Travel and writing

[ljwrites]

I'm not much of a traveler. I am abroad right now but that was for work, and now that the conference where I was an organizer is done with I'm doing what I like best--chilling in my room (hotel in this case) with nothing urgent pressing down on me other than getting on a plane tomorrow and maybe doing some gift-shopping. It's not that travel is devoid of pleasure for me, I just don't actively seek it out and I dislike the exertion and uncertainty.

Travel has been a central subject of a lot of great literature, though, and it's sometihng I have a hard time grasping on an emotional level. Mostly I find myself thinking, wow, how dangerous and difficult. Why would anyone inflict all that hardship on themselevs? Sometimes I wonder if I'm missing out as a reader and writer by being so indifferent to the thrill of travel (or if there is a thrill, it's mainly that of fear that something will go wrong). Then again, many famed literary travels (Fellowship of the Ring, Grapes of Wrath) were compelled by circumstances so maybe I'm on to something here.

What's your personal relationship to travel? Do your travel experiences or lack thereof affect your writing? Can you think of some travels in literature, fiction or non-fiction, that have influenced you or seemed particularly good or bad?

Comments

[jazzyjj]

What a nice topic this is. I've never really thought about writing while traveling, but your entry made me think of something right off the bat. I'm currently using a trial version of MarsEdit, the blog and journal editor. I read good things about it on another website so I thought I'd download a copy. I'm glad I did, and I think I'm going to purchase the full version when my trial expires. But one of the features of MarsEdit is a drafts folder, and I tested this out a week ago. I was at my writers' workshop and I had my MacBook with me, but nobody including myself knew the access code to get online there. So I just wrote up my 2 entries for that session, and then later on that evening I edited and published them. I was spending the night at my parents' place, and they have very good wi-fi. I'm not a very good independent traveler anymore, and I don't particularly care for most long road trips. These are trips over, say, 3-4 hours. I do like flying though. If and when I ever go out of state again and feel the urge to put my thoughts down on virtual paper, MarsEdit is what I will use. Ditto for going out of the country. I was only out of the country once though, and that was back in the mid-90's.

[ljwrites]

I'm really glad to hear MarsEdit is working out for you, and that it looks to be good for travel as well!