How To Travel Like A Writer

You don’t stop being a writer when you go on holiday. After all, it’s part of your identity. How exactly do writers travel? This blog will give you some ideas.

How To Travel Like A Writer

A writing habit is important for many writers. Anything that disrupts this routine may make you stop writing altogether. Unfortunately, travel has the potential to do that.

When you work as a freelancer, you can’t afford to stop writing. Either way, we need to learn how to travel like a writer.

What You Need To Travel Like A Writer

The essential things are some good examples of how to do it, the time and place to write, inspiration, the right tools, data safety, and a support network. Let’s look at all of this more closely.

1. Good Examples

Of course, you could look at any travel journalist. But this wouldn’t quite do the trick. Journalists document their travels. They jot down the sights, entrance prices, hotels, and restaurants. You could do that if you’re writing a guidebook. Chances are, not all of us are. It’s also not what this blog post is about.

We need to find out how famous fiction writers made their holiday work for them. For example, look at German writer and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He wrote extensively about his stay in Italy in the Italian Journey. This is not a fictional text, but rather a psychological documentary of his quest to experience art and culture.

Then, there’s E.M. Forster, who also went to Italy and then wrote his novels Where Angels Fear To Tread and A Room With A View. T.E. Lawrence wrote about his time in Africa as a British soldier and his adventures as Lawrence of Arabia.

2. The Time And Place To Write

Most writers are emotionally attached to their desks. It’s their workbench, if you like. Thankfully, every hotel room has a small desk. If they don’t, how about the hotel lobby? Or the local library? Or a café?

Most writers can write whenever and wherever. Let’s face it: we don’t type perfectly chiselled poems into our computer. It all starts with an idea or a fragment scribbled down in the most unusual circumstances.

There’s a lady I know who likes to write poems on tissue boxes. And why not? I like scribbling onto the old shopping lists that I forgot to take out of my purse.

Basically, all you need is a container for your thoughts (that’s where the right tools come in. Please read on). And a few minutes of your time to record them. Since you should be very relaxed on your vacation, I’m sure you’ll find the time.

3. Inspiration

Travels provide so much inspiration that it’s hard not to be inspired. All you need to do is record your experiences.

This can include people you meet, places that fascinate you, legends, folk tales, descriptions of people, bits of foreign languages, food, smells, music, and anything that appeals to your senses. To travel like a writer means to ask yourself what your travel destination can contribute to your work.

If you’d like to know more, please read this blog on How Travel Can Boost Your Creativity.

4. The Right Tools

Here’s the bad news: you can’t bring your desktop computer, your desk or your favourite armchair. Travelling means you need to downsize in weight, but not in usability. If the desktop is too klutzy, use a laptop. Better yet, a tablet.

Remember that not every device lets you do the same things. Even your word processing software can have different features, depending on the device you use it on.

I found out the hard way. The writing software on my laptop lets me change the language settings for each document (for example, from American to British English). It just takes one click. The same software on my nearly weightless tablet refused to let me do that. It also didn’t give me any readability statistics. Even checking the word count took me hours to find out how to do it on my tablet. So, test your software properly before you travel! It’s just as important as having the right adapter for the country you’re going to.

Also, check the features on your phone for writing texts. It might come with apps to let you dictate ideas. Or apps that you can use as a diary.

Remember to give all your devices a proper test run before you leave that clunky laptop at home. Don’t just open the apps, use them before you go. To be on the safe side, it’s always good to have a paper notebook and a pen.

5. Data Safety

This is an absolute must. Your devices need to let you save your texts in multiple ways. Redundancy means data safety here. It’s a good idea to save everything on a cloud server. Speaking about safety, the devices you travel with should also have a spam filter and some antivirus software. Don’t forget the basics: it’d be so unfortunate if you left the password at home!

6. Support Network

Your support network consists of fellow writers. If you are part of a writing group at home, then tools for online meetings help you to stay in touch. Set them up and give them a try before you leave.

Think about branching out to foreign writers. Use social media to find out if there’s a local writing group you can visit. It’s always great to make new friends. And writers need all the moral support they can get, right?

Use this list for writing groups in the UK and online writing groups.

The Last Word

When you need (or want) to do some writing while you’re on the road, then you need to be aware of the circumstances that can stress you out. Hopefully, this post is useful to you.

If all fails, please remember that travelling is for fun, too. Don’t let writing become excruciating work. Pick up impressions as you go. Get into the flow of things. And then really watch what happens to your creativity!

Safe travels and keep writing!

By Susanne Bennett. Susanne is a German-American writer who is a journalist by trade and a writer by heart. After years of working at German public radio and an online news portal, she has decided to accept challenges by Deadlines for Writers. Currently she is writing her first novel with them. She is known for overweight purses and carrying a novel everywhere. Follow her on Facebook.

How To Travel Like A Writer