The Elusive Chapters of Summer
Part confession and part inquiry, today’s little provocation for you is about a long-running fantasy I’ve nourished since my late teens: the idea of a summer vacation on which you make big progress on your work-in-progress.
Being born into a family of tireless workers, I was quite young when I seized on the phrase “working vacation.”
I tweaked it with the concept of getting off to some picturesque spot in the world where I’d spend a week churning out about a chapter an hour while fabled breezes ruffled my hair and cooled my busy brow. A writing vacation.
Sometimes I’d try one of those “writing retreats” in a stately home next to some really good vineyards. You can imagine how well that worked out. Inevitably, the retreat trips were the worst, even if not near the grapes, because they’re always run by strangely punitive “instructors” whose work no one has ever read and who over-schedule everything to within an inch of your sanity.
No, going it alone always proved the best idea. And surely, I reasoned, I’d return, triumphant, a full manuscript in hand, ready for light edits and then quick distribution to adoring agents. So I tried this writing vacation thing
- First on Santorini.
- Then Gran Canaria.
- Then Québec (not an island, big mistake).
- Then Arizona (no ocean, another big mistake).
- Then St. Barts.
- Then Malta.
- Then Crete.
- Then Taormina.
- Then Skiathos.
- Then Corfu.
- Then other places.
The part I got right was about the hair ruffling, My hair was really very well ruffled by some of the most fabled breezes in the world–off the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Ionian, the Aegean, and a couple of disturbingly deep lakes.
But the writing?
Homer Had Zero Frequent Flyer Miles
I’m sorry to report to you that I’ve never gotten any decent writing done on one of these escapes.
I know several reasons these writing vacations don’t work, some of them obvious, most of them the stuff you go into denial about while you book the tickets to the next one.
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Provocations graphic by Liam Walsh Once you get to a vacation, you’re usually tired and need to rest. So maybe you’re too tired to do anything good creatively, right?
- The going-to and coming-from those places can be more taxing than you expect. After all, other countries have no TSA Precheck and no Global Entry. Plus luggage. Plus buses, trains, shuttles, taxis, rental cars, villa caretakers (they look like the retreat “instructors”), and hotel hassles. Those all eat up energy you’d thought would go into the work.
- The being-in these exotic places can take its own toll, too. Maybe you’re dealing with another language and bad maps. Or maybe (as on Gran Canaria) the mountainous seaside roads are so scary that just surviving getting to dinner and back without driving the rental right over the cliff requires a day of recovery.
- Fabled breezes are fabled in part because they’re blowing over places (not just your hair) with a lot of history you want to explore. Very distracting.
- And hey, when are you going to be on ______ Island again? It would be a shame not to see some of the place, right?
Etc. and etc. and etc.
And yet, I’m always bothered by stories of greatly admired people who seem to have been able to actually write on the road. I’m determined to figure this out.
So what do you think?
Have you been on a “writing vacation” that worked? If so, tell us your secret. If you’ve tried it and it didn’t work for you, either, what do you think made it go wrong? Maybe there’s a reason that Vikings didn’t really go on river cruises, right?
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About Porter Anderson
@Porter_Anderson is a recipient of London Book Fair's International Excellence Award for Trade Press Journalist of the Year. He is Editor-in-Chief of Publishing Perspectives, the international news medium of Frankfurt Book Fair New York. He co-founded The Hot Sheet, a newsletter for trade and indie authors, which now is owned and operated by Jane Friedman. Priors: The Bookseller's The FutureBook in London, CNN, CNN.com and CNN International–as well as the Village Voice, Dallas Times Herald, and the United Nations' WFP in Rome. PorterAndersonMedia.com
I’ve found that I write best in one particular corner of my blue, L-shaped couch in my family room. Kind of hard to bring that with you. What I do bring on most vacations? My 4 kids. Not a lot of writing happening there. But, if I were on an actual writing retreat by myself, I would likely…do a lot of sleeping. However, I do know many writers who find success on those retreats. Interesting post!
Hey, Amanda!
