Writing and Travel · 2:12am Nov 23rd, 2015
A.K. Yearling is a writer who likes to visit exotic locations to research her stories.
Does anyone else get inspired to write through travel? Was your epic Rainbow Dash adventure inspired by your time hand-gliding over the Peruvian Amazon? Did your experiences trekking around the ruins in Balochistan help your world-building of historic Equestria? Did you think up that hilarious Pinkie Pie comedy to relieve the boredom while waiting for the bus home?
For some writers, research trips are an essential part of writing a book. Descriptions of your character’s trek through the jungle, experiencing all the sounds, smells and biting insects, are rather more convincing if you have been there yourself. But this is not really necessary for pony fiction, where you can conduct your exploration of Equestria from the comfort of your armchair, and make up the details as you go along. I get the impression that plenty of fan fiction writer are more stay-at-home people.
I’m writing this at Chicago O’Hare airport, having spent the week in Illinois doing another stint at Fermilab. When I arrived last Tuesday, it was a mild 15°C. This morning it was −4°C with 20cm of snow on the ground. Somehow I managed to dig the rental car out of the ice, get to the airport and get through security checks in time to make my flight.
I get to travel a fair amount as part of my job. It’s the benefit (and drawback) of working in particle physics—everything is done in international collaborations, so I build bits of electronic science kit at home (southern England), to be installed in experiments somewhere else in the world. In the course of my career, I’ve done dozens of stints in Italy, France and more recently, the USA.
This may be my last trip to the US on this project due to the changing nature of my job. When I first started coming out here I was not terribly enthusiastic at the prospect of the nine-hour flights and associated jetlag. But somehow I have got used to it and now approach long-haul flights as an opportunity to catch up on reading and writing.
Curiously I have found that it is often when travelling that I seem best able to write. Somehow it is often easier to finish a story during a weekend on the move, hacking out a few hundred words at a time in airport lounges, train stations, and hotel lobbies, than during a free weekend at home when I am totally free to do nothing else but write.
Domestic Rock Science and Discourse on the Haycartes Method were both written on transatlantic flights. Elements of a Successful Tourist Industry and Twilight’s Sputnik were drafted on the Eurostar between Paris and London. The final version of The Brightest and the Best was composed on a train between Birmingham and Glasgow. And Fluttershy defends Scotland against invasion by alien squirrels was conceived on an earlier trip in the other direction. Time on Their Hooves was partly written in at least four countries
Why does being stuck in a small enclosed space for nine hours with two hundred random passengers (including screaming kids) inspire creativity? Maybe the process—sitting on buses, standing in line at security, hanging out in departure lounges, queuing to board the plane, sitting, waiting at passport control, waiting for another bus and so on—somehow provides a good balance of stimulation and creative boredom. Being on the move is a more interesting environment than staying at home. The continuously changing scenery provided the food for new ideas. Then the boredom of being stuck in an airline seat for hours provides the impetus to get out a laptop and start writing. Then when I am forced to stop writing and put away my laptop as the plane prepares to land, I have the opportunity to think through ideas and sort out story problems in my head during all the standing-around-waiting that follows.
There are plenty of great works literature associated with travel. Jack Kerouac found his inspiration on the road, George Orwell wrote about being down and out in London and Paris. Robert Louis Stevenson’s fictional adventures were rooted in his real world travels from Scotland to the South Seas. Douglas Adams famously conceived of the Hitch-hikers’ Guide to the Galaxy while lying in a field near Innsbruck, Austria.
Post Scriptum: Finally got home 01:45 Now I can upload this.
Although it was belated, I took a road trip to visit every location I could reach by van that was mentioned in Celestia Sleeps In. Including the Torchport airport.
I also got inspired to write Pinkie Pie vs. the TSA after an airplane flight.
I have been able to get a lot of productivity out of train rides and time between classes. I suspect that a major part of it for me is that the temptations of the Internet aren't right in front of me. I don't have any excuse but to write. Plus, the change in scenery does work well when it comes to getting the creative juices flowing.
Traveling does get one out of one's mental rut. I can generally only write while on vacation, which is why I get maybe one or two stories done a year. It's probably for the best.
Glad you made it back, I wouldnt fly on a modern aircraft, far too flimsy.
Wish I could make a fraction the stuff you get through, I have literally a full oak double wardrobe of electronics parts picked up over teh years for building into designs, but my hand eye coordination is atrocious, so there the stuff sits.
No stochastic communicators, no four dimentional tranciever arrays, no quantum logic gates, no holographic condensation replicators, no acoustic forcefields, no deep neural nets, no dynamically adaptive compliant robotics.
Oh well, things seem to be getting discovered over the years anyway.
That weak magnetic feld charge seperation plasma shield looks to be hilariously effective.
Hmmm.. Plasma.
I, ironically, don't travel beyond basic errands in my immediate area, but I do often get ideas while travelling.
Also, lucky you for living in Europe where the sentence "I visited four countries in one day" can be said with truth.
I based the setting of a novel on various road trips I've taken over the years. I wasn't thinking of writing at the time, but the experiences stuck with me long enough to be an inspiration. I do most of my writing at home, but I have observed that 'livening it up' by writing elsewhere, or even just doing something else that's out of the ordinary, can help my creativity and focus.
Your brain turns to ponies in an effort to escape from your surroundings?