Writers Should Travel by Kathleen Kudlinski
Often the best souvenirs writers bring back from Trips To Away are fresh new books to write – or a whole new committment to our art. When we leave our homes, computers, and regular schedules, we become untethered. All the assumptions and paradigms that restrict us as writers suddenly come into question. Wide open, we float ripe for inspiration.
EARTHQUAKE, A Story of Old San Francisco (Puffin 1992) one of my most successful books, was inspired by a chance visit to view the San Andreas Fault during a vacation touring California. I stood at the edge, overcome with awe at the extreme violence with which the Earth had wrenched itself apart. I literally felt it in my gut. I knew at that moment I had a book to write.
Twenty years ago I stood at the edge of the Grand Canyon. Looking into its depths I staggered emotionally. Against the time line that this canyon clearly, implacably displayed, my brief life was utterly meaningless. I reeled backwards. Nothing I did would ever matter. If I was nice to people? If I cared for my kids? If I taught well? If I ever wrote again? All was a wasted effort .
Had the breeze blown by at that moment, I would have floated away, the useless, empty shed skin of a once prolific author.
Instead, my gaze fell upon a donkey laboring up the trail under some sweaty tourist. That donkey, I thought, was just like Brighty, the main character in Marguerite Henry’s old classic, BRIGHTY of Grand Canyon. 
My world stumbled back into focus. If it had not been for Ms. Henry’s children’s book, I thought, thousands and thousands of children would never have felt ownership of this distant national monument. They would not, as adults, have had a deep, special fondness for the Grand Canyon and a knee-jerk reaction whenever mining companies filed to excavate, or resort corporations to develop it. One woman – one book – had influenced generations to save the Canyon’s pristine beauty. I knew at that moment I had to keep writing books.
Books take a year and more to research, write, and reshape, and then more time before they are finally publishable. It takes a very powerful inspiration to sustain any momentum for so many months. I try to stay always alert for those experiences that wrench deep inside my emotional core – and especially when I’m away from home.
Last weekend, I felt it again, unbidden, while driving through a covered bridge. The incident lasted only 15 seconds, but I am husbanding the deep soul-spark, fanning it into flame. I don’t know what book it may launch, but later, driving around a ratty mobile home park, I felt it again. Two spasms in one weekend? That’s a record. Do they connect? I have no idea – yet.
Vacation season starts in two weeks. Stay always alert while you’re away. I hope unexpected inspiration touches your soul, and you return with more book ideas than you know what to do with!
Have any of you gotten your books this way while on vacation? I’d love to hear your tales.
Tags: advice inspiration travel Writing
June 16th, 2010 at 10:46 am
My book, Pizza for the Queen, sprung up after a trip to Italy. My grandfather came from the Almalfi coast – home of pizza! I learned of the pizza made for Queen Margherita during my travels. I thought – what a great story for kids!
June 16th, 2010 at 11:06 am
Kathleen, I have exactly the opposite reaction to yours. Many of my books have been inspired by natural events – Nature’s Fury: Eyewitness Reports of Natural Disasters, The Great Yellowstone Fire, Why Mount St. Helens Blew Its Top, Shock Waves through Los Angeles, and more. If I had visited any of these sites before I wrote the book I could never have gotten the manuscript off the ground as I would find the scale of the disaster too large to distill into a children’s book. My best historical writing comes from being an armchair tourist with good research skills.
June 16th, 2010 at 11:56 am
One of the things I love most about travel is experiencing a new place with fresh eyes and an open heart. When I was lucky enought to spend a month in East Africa, I noticed each lizard, every tree, the cadence of people’s words, and all the patterns on the beautiful kanga cloth. As you know, my first picture book, Fatuma’s New Cloth, developed directly from that travel experience. Other travels have inspired dramatic fictional settings such as imposing mountain crags and deceptively calm coastal salt ponds. Although it’s not always a direct link, every trip informs and inspires my work.
June 16th, 2010 at 3:32 pm
Traveling relaxes me and gets the creative juices flowing. That’s especially true when I travel by plane. I think the small space gives me total focus, and I’ve done some of my best revision work on airplanes.
June 16th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
Oh, Carol – When I go on vacation by plane I’m always busy with a sketchbook and a little paint kit, setting up my travel journal. It never occured to me to, um, think
or work on focused projects. How wonderful! (For me that is train work.)
And Carole – Because of scheduling problems I only got to visit the sites of three of my biographies late in the production phase. What a profound shock of recognition – a dega vu unlike anything else I’ve experienced to see placed I’d thoroughly researched. Did you get to see your disaster sites and historical novel settings after the books were done? That must have been very powerful!
June 19th, 2010 at 9:26 am
I was struggling for years to find the right opening for my still to be published fantasy novel, The Search for the Secrets of the Elf Prince.
When I visited Australia and heard the Aboriginal Creation Myth, as well as New Zealand where I learned about the Maories, these experiences helped me find way to start my book, even though my fantasy has nothing to do with either of these cultures!
So for me, travel has a very serendipitous effect, nothing I could predict or even explain! I love to travel, and I love to keep a travel journal of both photos and written impressions. Years later, I can feel the thrill of being there all over again when I leaf through that album. I just wish I had a port key to get to places!
June 19th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
I LOVE Brighty! I recently found an old copy at a library book sale and instantly bought it – so overjoyed to be able to share a book I deeply love with my own children.
Traveling is essential for all creative people. It nourishes, stimulates, replenishes and opens your heart and your mind. You can’t help but experience the unexpected when traveling. It keeps everything fresh.
Great post!
P.S. To Nancy – My kids and I love Pizza for the Queen!
June 20th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Leslie -
“Fresh eyes and an open heart” I love that! – so succinct and direct I want it written over my door so every tme I go out, it puts me in the right (write!) mind.
Kathy -
In your case you were visiting foriegn theologies, not just geographies. I just finished a book for which I read dozens of Native American stories/myths/truths. It made me see things, including story structure, differently. I’m not sure I want to come back from this prrticular “trip” !
Julie –
I tore my house up looking for my old Brighty. It was in a box of my daughter’s best-beloved horse books from her childhood. (Alas, I’d already ordered a squeaky-clean copy just to fondle – and remember.)