This spring I bought a trailer. It’s a small, 11 foot, teardrop TAB trailer that my car can tow. I love tent camping in the wilderness. Lately though I have been camping in parking lots and fields and decided to upgrade to a trailer. I named my new acquisition, Quill, as she has a porcupine shape to her. And I hope she will be a productive writing partner.
I have a romantic vision of roaming the countryside with Quill, camping by lakesides and writing while the sun emerges from the horizon.
Every so often, I have a desire to escape the routine of daily life, take to the road and spend hours in beautiful locations; writing when the weather is bad, and hiking and exploring when the weather is good.
Many famous authors wrote their work in isolated locations and away from home. George Bernard Shaw wrote his plays in a rotating shed in England (it was built on a turntable so that he could always be facing the sun while writing his plays). Mark Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn in a hut on a farm in Elmira, New York. Roald Dahl had his tiny writing hut, The Gipsy House, to write his wonderful adventures. The ultimate was Henry David Thoreau who retreated to a woodland cabin (10 by 15 feet) for over two years to write Walden; Life in the Woods, reflecting on simple living.
It is the solitude of a tiny cabin by a lake that is so appealing.
I decided to put my vision to the test this summer and spent an extra day travelling home when I was coming back from Ottawa. I camped at Silent Lake Provincial Park, south of Algonquin Park. I wrote in the afternoon and then strolled down to the lake to watch the sunset. Later in the evening, I wrote to the sounds of insects buzzing in the woods. It was excellent.
However, I realized, while cozy in my trailer Quill, that location is not really the key. Lack of distraction is the key to being more productive in my writing. In my trailer, I had no one to interrupt me, no internet (the park may have had internet but I purposely did not look up the network), no chores to complete. Quill allowed me, through location, to find this space. However, anyone can find this space in every day (or every week) life too. It may involve taking a drive to a park and sitting in the car to write. For some, this is the reason they write in a cafe (although I find that too distracting), or maybe a local library. Do you have a space away from home that is perfect for writing?
Update: In my last blog, I talked about my 2 minute experiment in writing every day as a method of starting a good writing habit. I can report that I continued to do this and have managed to write every day for at least 2 minutes using breakfast as my trigger event. Some days it is tempting to skip but I tell myself – 2 minutes! And often I write for 10 to 15 minutes. If you are struggling to find time / method to write every day, give this experiment a try (see my last blog for details…)
