Sometimes, you have to get away from what you know. Go on an adventure. Take a trip. Leave the familiar in the rearview mirror.
The adage Write what you know is sound, but what you know can turn into a creative rut. Its intricacies are lost. They’ve been rubbed raw, worried into nothing. You look for something new, for beauty in the ordinary, and come up empty.
It’s at those times of emptiness that you need to take a trip. The mind and heart need to be renewed. That can happen by staying where you are, and you sometimes should do just that. You need to work through the dry spell, discover the beauty and peril of it.
Other times…other times, you should take a trip. Let a new environment, rhythms, and people show and speak words of life. Let them settle on your heart and mind. Water in a dry and weary land.
The water does its work, and you return home, ready to set out again on this thing called the writing life. You write about the experiences, and, as you do, you rediscover the beauty and intricacies of this place called home.
It’s fresh again. The grooves have their ridges. You hold them to the light, study them, write them into being. The entire world is made anew, and you rejoice in it. All you had to do to see it again was to get away for a while. You had to take a trip.
Image: Per Gosche (Creative Commons)