Insecure Writers Want to Know
I’ve never really felt conflicted about anything I write. Oh, I’ve felt that it wasn’t good enough. Or who would want to read all this? And: Why don’t you find a real job, Vic! But I’m not conflicted about what I write.
But I was wondering…
Do you take notes when you go on vacation or do something exciting to be able to use the experience in a story, article, or blog post later?
I’m talking about recording the facts of the exciting adventure or event you’ve had as well as how you felt about what was happening. The setting. The people. The danger. The exhaustion you felt afterwards. I want to remember my personal experience of it all.
This is why I take notes on our vacations. Of course, my husband and the kids hate it when I’m writing away on vacation. I understand how they feel. This is supposed to be our together time. Our family time. But I always want to remember particulars. Don’t you? Or maybe your memory is better than mine.
We just returned from 26 days of adventure in Alaska and the Canadian Rockies. I’m still debating whether the airplane flights—with all the crowded waiting and delays—and taxi, bus, and train rides were more taxing on us than all the hiking and bushwhacking; all the kayaking and glacier walks we did.
We live in a beautiful world, ladies and gentlemen. And life is full of many experiences. Enjoy them all! Make memories! And yes, share them through your stories or blog posts. Look for mine at Camping with Five Kids at my website.
I am offering another FREE writing workshop at the Maple Shade Library in Maple Shade, New Jersey. If you are in the area, I’d love to see you there. I’m encouraging participants to bring their works-in-progress in order to ask specific questions. I want to help you finish your manuscript to the best of your ability.
My next FREE workshop will be on Thursday, August 17, 2023, at 6 p.m. We will be discussing what memoir is and how to make your specific stories universal.
Come, stay as long as you can. Ask questions. I’m happy to help you with your manuscript.
Here are the particulars:
Making Memoir Universal – 8-17-23 at 6-7:30 p.m. Please register here: https://www.bcls.lib.nj.us/events/6266
Maple Shade Library
200 Stiles Ave.
Maple Shade, NJ 08052
856-779-9767
To find other free workshops I will be presenting this year, just look under the Workshop Events tab at my website. Thank you!
Now I’m off to see how you’ve tackled this month’s question. I am extremely thankful for all of you for being my sounding board and advisors on this scary writing and publishing journey.
Thanks for stopping by my little spot on the web. Please come again!
This post was written for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. I’d like to thank our co-hosts for August: Kate Larkindale, Diane Burton, Janet Alcorn, and Shannon Lawrence! Please visit them if you can.
Our group posts on the first Wednesday of every month. To join us, or learn more about the group, click HERE.
It sounds like you had a fun family vacation. I’ve always wanted to see Alaska. No, I don’t take notes on my vacations. They aren’t that eventful.
I hope your free workshop goes well.
Thank you, Natalie! By the way, I think all vacations or travels or stay-cations are eventful, even if only in the mind.
It’s always a pleasure seeing you here at Adventures in Writing. Have a beautiful day!
That sounds like a blast. I often journal big vacations like that. You do want to remember what you took pictures of!
Oh, it was a blast for sure, Alex! I love the mountains and the streams and the lakes, and the glaciers. And yes, to help with photos, I need to know where I was and what was going on at the time. Have an awesome week, sir!
I don’t take notes when I travel. Like most people, I take pictures, but very often I take a particular one because it strikes me I will want to write about it later, and I do.
That’s wonderful, Liza. I take lots of photos, working on the composition of what’s in the frame. I can’t say I’m very good at it. But I try.
Thanks so much for visiting Adventures in Writing. Have a beautiful day!
I take notes besides taking pictures, esp. if we’re going somewhere that I know will be in a book. Hubs is great about that.
I’ve always wanted to go to Alaska. Lucky you!
Thank you, Diane. At least I can tell my husband and the kids I’m not alone. Or weird.
Thanks so much for your note. Have a beautiful day!
Alaska looks like a beautiful place to visit. Not so much for fiction, but I often regret not having written things down (journaling) during real life things. I’d love to write about my IVF experience and the medical issues leading up to it and following, but some details are quite fuzzy at this point, with no real way to get the information I feel I’m missing.
Alaska is raw and rugged in most places. You write horror. Many things can live in those uninhabited islands where I bushwhacked. There are no trails to the inside of the islands. Muskeg prevails in a lot of it. Muskeg is marshland with ink pot holes in it; black, murky water. Oooo, it could be scary on a dark night.
You know, Shannon, life-changing events can come back to us if we find a quiet space and try to remember the important details. I rely on journaling because I want to be sure of my thoughts.
Thanks so much for visiting Adventures in Writing. Have a beautiful weekend!
I’m very visual so my notes are photography. I can look at the picture and get reminded of the feeling and experience. So far I think my memory is great for the past 5 years and I don’t need the photo to remember the whole experience but anything beyond that I find I need those reminders.
You are amazing, Kristina. Good for you! I need written notes. Raw copy for a base to create my experience in a piece of writing.
Thank you for visiting Adventures in Writing. Have a beautiful weekend!
Your latest adventure sounds like it was a wonderful trip!
I do take notes on vacations. I’ll keep a brief journal or I’ll jot down a note here and there. Mostly, though, I take pictures. TONS and TONS of pictures! When I look back, I can usually pull up what was happening from my memory. But I do love looking back on my notes throughout the years. It’s good to capture the moment as it’s happening or right after. There’s always little things that slip through the memory cracks that are tucked away in those vacation notebooks. Have a wonderful week!
You are so right, Jen. I would make my children keep vacation journals as well. I told them they needed about 6 sentences about their day; what they saw; how they felt; did they like it. Now they have journals of all our adventures together as a camping and hiking family.
Oh, and I have tons and tons of pictures, too. It’s going to take me a while to organize everything.
Thanks so much for visiting Adventures in Writing. Have a beautiful week!
Twenty-six days of adventure in Alaska and the Canadian Rockies sounds marvelous, Victoria! Definitely the traveling by plane, taxi, train, and bus would be more taxing on me than hiking, bushwalking, and enjoying nature. We just returned on Thursday afternoon from a trip to see my family in Nova Scotia. The traveling part is definitely getting harder, but time with my extended family made it all worthwhile. I capture my trip in photos. I’ll even take photos of street signs or a description of an artwork so I’ll have details for later. In my journal I will record some info, but I usually fall behind early in the trip. Good luck with your upcoming workshop. I wish I could attend. As you can see, I am very late visiting around. There is only so much I can manage in a day!
Always, Louise, there is only so much time in one’s days.
We visited Nova Scotia on vacation a few times. Beautiful countryside. Good for you visiting family. And yes! I take photos of signs and plaques for the information too. And yes, traveling is the toughest part. This is where I wished we could “energize” like in the Star Trek series.
Have a beautiful week, Louise!
A mixture of photos and an ever-ready notepad (sometimes both on the same device since I have an old Samsung Note5 that takes decent pictures and I can handwrite notes).
I don’t think you’re wrong for wanting to record the experiences… that said, sometimes, the attempt to capture those moments leads us to losing those moments. They’re too ephemeral for the page and need to be lived to be remembered. A balance needs to be found.
A balance always needs to be found, Eden. You are correct. I don’t write anything until the evening, after all our adventures. Sometimes, it feels tedious to try and get it all down. I usually revise later.
That is so cool you can “handwrite notes” on a device that can take photos. Amazing.
Thank you so much for visiting Adventures in Writing. Have a beautiful week!