To me, stasis is creative death. I can’t be creative if I’m not on the move. I don’t have to move very far, and during the pandemic, I moved from one room to another, and occasionally to the balcony. Now, after two years, I’m finally on a travel vacation. I used to do these several times a year, but the world has changed. Travel has changed. And I have to learn what it means to be on the move all over again.
It’s exhilarating.
Most people planning a vacation look for the shortest, easiest path to get there. Direct flights, usually. The point is usually to be on the vacation, not spend your time getting to a destination. But most of the places I want to get to are far away, and difficult to access. I once had to fly six out of eight days to get to a volcano in Vanuatu. I’ve had delayed and missed flights, nights spent in an airport chair, and entire days on just potato chips and water. As long as I have something to read and a book to write, I’m fine.
I’ve learned to enjoy the liminal spaces, the layovers and bleary mornings, because they bring me something too. A sense of anticipation, of wonder and quiet contemplation on the road to something new.
So, to celebrate my first post-pandemic vacation in two years, I took a train to Milan. Flying there would have been faster, possibly even cheaper. But the flight would only take two hours, which is the kind of time it takes me to nap and mentally switch off from work to maybe have a shot at writing after. It’s definitely not enough time to put enough mental distance between one country and another.
The best stories have you immersed in another world, but it takes time to get there. A short story is just not immersive in the same way as a novel, and a plane is not the same as a train, to give your body enough feedback to decide, “Yes, we’re leaving it all behind. We’re ready to be in the here and now.”
I do want to be done with my WIP novels, but I’m not in a hurry. I’m content to live in this world, explore it a bit more. To inhabit these characters and their stories, get to know them better. And while I sit in a train for several hours, neither where I’ve been nor where I want to go, I get to anticipate, to hope and dream, and to write.