“If there’s a book you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”

–Toni Morrison

It’s that time again. No, not time to renew my driver’s license or start spring cleaning [although it probably wouldn’t hurt]…

It’s time to start my next book.

When I got home to Virginia from India, I did what so many other travelers do after a big trip: you cut yourself some slack. Spend time with family, eat good food, pretend that bulging pile of unwashed laundry still in your backpack is going to take care of itself.

“I’ll start writing in London,” I told myself all month over Christmas.

And then I got back to London and spent another month making lots of decisions and forming unexpected plans.

So now here we are in the middle of February and finally–finally!–I want to start. I have to start. I’m like a toddler on a rainy day, driving his mother crazy with all this pent-up creative energy. Except the mother in this case is my head, and if I don’t start putting some of India down into words, I really might lose it. Here’s why:

1. It’s been [nearly] six months since the Rickshaw Run.

No, there isn’t some kind of magical formula that says how long you have to wait before you start writing about an experience (although I totally wish there was), but it was six months after I left the pearl farm that I first started to put that trip into words.

To put it one way, if giving an experience time to shape itself in your mind is like cooking with a crock pot (the set-it-and-forget-it kind), I think I’m ready to lift the top a little and see what’s been stewing around in there all this time.

2. I miss working on a book.

Even as I’ve stayed busy writing articles, making videos and editing for an awesome new magazine, I’ve missed working on a longer project, much like a surfer pines for waves on a mountain vacation or a gardener waits for winter to pass and spring to arrive. I’ve missed the research, re-writing my outline for the hundredth time, and just the sense of being involved in something big, where every chapter is helping to build this crazy beautiful thing called a book.

3. I want to blog about the writing process this time.

I’ve said before that for whatever reason, I didn’t really talk about writing my first book on here. I want to change that this time around, to make the writing process a small part of what this blog is about–because for me, the great affair is not only traveling the world, but documenting it along the way.

Another analogy for you: if writing a book is like sewing a quilt together, I want to share glimpses of it when it’s still just scraps of fabric.

My Next Book - Why I Write

Do you have any big trips or projects of your own coming up? I’d love to hear about them!

18 Comments

  • Sounds exciting. Looking forward to seeing how you get on 🙂 I think you must have to be in the right frame on mind to start working on things like this. I’d love to do more writing and whenever I go away I do but for some reason London just saps all of my creativity. I thought it would be the opposite but weirdly it isn’t.

    Good luck!

    • Thanks, Monica! You’re exactly right–I also thought coming back to London would be good for my writing and creative flow, but so far I’ve been able to do everything but write. I’m hoping this move to India will give me the space and energy to focus on a longer project…we’ll see!

    • Great questions, Kash 🙂 1. Unfortunately I’m still working on getting the first one published. It’s with a few agents at the moment, so fingers crossed! 2. I’m in the process of figuring that out right now, but am leaning towards focusing specifically on the Rickshaw Run. There’s such a huge number of travelogues about India already out there, so I want to choose an angle that hasn’t been explored too much yet. I’ll keep you posted!

  • Candace,

    Have been following your blog for a couple of years now and I love it! My boyfriend recently got into the trucking industry and in a few days I get to travel the US with him. I’ve been inspired to start a blog about it because I realized that most people have no idea what that kind of life is like and this is my first real chance to experience life on the road!
    Originally a musician, I’m also researching music’s effects on the brain, a subject I’ve been told I should blog about but for the moment I feel a little scattered on where to start with that one. Any tips you’d love to share?
    Good luck and I’ll be reading!

    • Hello Elizabeth! Many thanks for saying hi, and it’s great to hear you’ve enjoyed my blog over the years. That’s always a welcome encouragement to bloggers 🙂 Your upcoming travel plans sound very exciting, and the perfect premise for a new blog. One of the things you’re told when starting a travel blog is, what’s your niche? And in your case, seeing the world in a truck, and getting involved in the whole industry, is definitely an unusual angle. I say go for it! By the way, with what you said about your music research, have you heard of a book called, “This is your brain on music”? Sounds like something you would enjoy. Thanks again for your kind words!

