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I’ve been traveling again, and as so often happens it takes a while to reset my writing schedule. The distractions are multitudinous: backlogged emails, to-do lists that grow rather than shrink, and the seemingly never-ending jet lag (or driving lag after road trips).
It seems this is a recurring problem. As I glance back through my “On Writing” posts I see a lot more about not writing than writing. Some of this is to be expected; after all, one can’t write too much about what you are writing as you’re writing it, right? But it does appear that I have some difficulty getting back into a writing rhythm after travels. Given that I travel a lot (see Science Traveler), losing rhythm quickly leads to cacophony.
It’s not writer’s block so much as it is writer’s overextension. I’m just trying to do too much. Unlike those who miraculously appear to be in a perpetual state of flow, where productivity is maximum at all times, I’m one of those whose distraction levels keep me constantly reigning myself back into the project at hand. Or projects, which is a good part of the problem.
In the last couple of months my “flow” has been interrupted by a road trip to Charleston (SC), a people-to-people tour of Cuba (returning home just days before such tours were banned), and an even longer road trip Chasing Abraham Lincoln through nine states. Time between trips largely sunk into many Lincoln-related meetings, symposia, and plans. Writing was squeezed into this torrid careening from hour to hour.
So once again I’m trying to get back on track. While the “Stephen King Rules for Writing” goal of 2000-words a day works well for fiction, it’s completely unworkable for non-fiction writing. Some days I can spend hours pulling information only to see a few hundred words appear on the page. Other days a thousand words can flow like lava. The inability to tote voluminous resource material onto planes, trains, and automobiles means non-fiction writing on the road (air, sea) is relegated to travel memoir. So my trip writing adds to the WIPs (works in progress) already on my laptop. At some point, something has to be finished.
And how do I do that? First, finish writing this piece, turn off Facebook and other social media, and crack open the laptop.
Oh, and head into town for that Lincoln lecture. Yeah, right after that.
[Photo: David J. Kent, Overseeing Edinburgh]
David J. Kent is a science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.
Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!
Hot White Snow 
Ha! The last five-weeks have been committed to writing English translated notes for a Japanese narrative, but I’ve decided that the story shouldn’t be published… at least not now. Too many sensitivities for it to be told properly.
At any rate, it’s pretty much all that’s filled my brain for most of that time, so it’s been difficult to write anything else. I think saturation can also bring other ideas to a standstill.
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I’ve never had a shortage of ideas, just ability to follow through. So is this Japanese narrative something you wrote, or someone else? Sounds intriguing.
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I recorded and (roughly) translated information from conversations with the older brother of a mountaineer who died in the 90’s. He feels that her story was never properly told because of an English/Japanese, language/cultural barrier, and I’m inclined to agree. He wrote something about ten years back, but it was in Japanese and relatively superficial. The bigger story is ironically tragic, but the discussion broaches some cultural sensitivities and involves a well-known (in Japan) mountaineer who was killed in the early 80’s. And since there’s family (who haven’t responded to me) who might not appreciate revisiting a rather public tragedy, I’ve decided not to take things any farther. I don’t think I could write a decent book anyway. But should someone else decide to do so, I’m leaving my notes and my version of a first chapter.
At any rate, that’s about all that’s been on my mind for the last several weeks. Even dreamed about it. Just starting to move mental energies elsewhere — just did the 5K route around the Imperial Palace, which I’d been intending to do for quite awhile. Probably head back to the States late next week. Going to be a big readjustment this time around.
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The story of the climber does sound tragic, and I can understand the hesitancy when the family isn’t on board with the book idea. I do love your writing so I hope circumstances change and you write it.
Good luck with readjusting to this rather perplexing country (aka, the USA). Safe travels.
Other than a scheduled holiday trip to visit my parents (where my father has once again ended up in the hospital, now rehab), I don’t have any major traveled scheduled. As much as I want to see as much as I can see, I’m toying with the idea of staying put for a few months to focus on getting this book off the “lifetime-of-writing” track and into a publishers hands. That said, at the Lincoln lecture yesterday I chatted with a genealogy aficionado about tracking down a key figure in the Lincoln assassination to see if he was a distant relative. Alas, no shortage of ideas, just focus.
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My well wishes to your family, as well as to you.
Interesting possible …distant… relative. (◔̯◔)
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Not likely, but possible. Would be cool if it pans out.
And thanks for the wishes. It helps. Being some distance away and not being able to affect the situation much is difficult, but then I know if I were there I still wouldn’t be able to do much.
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I find writing down the bones the hardest.
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Indeed
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