I’m thinking you need to announce The Blue L-Shaped Couch tour. :) And no, kids? They trump (sorry) all other arguments. We, the un-childed, bow to you.
Funny you mention the sleeping. My Quebec outing was in a beautiful house but your workspace was in your bedroom! I got more sleep that week than I’d had in months, lol.
Thanks for the note!
-p.
On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson
I guess I’m lucky, I seem to be able to work anywhere and at any time of the day. I sit down at the computer to do something else and when that’s finished something pushes me to the writing and I’m at it again.
Hey, Irene,
You are lucky and I envy you!
Don’t change a thing, you’ve got a great gift going for you.
Thanks,
-p.
On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson
Islands have never been a draw for me. As a railroad brat, I’ve always loved train travel. It seems to me that one of those railroad writing excursions would be grand. Just sitting in the glass-domed lounge car with computer open and words flowing from my fingertips as the scenery passed gently by. Ah, well… One can dream. Probably would be no more productive than your islands, Porter Anderson.
Hey, Judith,
You may be right, though I prefer planes. On long flights (I do a lot of them) I can really focus at times, far fewer distractions, and really make some progress. Especially now that I can have wi-fi, even on overseas flights, I’m good in the air.
Just too expensive to stay up there as long as I need, lol.
Thanks!
-p.
On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson
The ones that have worked for me have all involved a group of writer friends coming together at a beach house or a mountain house to write. We played every day, but had set quiet hours in the mornings. I was surrounded by other people typing away on their keyboards and I couldn’t help but join in.
Hey, Laurie,
Glad that was a good experience for you.
I keep my own writing extremely private and simply do not have the community gene, lol, so I’m afraid I’d have less success than you in that setting, but I’m delighted it worked for you!
Thanks much,
-p.
On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson
I think the answer is to leave writing at the note-taking stage as you visit these places. There’s a lot of material on the trip for later use in your novel.
Yes, although I’m a homebody, a change of scenery often triggers other story ideas. I’m never without a notebook and a goodly part of our family vacations (usually camping) have been spent taking notes.
Always smart to capture it immediately, Vijaya.
(I’m still stunned when I meet people who have no pen on them, lol.)
-p.
On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson
You may be right about that, Ray.
God knows, I’m great with the notes.
(I have a stack of lists about as tall as I am here on the desk, lol.)
Thanks for reading and dropping a note,
-p.
On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson
You had me laughing with the hair ruffling from the island breezes. I do love going to the beach–I’m only 15 min away. I’ve been to a couple of retreats at Highlights and they were very productive, but not as productive as my home writing retreats, which I love. I’m having one now, actually, since my husband has taken our daughter up to DC to pick up our son from his summer internship. They’ll do a bit of sight-seeing but will be heading home Sunday, late I assume, since they’ll want to hear Mass at the Basilica.
I’m off to take a rosary walk with my dog–this quiet, contemplative time boosts my writing life. There are flowers to smell, figs to eat along the way, and island breezes to ruffle my hair :) Feeling very blessed.
I hope you figure out the ideal writing vacation for yourself, Porter. It is tempting to think the ideal is in some other perfect place, but what’s better is to make the ordinary, daily life, ideal.
Hey, Vijaya,
Totally agree (and enjoy the little time while the guys are doing DC).
Fortunately I have the Trade Winds here for good hair ruffling right at home, so I do a lot more time on the ground than on the move these days — at least I’m getting more strategic about what writing trips I try.
The rosary walk sounds great. i wish I could get my dog to do the rosary, but Cooper is a determined Protestant, LOL. (A little preacher’s son humor there, I know you can appreciate it. :)
Enjoy the ideals of home, there are so many!
-p.
On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson
I’ve taken several writing vacations during which I got really serious work done. But usually “vacation” just means I’m taking vacation time off work. I either stay at home or go to a friend’s cottage on a lake (which works especially well in winter when you can’t swim) or book a hotel room for a long weekend and then never leave it. I once wrote 40,000 words on one of these “vacations.” And they cost me either nothing at all or very little.
