Even when I'm on vacation, I still have this infinitesimal -- and sometimes grand -- urge to write. Something. Anything, especially when a postcard doesn't quite cut it as literary work. If this sounds like you, yet you don't want to write too much because heck, you are on vacation, keep a tiny notebook with you.
Jot down story ideas, characters flaws for your hero, write a poem as you watch the ocean, or end that novel with the final two hundred words you were trying so hard to write back at home.
While vacation is just that, vacation, it doesn't mean you have to abandon all creative writing. That's sort of like cutting out your oxygen supply line... not cool.
For my next getaway, I plan on bringing that little journal, have a great time doing nothing -- and everything that's fun -- and taking 10 or 15 minutes a day to write down those notes, or whip out words that are spilling from my head.
It's only right to be a writer, even when you don't need to be a writer. And your next story, poem, or perfectly blockbuster-movie-making-character will be there waiting for you when you come home to reality and put to good use when you are supposed to write -- and when you absolutely need something to write about, while you day-dream about your latest vacation instead.
Please feel free to tell me here what great work you created when you came back from your vacation. I would love to know! Oh, and send a pic or two of you in Aruba too. It's good to see where the inspiration came from.
Every year, when teaching, my summer holiday was spent preparing lessons and writing the Christmas play, so plenty of writing, then. :0) Enjoy your holiday, relax, I never could.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard for a writer not to write! At home, on vacation, late at night (that is when my ideas seem to come most naturally). When the writing bug bites, you just have to write!
ReplyDeleteCarole, I feel the same! Hard to relax. :)
ReplyDeleteWarren, yes ... late evening...good times. I have to write too sometimes, regardless of the location!
Thanks you two.
I wish I would have read this a couple of weeks ago. We went on vacation, and I would not allow myself to write because I thought it would mean I was obsessed. Great points you made, and I won't torture myself next time! :)
ReplyDeleteLori, it's okay! :)
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, after writing this post, I ended up not writing anything. Well, I didn't write down ideas, but no "actual" writing.
So, don't feel badly!
-H