind up writing one-off short stories that wouldn't have occured to me ten seconds earlier. Completely new and different stuff.

I don't mind. It's usually good.

Willowmound · Feb 19, 2007

Thank you -- it is!

I am bringing notebooks. Laptop too. The trouble isn't so much the mechanics, as the inspiration. I just have a real hard time getting into it. My mind tends to go blank, WIP-wise. Sigh.

The Scip · Feb 19, 2007

I got the idea for my WIP while I was travelling. I got so excited I ended up stopping at a store on the way to the hotel to get a notebook and write down my idea before i forgot it.

Willowmound · Feb 19, 2007

PeeDee said:
My muse works just fine when I travel. Actually, I tend to NOT work on whatever my Work In Progress is when I'm on the road. I tend to wind up writing one-off short stories that wouldn't have occured to me ten seconds earlier. Completely new and different stuff.

I don't mind. It's usually good.

I do sometimes write short things while travelling. It's the WIP I'm worried about. I don't want to lose momentum. And I could be moving around for a while.

Maybe the thing is, forcing oneself to write anyway. It's just so painful.

Willowmound · Feb 19, 2007

Oh I get plenty of ideas when travelling. It's the actual writing of them that tends to be a problem...

PeeDee · Feb 19, 2007

Depending on the length and frequency of the trips, I'll sometimes take the WIP with me. Usually, I just let it rest, let ideas bubble in my head, and write other things. Then, when I get back, I'm really fired up to keep going on the WIP.

I used to do a 64 hour (round trip) ride on the greyhound buses every two weeks. I would take notebooks with me (I'm sure as hell not taking a laptop on the bus, I'd get stabbed) and I'd write for every hour of it that I wasn't in a groggy half-sleep world, wondering what state I was in and if they sold donuts.

I still couldn't get any work on my WIP. But it didn't matter, because I wrote the thing blazingly fast in the course of six weeks between trips. ON the trips themselves, I wrote all sorts of short stories.

It made the "I wanna" stronger than the "I hafta"

triceretops · Feb 19, 2007

Look what it did for Hemmingway.

Tri

PeeDee · Feb 19, 2007

Fortunately, I dont' own any guns.

Willowmound · Feb 19, 2007

Well, thanks for your replies, guys. I'll see how I go.

As for right now, I need to cancel my internet connection and start wrapping this here computer in bubblewrap. I'll be checking in with you from the other side.

Cheers!

PeeDee · Feb 19, 2007

We won't forget you, Steve!

Jamesaritchie · Feb 19, 2007

Muse

PeeDee said:
Fortunately, I dont' own any guns.

I own many guns, but I only consider using them on critics and reviewers.

Jamesaritchie · Feb 19, 2007

Travel

Assuming the travel involves time to actually write, my muse does better when I'm a away from home. I love writing while traveling.

King has certainly done some writing while traveling. He tells a story in On Writing about having the concierge in a London hotel show him a place where he might write while his wife was asleep. The concierge showed him an out of the way desk that once belonged to Kipling. King started writing his novel Misery there.

When he was finished writing for the night, the concierge told him the rest of the story. Not only had Kipling owned the desk, but he died while sitting at it. A fitting story for a horror writer such as King.

Susan Flemming · Feb 19, 2007

Create a ritual for your muse

Willowmound said:
...........So what do I do? My muse is averse to any adventure that doesn't actually take place on paper. I hear Stephen King's muse is the same. That doesn't help me one bit. Are there any tricks?

How does one tie a muse to a hotel room chair?

Last summer I moved from Florida to Georgia and for quite some time after the move I was tempted to think that my muse had decided to stay behind because suddenly I couldn't make what I felt was any tangible progress on my WIP.

Then I happened to pick up and start reading The Journey from the Center to the Page by Jeff Davis and in Chapter Two he talks about schedules and rituals and how they can affect a writer's ability to produce. A light went on.

When I lived in Florida I had a daily routine/ritual where I had a favourite spot where I went to write. When I got set up there with my AlphaSmart, that was the signal to my muse that is was time to write, time to let my imagination out to play. Once I realized this, I was able to create a new "ritual" for our new place and now I'm back to meeting my daily writing quota.

So is there a "ritual" that you could create and maintain as you move about and get settled into your new environment that would be the signal to your muse that it's time to write?

PeeDee · Feb 19, 2007

Jamesaritchie said:
Assuming the travel involves time to actually write, my muse does better when I'm a away from home. I love writing while traveling.
King has certainly done some writing while traveling. He tells a story in On Writing about having the concierge in a London hotel show him a place where he might write while his wife was asleep. The concierge showed him an out of the way desk that once belonged to Kipling. King started writing his novel Misery there.
When he was finished writing for the night, the concierge told him the rest of the story. Not only had Kipling owned the desk, but he died while sitting at it. A fitting story for a horror writer such as King.

Thanks to you, I now come to this thread anecdoteless. I was going to share that. Hmph.

Without fail, anytime I check into a hotel room (even if it's just overnight) whatever little pad of scratch paper they leave on the table is completely filled with notes and bits of story by the time I leave.

One time, I went to the desk and asked for a few sheets of printer paper. The person gave me a strange look...and some paper, so that was all right. I sat in the empty breakfast bar with the light of the orange juice machine (because everywhere else in the hotel was full of seven year olds and banshees) and I wrote a short story. Strange, awkward situation. Terrible amount of fun.

I really like traveling. I don't like moving, I like having a set home to come back to, but I adore traveling. I get restless if I don't get out of town once in awhile.

Pagey's_Girl · Feb 19, 2007

My muse loves to travel. Anywhere and everywhere. I just wish he'd stop coming up with these killer plot bunnies while I'm trying to do the grocery shopping.

Now if I could only train him to do the grocery shopping for me, life would be oh so good.

mjlpsu · Feb 19, 2007

Personally, my muse got better when I moved to China. It changed significantly too. It may just be a whole new one.
But even when I take my short journeys through Asia I pack along my small notepad and a functional pen. Force a few notes down and write everything out later on when the muse wants to come back.

pdr · Feb 19, 2007

I hate...

all the moving around I have to do. Use an AlphaSmart, the Neo. You can write on the bus. plane, car, in bed when jet lag's got you wide awake.

Discipline yourself to write first thing in the morning or late at night and do it.

kristie911 · Feb 19, 2007

My muse loves to travel and I tend to do my best writing when I'm not at home.

Unfortunately, I don't have the disposable income to travel at will. So my muse tends to abandon me at the worst times for a cruise.

Saundra Julian · Feb 20, 2007

Moving my muse back to the South, Atlanta...on Saturday... yahoo! Wrapping her in bubble paper...I think she'll perform better in the heat and humidity.

Willowmound · Feb 25, 2007

I think the muse used to use my travelling as an excuse to take a week off. Since this isn't a holiday for me, it appears she isn't treating it as one either. She came to me last night, and this morning as well.

Major relief.

swvaughn · Feb 25, 2007

Woot! Travel well, Willowmound.

JEP · Feb 25, 2007

My muse usually shows up while I'm in an exotic locale. If I'm at home, I usually have to summon it with a fifth of tequila and a handfull of Ex-Lax and then wait around to see what happens next.

The travelling muse

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adrift

Where's my tea, please...?

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...walks this way.

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Where's my tea, please...?

Where's my tea, please...?

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Where's my tea, please...?

Where's my tea, please...?

Still plays with dolls

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Happy to be here

A work in progress

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