I am not much of a traveler. Never been.
I like to see things and it is exciting to discover new places, but at the same time I am very happy to just be at home, do my things and live quietly. Sometimes it cannot be helped though. You gotta go, where you gotta go!
These past few days we have been traveling from A to B, ion a long trip, which could not be helped due to the distance and transport options between the two.
If you ever watched the Amazing Race, it was something like that. Bus- Wait- Plane- Bus- Wait- Train- Minibus- Taxi, all in the span of over 24 hours. Very physically demanding, but in a way strengthening, as it teaches you that: Yes, you can do it!
You can travel for extensive hours, you can wait for long times, you can physically handle the pressure of travel, and when it is two of you, you learn to lean on your partner and build on your partnership.
When I was on one of the trains, I was thinking about Agatha Christie, and how she got the idea for Murder on the Orient Express on a train ride which got delayed, and I was thinking that, indeed, travel can predispose you to creativity, especially when you need to wait or you spend long hours in a mode of transport.
Writers collect information from everything they do and see, and I assume this is a great aspect of traveling, that it serves you up such a high number of new situations, people and places that you can just store them away for later.
As a reluctant traveler I often find myself dreading doing this or that, but as exposure therapy goes, traveling is the best medicine because it forces you to put yourself in situations you would normally avoid.
It is draining though, it is not all romantic and wonderful. It can be difficult to deal with sometimes. The other travelers can be a burden and the journey quite taxing.
It is another way of learning about yourself I admit and it increases your ability to deal with frustration, which can be very useful.
Being a writer is like having another dimension to your mind.
I am saying this because, sometimes, in the day to day, I see, with my mind’s eye, characters from my stories moving out in the world alongside the other people and I find it so interesting that to a writer, their characters are as real as anything, and that is because they are real to them.
I got this idea, while we were waiting for a train, in a stuffy old train station and I saw among the people waiting on the platform, one of my characters quietly sitting on a bench and reading a book.
Yeah, I do think traveling can and does broaden your mind and widen your perspective. I am quite curious to see what bits from this recent trip will find their way into my stories.