Breaking the routine

There is a lot to be said for having a daily routine—especially for people who write. Finding (or making) a good time to write is essential, and so is coming up with a routine that allows you to meet all of your responsibilities.

But sometimes you need a refresher; sometimes a break in routine can be beneficial both creatively and emotionally. Shakespeare examined this idea a lot, particularly in his comedies—a group of characters steps away from their everyday roles and responsibilities and spends a few days in the woods or in the country, ignoring society and its rules as they experiment with different ways of living. Shakespeare scholars call this phenomenon "festival time," which almost always occurs in a "green world"—usually somewhere in nature. For me, modern day traveling is very much like this. It is stepping away from your job, your Twitter account, your comfort zone and even—yes—your art, all in order to experience something that is "other."

I went to Wales and Liverpool with family recently, followed by a two-day sojourn to Bruges, Belgium with my aunt who was visiting from California. But a vacation need not involve traveling to another country or state, or even leaving the town where you live. A vacation can be a state of mind in which you decide to go places you normally wouldn't, try foods you aren't used to, get to know people whose lives are different from your own.

That being said, traveling, if you are able to do it, certainly can be a great way to experience new things. And the memories your travels create not only stay with you forever, but can help to feed your imagination and, in turn, your art.

A short anecdote: I don't normally like scones and wouldn't ever choose to eat them, but at a little cafe near the bottom of Mount Snowdon, on a very cold day, served with jam and clotted cream, accompanied by rich hot chocolate, and eaten beside a roaring fire and with the owner's ancient dog padding about, looking hopeful, scones became a perfect twenty minutes. The owner of the cafe, as a bonus, was a character with a demeanor and manner of speaking that I could never invent—not in a million years.

My aunt, husband, and in-laws enjoying scones with tea and hot chocolate.

I don't usually get the opportunity to climb trees, or ride in giant, terrifying Ferris wheels, or climb 366 steps to the top of a bell tower, or spend half a day in an art gallery and the other half in a 13th century castle—which is why such things have such power to capture my imagination. There are so many ways of life you can see and imagine when you break your routine—this vacation alone had me imagining the prehistoric people who built Stonehenge, the Welsh quarry workers who have mined slate in Snowdonia over the centuries, King Edward I of England, the Beatles, the nuns of the monastery in Bruges, and the list goes on.

Horse-drawn carriage in Bruges. So Brontë-esque.

Aside from all that, traveling takes you away from your physical comfort zone, completely removing you from your everyday life—in short it forces you to notice the world around you more than you normally would. Instead of taking your surroundings for granted, you actually look at them, and in turn think about the things around you. You are engaging rather than just gliding through.

When in Wales, climb trees.

I return from vacations tired, but with hundreds of little seedling ideas stored away—things I can use in my WIP and things I may want to turn into future WIPs. And that makes my imagination very, very happy.

Back from holiday!

Wow, what a crazy couple of weeks it's been. A few highlights:

Abbey Road, London.

Stonehenge, Wiltshire.

Caernarfon Castle (1280), Snowdonia, North Wales

My aunt and me on the (actually very terrifying) Wheel of Liverpool

Eleanor Rigby, Stanley Street, Liverpool.

The belfry of Bruges, Belgium. Yes, I had fries with mayo. And yes, I had Belgian chocolates. Nom.

How has everyone else's Easter holidays/spring break been? Did I miss anything major while I was away? Tell me in the comments!

Thoughts about traveling and creativity coming at ya...soon :)

Holiday in the sun

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, I've been on vacation!

First Big Chimp and I went to San Diego Comic-Con, where we attended lots of panels, including ones on writing, editing, Batman, Dexter, and Harry Potter. It was AMAZING! I also acquired way too many books, including a few signed ones, like Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon (who moderated a super cool panel on the young adult genre), and The Prometheus Project by Douglas Richards.

Another huge highlight was seeing Ray Bradbury speak about libraries, writing, and the importance of colonizing Mars:

And then there was the ultra cool Grant Morrison:

The next week, we left on a California road trip, which included LA, Yosemite, San Francisco (where I acquired even more reading material from City Lights Books), Monterey, Big Sur (where we revisited the Henry Miller Memorial Library), and Santa Barbara (Yeah UCSB Gauchos!).

By the end of the trip I had accumulated eight new novels and six new graphic novels, as well as a 1928 Underwood Portable typewriter (an awesome birthday gift from my best friend—thanks Audrey!). We had to check an extra bag:

In short, it was the best vacation ever.

Now, back to writing this book!