Hello everyone,
Winnie Griggs here. For the past few
weeks my 3 sisters and I have been excitedly planning a girl’s trip to Disney
World for mid-June. It’s the first time
we’ve done something like this and we’re all very excited about not only going
to Disney, but having the opportunity to spend some time together. My baby sister, who still works a full time
job and lives the furthest away is planning to fly, but the other three of us are
going to drive together. So lately I’ve been
googling tips for getting the most from a road trip.
To my surprise I found
a lot of these same trips can be tied to writing. So here is my interpretation of 6 ways writing is like a road trip:
1. Spend some time figuring out the best
route
Like a road trip,
when writing a story you need to know your character’s starting and ending destinations.
Once you know these two anchoring points, you can explore the many routes you
can take to get you there. Some of the
factors that will play into your decisions – the amount of time you have
available to make the trip ( novella, short work, longer work), the various
sights you want to see (character milestones), and the spare time you have for side-trips
(subplots).
2. Clean and service your vehicle before
you leave.
Just like it’s a
good idea to make sure your vehicle is clean and in good working order before
you leave on your trip, you also want to make certain you’re starting your new
book under the best possible conditions.
Clear your workspace, put away all the research and story notes you
accumulated on your last project, and if time allows, take a breather between projects
to do something fun and restful to ‘refill the well’ of your energy and
creative juices.
3. Entertainment
For some people,
playlists and eBooks are an essential part of any road trip. Just so, for some
writers, having a writing playlist, sometimes specific for each story, is also
essential.
4. Have a plan but be flexible
To get the most
from your road trip, you want to have a solid plan for how you’re going to get
from start to final destination. But you also want to leave some flexibility in
your schedule to accommodate unexpected roadblocks and side trips. So too, as a
writer we all know that life happens. Our writing schedules can be detoured by
illness, family events, major climate events and any one of a dozen other
issues. Make sure you leave some room in your writing schedule to adjust for
these life events when they happen.
5. Choose the right companions
Taking a long road trip
can make or break a friendship. After all, you’re going to be trapped in a
vehicle for a number of hours with your travel buddies with no way to escape
them – make sure they are folks you can get along with. So too, make certain the characters you’ve
developed for your story are ones who can keep your interest (and the reader’s!)
for the duration of the ‘journey’.
6. Understand the rules of the road
This may sound
basic, but if you’re going cross country, or even into other countries, the ‘rules
of the road for these other states/countries can be different than what we are
used to.
Relating this to
writing, each genre/sub-genre has its own expectations and you need to
understand the ones for the book you’re writing.
There you have it - my thoughts on how writing is like a road trip. Do you agree with these? Do you have others to add.
Leave a comment to be entered in a drawing for my brand new release, The Unexpected Bride.
THE UNEXPECTED BRIDE
Fleeing an arranged marriage,
socialite Elthia Sinclare accepts a governess position halfway across the
country. But when she arrives in Texas she finds more than she bargained for - more
children, more work and more demands. Because Caleb Tanner wants a bride, not a
governess. But marrying this unrefined stranger is better than what awaits her
back home, so Elthia strikes a deal for a temporary marriage. She says I do and
goes to work—botching the housework, butting heads with her new spouse, loving
the children.
Caleb isn’t sure what to make
of this woman who isn’t at all what he contracted for—she’s spoiled, unskilled
and lavishes her affection on a lap dog that seems to be little more than a
useless ball of fluff. But to his
surprise she gets along well with the children, works hard to acquire domestic
skills and is able to hold her own with the town matriarchs.
Could the mistake that landed
him with this unexpected bride be the best thing that ever happened to him?
