A Glacier's Pace

By Claire Booth

It worked.

I resolved a thorny plot point in my current manuscript – by not thinking about it. Of course, it took a few scrapes on the knees, innumerable mosquito bites, and several sharp rocks in my shoes. But I was able to stop worrying about my almost-finished manuscript. Views like this helped, too.

This is the Yosemite Valley in California. We got to this vista point by car in less than four hours. It’s an improvement. Almost one hundred and fifty years ago, you had to really want to see this sight.

It has gotten progressively easier to get here, and the crowds have gotten progressively bigger. Coincidence? Probably not.

Last year, 4,294,381 people came to Yosemite. There were 20 fatalities. Hmm. (Okay, maybe I didn’t completely stop thinking about work.) It is steep, sharp, dangerous nature. Which is what makes it such a draw for many of us.

Maybe it was better when you did have to expend a lot more effort to get here. Were you more careful? Did you appreciate it more? I would say no – I appreciated a whole lot, despite my cushy 21^st century transportation to the park.

    

Even though I didn't get there by wagon, I did slow down. And I enjoyed it. Now I'm determined to enjoy writing the end of my book, even if I am moving at the pace of a glacier carving away granite cliffs.

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?