Hey, Erin,
The hotel weekend is a good idea, I should try that route (not least because getting the escape of a hotel without the travel I do for work would be a luxury in itself).
Thanks for the note,
-p.
On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson
You have confirmed for me what I have suspected would be the case about myself on a writing vacation. The reason I’ve long suspected I wouldn’t get any writing done is because I didn’t on summer vacation breaks when I worked in the school system. I’d plan the last month of the school year on how much I would do and how productive I’d be, and then two and a half months later only have accomplished a fraction of what should have been possible. I have found my ‘work 15 minutes every day’ trick to be much more productive than vacation writing has ever been. Plus, on a vacation you are going to some amazing places you’ve never been and may never be again. I don’t know that this is the best time to try to work on anything. Maybe the time is best spent filling up with new experiences and observations and saving the work part for when we’re at home!
Hey, Lara,
Don’t let my experience hold you back. I do love travel very much, and you might find it worked perfectly for you.
I’m starting to think that if I need to go somewhere, I should select some profoundly boring place — with no breeze to ruffle my hair. Might get a lot more done, lol.
Thanks!
-p.
On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson
I write anywhere–on the back of People Magazine in doctor’s waiting rooms, on paper napkins in restaurants, and–most delightfully–in a beach house on Dauphin Island, Alabama in February. I’m one of those obsessed types who cannot not write. Of course that means I never get anything else done…..
Ah yes, Carolyn, the other end of getting nothing done, lol.
During my own most productive periods I’ve found the writing fully obsessive and finally outmatched only by the pile of laundry and dirty dishes, lol.
One thing I can assure you is that the People Magazine at your doctor’s office is a better periodical for your work on it. :)
Cheers,
-p.
On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson
If I were to go on a writing vacation, I wouldn’t go somewhere I’d never been. If I did, I’d spend most of my time exploring and doing tourist stuff. Also, having a schedule works, too. You block off so many hours for getting out and doing. Then, the rest of the time is used in writing. That’s how I’ve always made it work for me.
Hi, Suzanna,
I do hear you on the schedule, but one of the things you might have learned, as I have, is that in extensive travel, those schedules can be incredibly hard to maintain. You’re right, though, if you can manage the trip in such a way to enforce and protect a schedule, that’s always the best bet. I even try to allow for jet lag when setting up that schedule — sometimes i’m more successful than others on that score!
Thanks,
-p.
On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson
Your timing is perfect – a nice reminder as I plan my vacation. I know from experience that my actual writing on vacation will be minimal, but I’m successful at outlining, editing, restructuring, etc. – but not electronically. In other words, I play with the hard copy manuscript, usually in a relaxing setting. It feels productive and yet I’m still on vacation and not staring at a screen.
Hi, Anne,
Totally great if you can work on the “technical” aspects while traveling, I agree — and I admire you being able to handle this on paper. I long ago exited the paper world (I can barely stand to read a book in print these days — Must Glow in the Dark, LOL). Seriously, the structural issues are great to address in these settings, not least because you can stop and start so much more easily than you can with immersive sessions of real writing. I find that outlining, flow, and character consistency are things I can work on in these situations. Once I gave up and decided to just read the manuscript and make notes on it on a trip — that was more successful than trying to actually write (though when see something that needs work, it’s hard to hold myself back, lol.)
Thanks,
-p.
On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson
Vacations in my life are always about family. But the basis for a short story or ideas that can fuel my novels always flow better from the front seat of a car (I’m not driving but staring out the window) or looking down from a plane. There’s something about VIEWING LIFE but you are removed from responsibility for it. So note-taking it is.
It’s funny you should say this, Beth. When I was an undergraduate (a senior at William and Mary, studying acting), I wrote a one-act play called “Altitudes” about how much creative thinking you can do on a plane — high above it all and temporarily required to stay put for the duration of the flight. Alas, I can’t find that script anymore, but I’ve often thought how that was pretty much a finished concept the day my carrier (Delta) was able to give us satellite wi-fi worldwide, lol. No more being out of touch aloft! :)
The front seat of the car, I’ve never tried. But I do find that even when driving, my mind is freed up. Any time i’m not punishing a keyboard, basically, lol.
