When I suggest that developing writers travel, I do not necessarily mean they go on a costly worldwide tour or even on a flight to another country—although those experiences would be great. But I also don't mean a staycation. Staying home on vacation surely has its perks. It's an opportunity to walk in your hometown at times when work prevents you from enjoying that opportunity. But staying home can be too easy.
The travel I'm talking about could be an overnight trip to a forest if you live in the city, or to a city if you live in a forest. It could be a weekend at the shore. Or a visit to a national park, historic site, or monument. What's important is that you look at the trip not as just another opportunity to live it up in a karaoke bar or run around an amusement park. Write about your reactions to the different environment. What distinguishes this place from home? What would you miss about home if you were to live in this new place? Are people there any different from where you live? Would you like to be there with someone who is not with you? Why? What would it be like to live there? What adjustments would you have to make? How different would your life be? The more you dig into the scene, the more you'll learn about it. Before you know it, you'll drum up characters for a new story or create a topic for an essay.
Take a notebook with you. If you're a laptop type, that will do just as well. Dedicate specific times of day to record your reflections in solitude. Don't feel you have to write "I did this and I did that." Write about the graffiti on a building wall. Write about that stray dog that followed you halfway down a city block. Write about the drone disturbing the geese as it hovers over the lake. Write about a delivery woman who sang Beyoncé's "Formation" as she drops off a package. Write about that ever-smiling six-year-old boy in a wheelchair under an oak tree. Write about whatever you like, or not like. When you return home, read what you wrote. Some gems may be lying in the middle of a paragraph or at the end of a sentence. By the time you make this activity a habit, you'll be connecting ideas from your last trip to previous ones. Now you're brewing.
