Vacation! Do I Leave the Writing at Home?

Do writers write while on vacation? To write or not to write, that is the question! No, I’m not Shakespeare!  I’m Leola, and that was my question while on vacation this past week.

Vacation was lovely. We escaped the 110 plus temps in Phoenix for the lovely, cooler 90 plus temps in Stephenville, TX. Hm, did I mention Phoenix is a dry heat? And Stephenville’s humidity is as high as the temp? Yep, give me dry heat with air conditioning everywhere I go.  My hair was this creepy, damp, sticky mess for a week from that humidity. There’s got to be a secret that we dry heat people aren’t aware of for keeping curl in your hair.

Before leaving I printed out my WIP so I could proof/edit and got quite a lot done on the plane ride there and back. And those squiggly lines…that’s really not any secret code marks or anything like that. It was from those “bumps” you encounter while in the air. Ah, but lying in bed in that cozy, charming Bed and Breakfast in Stephenville, TX every night gave me ample time to read, proof and edit.

And airplanes? I’m still fascinated by how that huge, heavy metal monstrosity can stay in the air. I mean, seriously? And then on the flight home…let’s just say that the man next to me who slept the whole time sprawled way over into my space.  Way over! I flipped my manuscript open and managed to make corrections/notations despite his left leg practically being in my lap.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I found so much more red ink from proofing a hard copy than I did while reading it in the computer. Perhaps that is just me, though. The in-hand visional was easier for me. And truthfully, I wrote enough notes and comments on the margins of my manuscript to fill up a novella.  Just sayin’

So to answer my original question about writing while on vacation…I say go for it! There will be plenty of down time. If you don’t want to write, take a book or books and read. Study the author’s style of writing. It’s all about learning.

We should never stop learning!