Thanks!
-p.
On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson
In fact, I’m on a writing vacation right now! I’m in Naples, Italy, while my husband does a nine-day pizza-making class. I’ve set up a routine and, for fifty-five minutes at a time, I give myself three options: write, stare at the screen, or drink tea. I’m drinking a lot of tea, but I’m writing too, at least quite a bit more than I usually do. I do a couple of sessions like that with breaks. Then, I can go off an explore! Thanks for the article, and best of luck. Anyway, even when we don’t write, vacations can give us a lot of inspiration and new ideas too! : )
Hey, Jimmy,
The only thing better than pizza might be a husband trained in Naples to make it. :)
Do enjoy the trip, it sounds great.
And I like your idea of the 55-minute sessions. One of my biggest mistakes is expecting huge, long, epic blocks of focus from myself. (This I inherited from my father — we both wake up in the morning feeling that we have to accomplish everything that lies ahead within the first hour of the day. Ridiculous, seems to be genetic, lol.)
Be sure to get to Pompei. :)
-p.
On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson
Porter, in the last few years, I’ve house-sat with my girlfriend for one and two-month stretches in Panama, the Bahamas, Hawaii (a couple of times), the Caribbean, Mexico and just a month ago, Ecuador. All those times I’ve either had a novel or a short story going. But they’ve never gone anywhere while the travel was being traveled.
However, these were always working vacations, and I did get article and business writing done. I suppose the magic word there is deadline. If only I was able to trick myself into deadlines for fictional projects, but alas, my numb noggin is immune to such trickery.
One meta-plus from those jaunts is that I’ve written a number of travel pieces on those hair-ruffling places, and have later used people and places in stories. But write a tale during the travels—nope.
Oh, I wanted to elaborate on one thing: These trips I’ve taken to some truly lovely places were only possible because I wasn’t paying for lodging—I was taking care of people’s pets, plants and places. In most instances I could barely afford the airfare, in some instances I couldn’t afford it.
But even working regular hours is the stuff of dreams if you’re in a fabulous place—and you do get to steal away regularly to some of that fabulousness.
@TomBentley How do you swing all those groovy housesitting gigs? Do you just have the most worldly and clever bunch of friends ever, or is there a service you use to book stays—and if so, please say more!
MJ (and I have a pal named MJ Henderson, so are you messing with me?), my girlfriend and I use online house-sitting services; the one we’ve mainly used for the last few years is MindMyHouse.com. There can be all manner of complications in setting things up (and it can turn out that the homeowners are lunatics or your reaction to being there can make you a lunatic), but we’ve seen some mesmerizing sights over the years.
Because you stay in a place for a much longer period of time than a standard vacation, you taste the culture with much more savor. MindMyHouse will show you stays from Dubai to Dublin and all places in between. Check it out.
Oh cool. I’ll definitely check it out. Thanks!
And that’s funny about your friend. I swear I’m not messing with you. I’m also an MJ Henderson. (Someday, I hope to be *the* MJ Henderson—h/t A. Whitney Brown.) Is your MJ a software guy, by chance? If so, he’s the one that scored the .com address.
Hey, Tom,
Very smart, the house-minding business. (Used to be you could work as a bonded international courier to get around, back in the day when documents had to be physically flown from one place to another in someone’s care with a diplomatic pouch. Now? The Internet, lol.)
And yes, work writing can be done (and usually doesn’t stop) because of those deadlines. One of the most difficult parts for the journalist in non-journalistic writing of any kind in any setting is no deadline.
May the ruffling never stop!
-p.
On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson
Vacations are so expensive, it seems a waste to spend the trip “working.” Why pay for the experience of traveling to another country–or even another part of the state–if you’re just going spend the time on an activity you could do just as well at home?
