Writing While Traveling

Anyone who keeps track of the progress of 52 Short Stories will have noticed that it appears to be taking me far longer to finish a story these days than it did at the beginning of the year.  Similarly, anyone who follows me on Twitter will have noticed that just about every time I tweet, I'm in a different city (for what it's worth, I'm the world's worst Twitter user, and don't tweet very often to begin with).  There is definitely a correlation there.

Over the past couple of months, I have been in Toronto twice, Vancouver twice, Boston several times, and in Montreal in between. Next week, I will be in San Francisco.  I enjoy traveling, whether it be for work or for pleasure, but it has definitely affected my writing output. 

Why Writing is Affected by Travel

It is my belief that in order to be able to produce consistently, you need to write consistently.  As such, I advocate writing every single day.  In order to write consistently, you need to make it part of your routine.  You need to make it habitual.  I do not go as far as saying that writing needs to become ritualistic.  You don't have to do it at the same time every day, in the same chair, with the same tools. I believe that this can help, but I also don't think that it's realistic in any kind of normal lifestyle.

The problem is that the further you stray from the ritualistic, the more difficult creating that writing habit becomes.  In other words, the easiest way to create a habit is to write at the same time, in the same place, with the same tools, enjoying the same ambiance, every single day.  The more of those factors change, the more difficult it becomes to stick to the habit.

Traveling inherently screws up all of the above factors.  Writing at the same time becomes impossible, to the point where some days you simply cannot write at all.  You are not in the same place by definition.  While traveling, it becomes difficult to control your environment and your ambiance. Finally, not everyone uses writing tools that are portable.

You lose your habits and your routine, and in many cases your concentration and your focus.  This makes writing that much more difficult, and you start to experience something that feels vaguely similar to writer's block. This can lead to a vicious circle of self-recrimination and despair.

How to Fight Traveling Writer Syndrome

In the past few weeks, I've come up with a few ways to deal with the perils of writing while traveling.  At this point, call them experimental.

1. Retain as many habits as possible

If you write in the evening before going to bed, continue to do so, even while traveling.  If you write in a notebook (longhand), or on a laptop, bring it with you while you're traveling, so that you're using tools that are familiar to you.  If you usually write in a cafe when in your hometown, write in a cafe while traveling.  The idea is to mimic your existing habits so as not to disrupt them.

2. Adopt new travel-friendly habits

As much as I dislike ritualizing writing, I find that I do my best fiction writing in my favourite chair. Non-fiction I can write at any desk, but fiction, for some reason I feel the need to write in my chair. As you can imagine, traveling with a chair is impractical, so I'm trying to get used to writing in other spots - beds, floors, desks, cafes.

Similarly, if you're used to writing on typewriter or a desktop computer, consider moving to a more portable medium if you foresee doing a lot of traveling. 

3. Get used to writing in loud places

The hardest thing to find is often peace and quiet. As such, you should train yourself to be able to create while in a noisy environment. There is never a shortage of noisy environments, no matter where you go.

4. Take what you can get

Sometimes, no matter how much you'd like to, you just can't get the circumstances right to write.  In cases such as that, instead of giving up altogether, see if you might not be able to do something else related to your writing.  Perhaps you do have the necessary focus to edit some of your writing.  Or perhaps, with just a pen and a few scraps of paper you can begin to outline your next piece, or brainstorm ideas for your next several pieces.

5. Whenever possible sit in an exit row

Frequent flyers know that the emergency exit row of a plane comes with a tad more responsibility, but a lot more leg room.  Aside from the additional comfort, the extra space is just what's needed to comfortably type on a laptop.  Sitting in most regular economy seats, you're often too crowded, and if the guy in front of you leans back, forget it, you probably won't even be able to get the lid of your laptop all the way up.

6. Accept that you simply might not be as productive as you could be

No matter what I do, I know that I can write more over the course of a week in my home than I can bouncing back and forth across the continent. However, if I use the time while traveling to lay the groundwork for some future writing, I can often return home with enough ideas to start furiously typing away. Perhaps with enough momentum, I can even make up for my lessened productivity while traveling, but maybe not.

Sometimes, you just need to accept that there are things that will negatively impact your productivity and travel might be one of them.  Once you've accepted that, adjust your expectations accordingly, and you'll see, it's not the end of the world if you're producing a few less words.

Photo courtesy of caribb.