Writers do not sit still. They are on the move. But they do not necessarily take expensive vacations. Their trips may be to the dry cleaner, the bank, or the grocery store, yet they are observing how the 60-year-old Vietnamese dry cleaner seems extra pushy in talking to her 30-year-old daughter working the register, or how the 20-year-old, shy bank teller pays extra attention to the pretty, young female customer who simply wants to complete a routine transaction, or how the Salvadoran teenage girl stocking the produce at the bodega has made remarkable strides in learning English over the summer.
True, writers live in their minds when at their writing chair, but they travel a lot too. They always seek something new wherever they go in the hope of finding the best line to complete a difficult poem or the quirkiest dialogue to enliven a character in a play or a novel.
If you're a beginning writer, get up now. Travel. To another coast. To a new street. To a different room. Pay close attention in your travels. See what you find there. You'll surely put what you find there to use.
True, writers live in their minds when at their writing chair, but they travel a lot too. They always seek something new wherever they go in the hope of finding the best line to complete a difficult poem or the quirkiest dialogue to enliven a character in a play or a novel.
If you're a beginning writer, get up now. Travel. To another coast. To a new street. To a different room. Pay close attention in your travels. See what you find there. You'll surely put what you find there to use.