I’ve had productive “staycations” and snow days, but proper vacations are not for working. Vacations are for making happy memories with loved ones. Sometimes I read articles about corporations like Amazon that expect their employees to spend honeymoons glued to their laptops. Writers don’t even get paid an Amazon salary, so why this obsession with productivity over all else?
I agree, T.K. In my experience, a working vacation is like asparagus ice cream. Each is fine on its own. Together — no. The only working vacation that “worked” for me was a week I spent in South Louisiana, because I was writing a story set in Cajun Country. In fact, I couldn’t have written that story without immersing myself in the culture.
Thanks, TK and Christine.
All of us are not like you. (Christine I do think that asparagus ice cream is unthinkable, however.)
I actually like work. I like work so much that I can’t stand not working. I won’t go anywhere without some work component attached and was miserable when I tried this. I simply am a worker and it’s in work that I find my pleasure. Working in great places is a luxury I allow myself, one of the few, and I travel very well, by design.
I also would never travel with “loved ones” (or hated ones, either! — funny how no one ever mentions the hated ones, LOL). I travel alone, as I live alone, and this, too, is by conscious, long-examined intention. Traveling with others can be pleasant in brief situations, but not for long, I find, and I feel for those whose lives don’t afford them that “Shirley Valentine moment” of stepping right out of their heavily populated lives and into the singularity of their selfhood.
But I totally respect and appreciate your views and I do know all too well that I’m in the minority on this.
I’ll just say that there are many more of us than you might imagine. Lots of us are very comfortable in social settings, so much so that you’d never imagine how purposefully solitary and voluntarily productive our lives are as soon as we get away from that reception or dinner or conference session in which you’ve me us.
Diversity comes in so many, many forms, doesn’t it?
Thanks again, and I wish you travel with many loved ones and work only when you want it. :)
-p.
On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson
The best writing vacation I’ve ever had (and I’m doing it again!) is going away with my sister-in-law, who is writing her thesis to a flat by the seaside some twenty miles up the coast. We have a turreted room with a view, but it is in our own country. Just away from everyday responsibilities and ties. And we both get LOTS done. Best of luck with the next one, but I’d advise that you don’t travel too far – just far enough:)
Just far enough. That’s the ticket. I rent a cottage for a week on a lake where I spent many hours as a child/teen. Yes, the town is different now, the people I used to know are long gone. But THAT lake–it watched me grow up. I’m comfortable there. No people I need to schmooze with, no responsibilities alone and, most importantly, a little bit of boredom. That’s what kick-starts the creativity. It’s where I wrote my first crappy novel at age 14. i LOVE it!
Nancy, a coincidence. I’ve recently sold a beachfront place left to me by my family and am actually looking forward to going back to it now as a renter because I know the setting so well. As with your place, the people and surroundings have changed but the view, the place is a kind of ground zero of my formative years and I’m really looking forward to being back without owning it. Might actually get something done, lol.
-p.
On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson
Hey, the short trip sounds super.
And no jet lag!
Great input, and do enjoy it!
-p.
On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson
If I could afford that many exotic vacations, I’d probably feel more than rested enough to write once I got back home each time.
I’ve done exotic and you’re right. I wrote books on my travels AFTER LIVING the life. However, you need not go far. I spend my own personal retreat in a rustic cabin 150 miles from where I live. It’s not exotic. It’s peaceful and sometimes gets boring–that’s what jump-starts my creative juices. Best wishes to you!
Hey, Nancy,
I agree that boring can be extremely useful. I may have had my most successful moments of writing on the road when bored. Which leads me to say an incredibly silly sounding thing: I wish I bored more easily! :)
Cheers,
-p.
On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson
Ha. Clever, Ty.
What you learn is that exotic isn’t always restful and can actually be quite draining. (Not always — some of the most relaxed moments in my life have been on trips.)
Get to some exotica yourself, and see what you think.
It’s a gorgeous world out there.
-p.
On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson
If I travel halfway around the world, I want to experience the place. I can see doing research for a book, but I wouldn’t want to spend all my time writing.
