Behind the Scenes: How travel makes a better writer

My family, friends, and readers know how much I love traveling and writing. I think this is an outgrowth of my love of new input, challenges, and experiences. I have always been this way: I get bored with routine. 

That can be a problem as a writer because writing is often just sitting at the screen, pounding away. Yet I have learned that being a good fiction writer (especially one that writes about the human condition) requires a lot of knowledge and experience.

I have discovered over the last few years that the more I travel, have new experiences, see new places, and meet many strangers, the better I become at writing.

It is often said that you should “write what you know.” Certainly, there is some truth to that. If you don’t know your subject in depth, your writing will be shallow, unrealistic, and probably not very engaging. 

If I am writing a story that includes a man and his family driving a Ford Model T across the Colorado Desert (hint, hint), then I better learn as much as I can about that vehicle. I can’t go buy one or ride in one easily, but I can learn a lot just by reading and researching.

But I have found it is better to sit in a pub, at a football game, in a coffee shop, or even at a mall, to watch, listen, and engage with others. Some of my best characters, scenes, and stories were derived from something I saw, heard, or experienced. 

Combined this with the research that I do, and my writing is more engaging and more genuine. My routine has become time on my boat and time traveling. I spend a few weeks on my boat, researching, writing, and editing. Occasionally, I might go ashore to a little café nearby to write, or a Starbucks down the street, or a little French bakery down in the harbor village. Then I spend a week (or two or three) traveling, sometimes to favorite locations, sometimes to new locations, some relatively near, others in more distant lands.

I have loved books and writing from my earliest memories as a child. To be able to live a life of travel, adventure, and writing is a true joy, and I know most writers do not have this blessing. I hope my readers find my works as enjoyable as I do researching and writing them. 

I’m basically an introvert. A few years ago, I decided I needed to push myself beyond that comfort level. Now, whether staying in a hotel or resort, I get out of the room and go to a lobby bar, local pubs and happy hours, or a pool, to listen, watch, and engage with others. I have met more people and new friends in the last four years that in the previous thirty.

I always ask the locals, “what should I see and experience in your land?” The answer is sometimes a restaurant or pubs, of course, but it might also be a beach or lake, a museum, hiking trails, golf, or perhaps an off-road trail in my jeep. (I like to joke, when I’m sitting at a bar having a scotch or some fresh sushi, that I am actually doing research for my next book.)

I have loved books, and reading, and even writing, from my earliest memories as a child. To be able to live a life of travel, adventure, writing, and meeting fellow humans is a true joy, and I know most writers do not have this blessing. I hope my readers find my works as enjoyable as I do researching and writing them.