  • Great to have you as an author on http://www.puretravelstyle.com and looking forward to more posts! I’m itching to start writing my book at some point. I’ve had an idea in my head for years, just never had the time to start writing it, or even researching it for that matter (which will probably take longer than writing the damn thing). Definitely easy if you’re writing non-fiction.

    Maybe when we get to Bali I’ll be able to chill and start work on my book! Although I’m guessing our work load will just be increasing by then!

    Blogging about the writing process sounds good but don’t give yourself an even bigger workload unless it’s in some way helpful to you! Otherwise the book might take even longer! 🙂

    Looking forward to reading it some day!

    • Hey Matt! Great to hear from you, and thanks so much the comments. I’m very excited to be writing for PTS and can’t wait to get some more reviews up from Spain in April. I had no idea you were hoping to write a book–can I ask what it’s about? Fiction or non? Bali does sound like an ideal place to start writing it, I have to say! And yes–I agree with not creating a bigger workload for myself…I suppose what I’d want to do in starting to blog about the writing process is just to do so in a way that connects with other writers and gives people a peek into my own process. We’ll see how it goes 🙂 Talk to you soon!

      • My book is (will be) fiction. Had this crazy idea for probably about 10 years! Deborah and I have been discussing it more in the last couple of years as we’ve travelled and had more free time. Problem is it’s gonna be a huge task as it’s fiction but incorporates on a lot of real events. Ideally I need to lock myself away in a villa in Bali for 6 months and just write the first draft at least! But our travel business is keeping is busy, there’s just no spare time.

        I know…. the life of a travel blogger eh.. it sucks! Being location just gives you a whole new set of problems haha! 😀

        • Hmm I’m very intrigued! I think it’s always an interesting challenge trying to tie in real life with a fictional project…maybe you can at least start jotting down notes this year while you guys travel full-time, then once it slows down you can search for that perfect writing villa in Bali 🙂 Good luck!

  • Good luck Candace. I hope you do start writing soon and I hope the words just coming pouring out! (Like an overflowing crock pot but much less messy. Nope, I’m officially not as good as analogies as you!)

    I have little trips coming up which are much more manageable at the moment than big trips but I’m also wavering as to whether or not I should enrol yet for my final year of studies. We’ll see. That is about all the ‘big’ I can do for the next few months!

    • Thank you, Emm! I love your analogy–it definitely made me smile 🙂 I think I’d even be okay with a messy crock pot at this point…I can always clean up the prose later, right? And I didn’t realize you had one year of studies left…what are you studying? Will you finish that here in the UK?

      • Hiya! Sorry for the late reply. I’m studying AAT which is an accounting qualifaction. It is for my work and they are paying, thank goodness. In terms of my personal studies, I have an honours in psychology but if I did a masters, I’d want to do it in human rights or Holocaust / genocide studies. That is a long term plan though and I have a plan to combine my personal and vocational study paths.

        I will finish here in the UK. Ste and I are here for at least the next five years!

        • That’s fantastic about work covering your programme! Unfortuntely I don’t think any such scheme exists for travel writers 🙂 I love your idea to do a master’s in Holocaust/genocide studies, though…that’s always been something that has intrigued me as well.

    • Thanks for the enthusiasm, Babu!! I’m fighting my schedule at the moment for writing time, but I’m still happy to have the project in mind now and to be working towards it 🙂

  • Hi Candace…

    It seems a long time ago we saw each other in Cheranmahadevi… I miss it, I miss India! So I can’t wait to read your book =) I want to wish you good luck with the writing process, I’ll read your blog!

    x

    • Ellen, my friend! I have to apologise for being so out of touch…I actually just discovered a huge amount of messages on Facebook I hadn’t checked–apparently they put all the messages from people you aren’t friends with into a separate folder, and I’d completely missed it. But I was so happy to see a note from you! How have you been? I will write back properly soon, but I just wanted to say thank you for your kind words and to tell you that I miss Tamil Nadu as well. I hope you had a wonderful rest of your time in India, and I can’t wait to hear what you’ve been up to since! x

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