On the other hand, I’ve had great results with a working writing retreat I started organizing every year. We go to an Abbey outside Albuquerque and rent a house with six bedrooms, plus up to four separate Hermitage rooms. It’s within an hour’s drive for most of us, so no issue with the travel time.
We each have our own room and there’s a lovely library, or you can take “thinking walks.” It’s invitation-only, all experienced writers, and we focus on work from 9 to 12 and 1 to 5. We get together for meals and evening critique or discussion times. The first evening, we each take time to discuss what we want to accomplish. That sets the right tone. You know people will be asking how you did, so it’s an incentive to focus on your work!
Hi, Kris.
Glad you have such a nice group experience of a getaway, sounds very well done. I know several folks who like this way of working.
Being a-social (which is different from anti-social), however, that’s not for me. If attached to a group, even if just for meals and whatnot, I feel lost and unable to find myself. In short, I’m a conscious, happy, deliberate loner and would not have it any other way. (I’m not advocating this or criticizing the majority social population in which we live, but simply being honest with you, as you’ve shared with us.)
One more note. An odd thing happens about travel when you’ve done it all your life (well, from age 13, when my father first started traveling me) and have lived and worked in various parts of the world: the attraction of sightseeing falls away. What you begin to want is to be in a place as a functioning being, not a tourist or visitor. There’s no getting past the fact that you’re a tourist, of course, but at a certain point, “seeing the sights” gives way to an interest in sensing the rhythm of a place or just being present for a time — a week or more — without needing to take pictures of anything. It greatly helps to live overseas in understanding this. Once you’re in a foreign locale not to visit but to live, you simply have to take it all in, in huge armfuls, there’s no time to duck in and out of landmarks and day trips and walking tours and whatnot. Don’t get me wrong, trying to “go native” in a place is deceptively unwise, too! :) But the ability to just be in a place, function in it, navigate it — as opposed to observing it — has its own rewards.
I’ll give you just one glimpse of what I mean: there are many world airports now that I know well enough to get around without any help or signage or false starts, just because I’ve been through them so many times. The chance to feel comfortable in a place far from home, even briefly and on a small scale, can be strangely rewarding.
I’m sounding quite crazy, I’m sure, lol. Thanks for reading me and for your good note.
-p.
On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson
I struggle with using the words “writing” and “vacation” in the same sentence. Swap out “vacation” for “retreat” and I’m all in. In fact, I’m in the middle of a writing retreat now. What works for me is staying home alone—just me and my pup. My husband goes backpacking and I take the figurative phone off the hook and hunker down and write. The solitude and silence works for me.
Linda, that sounds fabulous.
By all means, do retreat just as far as time and the backpacker and the pub will let you.
Some of the best travel, after all, is from the desk to the kitchen and back.
Bon voyage!
-p.
On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson
That’s quite a list of beautiful and interesting places! Whether or not you got any writing done seems beside the point, to a certain degree. Travel is such a pleasure in and of itself. :)
But I hear you. I often have grand designs/ambitions for all that I’m going to accomplish on a trip, and rarely do all the boxes get checked off.
In my 20s, I could get quite a lot done in transit, though. At airports, on trains, even in cars sometimes. I particularly loved the mental nowhere-ness of air travel, the loud hum of the plane, the fluffy expanse of clouds.
These days, though, I often get motion sick if I focus on words while in a moving vehicle. And I’m usually accompanied by a toddler (and soon another infant) so that throws all productivity out the window, haha!
The best I’ve managed, from a writing standpoint, was booking a room at a small lodge in Indiana for a long weekend, just me and my manuscript and the nearby state park. I did some light hiking, and some late night writing, and while I still didn’t accomplish my goal (of finishing that manuscript in those few days) I did get about 10K words down. And I also just had a nice time.
Hey, Kristan,
Thanks for the note and sorry about the motion sickness (let alone the children!) — definite challenges.
The weekend getaway sounds very smart, really, and I think getting 10,000 words on it is incredible.
(Yes to that younger life ability to get things done in transit, too, I know what you’re talking about.
Cheers!
-p.
On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson