Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Travel Discombobulates Your Life
I hate to travel, and I especially hate to travel outside New England. Why? It discombobulates my life.
It takes a week to recover. I miss the yard sales on Saturday and church with my mom on Sunday. And then I have to sit down and write articles.
But I also love to travel. Why? It discombobulates my life. There's such a thing as getting stuck in a rut. And a good discomboblulation is often just what the doctor ordered.
And then I have to sit down and write the articles. Editing is fun. Writing, not so much. The concensus among GoNOMAD writers is that writing sucks, and as a general rule, I agree.
Because it's hard. You stay at luxury hotels and dine at five-star restaurants, and that's very, very nice. But then you have to make it all work, and that's tricky.
I remember when my daughter Sarah and I visited her 'grumpa' Russell Banks years ago, and he was working on an article for Conde Nast about the best beaches in the Caribbean.
"It's work." he said, and I so did not understand until now what he was talking about.
It's work alright, but it's the kind of work you want to look for. Like they say, "You pick your problems." That one evening in the Hotel Galvez in Galveston was way worth all that work and more.
I have to say I'm having a much easier time with my Texas Gulf Coast trip thanks to the paradigm developed by my brother Shady when he visited Arizona for GoNOMAD: If you have a huge story, split it up into manageable chunks.
While I was in Texas, Shady was in Huntsville, Alabama, throwing out the first pitch in a minor league baseball game, and Sarah was in Louisiana writing up some music festivals that I've heard are pretty good.
Sony Stark has been in Tunisia and Kent St. John has been all over the place, as usual, most recently Brazil and China.
So these guys tend to take their sweet time about sending stuff in, and we like it that way, as long as they can keep it fresh. You can't time creativity.
But whatever their rate of incubation, it looks like we're going to have a tsunami of great stories on GoNOMAD, including three Texas stories by yours truly. Like everyone else I hate writing. I'd much rather edit.
But I do it once in a while, just to remind myself how hard it is and increase still more my admiration for all the great writers who send their stories to GoNOMAD. ¶ 6:48 PM
It takes a week to recover. I miss the yard sales on Saturday and church with my mom on Sunday. And then I have to sit down and write articles.
But I also love to travel. Why? It discombobulates my life. There's such a thing as getting stuck in a rut. And a good discomboblulation is often just what the doctor ordered.
And then I have to sit down and write the articles. Editing is fun. Writing, not so much. The concensus among GoNOMAD writers is that writing sucks, and as a general rule, I agree.
Because it's hard. You stay at luxury hotels and dine at five-star restaurants, and that's very, very nice. But then you have to make it all work, and that's tricky.
I remember when my daughter Sarah and I visited her 'grumpa' Russell Banks years ago, and he was working on an article for Conde Nast about the best beaches in the Caribbean.
"It's work." he said, and I so did not understand until now what he was talking about.
It's work alright, but it's the kind of work you want to look for. Like they say, "You pick your problems." That one evening in the Hotel Galvez in Galveston was way worth all that work and more.
I have to say I'm having a much easier time with my Texas Gulf Coast trip thanks to the paradigm developed by my brother Shady when he visited Arizona for GoNOMAD: If you have a huge story, split it up into manageable chunks.
While I was in Texas, Shady was in Huntsville, Alabama, throwing out the first pitch in a minor league baseball game, and Sarah was in Louisiana writing up some music festivals that I've heard are pretty good.
Sony Stark has been in Tunisia and Kent St. John has been all over the place, as usual, most recently Brazil and China.
So these guys tend to take their sweet time about sending stuff in, and we like it that way, as long as they can keep it fresh. You can't time creativity.
But whatever their rate of incubation, it looks like we're going to have a tsunami of great stories on GoNOMAD, including three Texas stories by yours truly. Like everyone else I hate writing. I'd much rather edit.
But I do it once in a while, just to remind myself how hard it is and increase still more my admiration for all the great writers who send their stories to GoNOMAD. ¶ 6:48 PM
