A Change of Scenery

By Claire Booth

For far too long, my scenery has consisted of four walls, a cork board littered with way too many sticky notes, piles of research, and a computer. It’s the perfect set up for writing. But for inspiration? Not so much.

For me, finding inspiration means I need to ditch all of that office scenery and find some of the real stuff. So as summer begins, I’m shutting down the laptop and packing up the car. The family and I are heading to Yosemite National Park. I can’t wait.

I want to see waterfalls and granite monoliths and smell clean mountain air – and not think about the manuscript that I’m agonizingly close to finishing. My goal was to be done with it before this trip – which has been scheduled for a long time – but that’s not going to happen. So now I’m being forced to step away from it. And I’ve realized that’s a good thing.

Not thinking about something is really difficult for me, but when I manage to actually do it, it works wonders. I come back to it with new ideas and renewed enthusiasm. And I think – why don’t I do this more often? I don’t necessarily mean a full-on road trip, just putting myself in a different setting for a while.

Since this location is so different from what I’m used to, I’m positive I’ll come back fresh and rested. And hopefully not sunburned.

How do you get away from it all? And does it help recharge your creative batteries?