Last week my husband took me to a water park on spur of the moment. It was Wednesday, and within half an hour of leaving work, I was standing at the top of a water slide, looking out over the highway at all the rush hour traffic I was missing and thinking to myself, "This doesn't feel like a Wednesday."
For Independence Day weekend, we had a blast, camped out on my in-laws' lawn, kayaked on their lake and talked with my lovely in-law uncles and grandma and grandpa. We didn't have our phones, our wallets, our computers or anything with us the entire time. Just the clothes on our backs. It was....odd. And wonderful.
I didn't do any writing. But when we got back to our normal, city apartment life, there was a difference in how I wrote. I had new visions of things to come in my book and my imagination was infused with real-life experiences that can't possibly be put into words.
It's important for writing to make life great. Even if I wasn't a writer, it'd be important, but especially because I am. A picture is worth a thousand words, but an experience is priceless and can't be bought with words on a page.
Maybe that's why being a writer is so attractive to so many people. You kind of have to have a thrilling life full of adventure, mishaps, explorations, and interesting things that happen in order to write. If you can find an author who led a boring life, tell me and I'll correct myself.
It's summer! Go out and take a walk. Discover new places. Go on a bike ride down a new trail. Go camping. Cook something you've never cooked before (I'm experimenting with something called a Poblano pepper and Butternut squash tonight). Strand yourself somewhere with nothing to do, no cell phone, or computer, and see what your mind comes up with to do. I've noticed that there are all kinds of ignored corners and fascinations we miss because we're busy with other things.
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