I am honoured that the folks at 5writers5novels5months invited me to write a guest post about how I find, or make, time to write while we are travelling.
Since we’re always travelling I have to carve out time somewhere, and it usually means “something’s gotta give” – like travel research, sleep, reading books, watching movies, reading blogs. In the process of writing it, the post became as much about why I write, the inner drive that propels me as a writer and blogger. Hop on over and have a read. There are many good articles there about the process of writing. I’ve never really regarded myself as a writer, but slowly, through reading the 5writers blog, and then through writing this guest post my perception has changed. At the simplest level, since I write I must be a writer, but it is so much more than that. It’s the inner drive and commitment that keeps me going and that makes me want to become better at it.
Photo of the day: it’s a classic cliché and I couldn’t resist. Sunset at Mindil Beach, Darwin, Australia
All words and images by Alison Louise Armstrong unless otherwise noted
© Alison Louise Armstrong and Adventures in Wonderland – a pilgrimage of the heart, 2010-2015.
Adventures in Wonderland 
I am glad that you have a inner drive to write Alison because I like to read what you write!
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Thanks Cindy ❤
Alison
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Nice guest post Alison. I guess you will be headed to BC soon!
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Thanks so much Carlton. We’re already in BC. We got back a month ago, and leave again in another month for Sweden.
Alison
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Excellent article about writing and being a writer and having the passion, commitment, enjoyment, and OK I will just say it–addiction–to keep at it. (I know from experience that writing can become an addiction.) (But not in a bad way of course.)
Anyway, I’m SO glad you’ve come to the realization that you’re a writer, Alison. Like, duh!?! Not only that, you are a *talented* writer. It matters not about the topic/medium; what and how you write wells up from your heart and soul, and that makes it an art. A talent and a skill, yes, and an art! You said, “I’ve been an artist…” and the only edit I’d make in your article is to make that verb present tense. Right? Right!
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Thanks Kate. Addiction! Absolutely. The blog is an addiction – all aspects of it. Thank you thank you thank you for your compliment and support. I never regarded myself as an writer because I didn’t write – until I started the blog, and Don and I became nomadic. I guess it took a while to sink in 🙂
And by artist I mean, you know, painter/visual artist/craft person. Over all the years of my adult life it never was writing except for occasional bursts if inspiration. They come more frequently now 🙂
I can own the title writer 🙂
Alison
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I very much enjoyed your guest post! So much of what you say rings true for me, too – the need to write, the willingness to let other things go in order to do it, finally getting into the habit of jotting things down as I think of them! Although my travel blog is just an infant sister of yours, I already foresee the day when the underlying travel burgeons to the point where I fall (farther) behind in chronicling it. I think I look forward to that!
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Thank you so much. I’m glad you enjoyed it. It actually wasn’t easy to write and took many rewrites and Don’s keen editing skills to get it to have some kind of flow. But yes, obviously you know what it’s like – the need to write. Hope you get to get further and further behind in your blog – for the best of reaasons 🙂
Alison
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On a tangential topic, I see you are planning a trip to Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan. Turkey has been a favorite destination of mine (covered three main areas in two trips – Ephesus and environs, Istanbul, and Cappadocia), so let me know if you have questions! And I head to Jordan (and Israel) this coming week! Jordan will be the shorter piece (business in Israel keeps us there longer), but I am most excited about Jordan! Hope to write up that trip before you go there! P.S. I cannot open your last post – The Birds of Otago – for some reason … I don’t know if it’s a problem on my end or yours. Happy trip planning!
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We are overwhelmed by all there is to do and see in Turkey, and how to travel around the country. It’s slowly shaping up to be 7 full days in Istanbul, 6 in the Cappadocia area, 3 in Konya, then an overnight train to Izmir, then about 12 days to explore the area south of Izmir (Selcuk, and down the coast to Bodrum) including a side trip by train to Denizli to see Pamukkale. That’s where we’re at at the moment. How does this sound? Any help, suggestions, knowledge will be greatly appreciated. I also learned this morning of the amazing gorge near Fethiye. How to fit that in too? So much to see. Even with the itinerary we’re looking at we still only see a small portion of all there is to see. What a rich country!
Looking forward to your posts on Jordan.
Don’t know how current the info is but we’ve read you can do a day trip to Jerusalem from Amman so we’ll definitely do that if it’s still available.
Re the birds of Otago post – I published by accident before I was ready. Will publish it in a couple of days.
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Your Turkey itinerary sounds great! I have heard from a friend (whose son is living there) that Gaziantep is quite interesting and is known for its excellent cuisine. It’s reachable by bus from Cappadocia (7 hours or so from Nevsehir or Kayseri), but it may be too close to Syria for comfort right now. I was in Cappadocia in winter time, and the snow was going to make that drive way too long and dangerous. I’m sure I can’t add much to the depth of your plans for Istanbul (but 7 full days will be luxuriously wonderful to spend). The coast, too, will be great for just meandering; it is both beautiful and interesting historically. I am nearly positive you can do a day trip to Jerusalem from Amman. Both countries seem quite open to visitors in both directions, and Israel now issues a separate entry paper so as not to put that stamp permanently in your passport in case you want to visit other Middle Eastern countries later who are not crazy about an Israel visit on there.
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I couldn’t agree more with your guest post, Alison. That was so honest and beautifully written. I have to admit that I haven’t spent nearly enough time reading and commenting on people’s blogs – so many other things are vying for my attention these days. Sometimes I barely have any time for keeping up to date on my own blog! Writing takes real commitment, and as your followers we’re glad that you continue to post regularly while on the road. 🙂
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Thanks so much James. I think you’re much like all of us – so many things vying for attention. But I’m hooked. I can’t imagine not doing it. Thank you so much for reading, especially when you’re so busy – part of which is prep for your trip I imagine 🙂
Alison
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Alison, what I like most about your writing is your honest, no nonsense style, and your guest post was no different. I could relate to every word. I am under double the strain since I do everything – the research, the bookings, the photo processing and the writing – myself. Feeling kind of burnt out at the moment. Too many distractions and too many personal commitments, with a few health issues thrown in. But like you, I know I cannot stay away for too long. Thank you for your company and your insights from the road 🙂
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Thank you so much Madhu, I really appreciate your compliment. I can easily imagine that you’re burnt out having to do it all yourself. We struggle with two of us. Don’s up to his ears trying to work out a suitable itinerary, and how to achieve it, for Turkey. So many details to take into account, as you well know. I do hope your health improves and that you’re well again soon.
Alison xox
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Thanks Alison! I will go check this article out!
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You’re welcome. I hope you enjoy it.
Alison
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A great article. Yes, you are a writer!!
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Thanks so much Darlene. And I am starting to believe it 🙂
I’m writing such a lot these days I don’t think I can avoid it any longer.
Alison
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Hi Alison and Don,
Enjoyed your 5 Writers guest post.
Alison, when your cliché photos look like the one above you can post it anytime for me :-).
All the best.
Cheers,
David
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Thank you so much for your compliments, David, both for my guest post, and for the photo.
Cheers, Alison
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Thank good ness you do write, Alison. And may I also say that when Don interjects his perspective, I enjoy that as well.
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Thanks so much Pam. I’m enjoying writing more and more. Don also. There will be a new post coming from Don in about 3 weeks. Since we’re not travelling at the moment we have plenty of time – for writing, and all kinds of other things – like planning our next trip – first to Sweden in July and then to Turkey, Jordan and Egypt in Sept/Oct.
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Alison, nearly everything you said in that article applies to me as well! Here it is almost 1:30 a.m., I haven’t written about my day in my journal yet (and it may have to wait for the morning) and I’m a bit anxious about it. Chronicling everything with film and journal has become an obsession! I will be home in a couple of months and have promised myself I will put down the camera and the journal.
But I won’t put down the writing! The real writing happens when I write a blog post, not the journal–that’s just a tool for my forgetful mind. It’s been a long road for me (and I’m still not all the way there) to think of myself as a writer, even though I have a writing degree and have written poetry for years. I guess getting published and paid is what would allow me to officially label myself as such. But my friends tell me I am already (yay for friends!).
I don’t have a Don to do travel planning, which explains why I am three months behind on my blog posts. If I don’t know where I’m going in 3 days or how I’ll get there, I have to put planning first. I also don’t take time to read many other blogs which is a damn shame! I need a Don!!!
I find I get a lot of writing done on planes, trains and buses. I’ve also taken days off in cities where I can resist their offerings. Right now I’m in Lyon. I went to a museum today. My hostess was making suggestions about what I could do tomorrow morning before I leave and I found myself feeling like she might think I’m lazy or dense if I just stay here and write! Lately I’ve had a number of lovely people invite me to stay in their home, so then there’s the socializing!
Sometimes I’d like to just spend days just writing, but it can be exhausting! I can totally relate to your analogy of the blog being your creative child. And children sometime wear you out. But it’s always interesting seeing how they develop.
I must confess to you that I have been able to make peace with myself about being months behind because I see that you are behind as well. I say to myself, “Alison is writing a post about December and here it is March, so it’s okay that I’m behind too.” So thanks for that!
I am almost at the end of my long journey and feeling like I might be ready to return home when the time comes. If you’d asked me 2 months ago if I was ready I’d have said No Way! But I’m getting a little weary. I don’t know if I could do what you two do, but maybe I could if I wasn’t alone. Thanks for all your inspiration. On to the Alps!
love.jane.
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Oh my goodness Jane you are a writer! I read some of your posts and wish I could write half as well. Some of the insights you have, and your way of expressing it is brilliant.
I have a Don and I’m still 3 months behind, and it’s okay! 🙂
I know I miss out on both socialising and sightseeing sometimes to write and produce the blog. I try to find a balance. And I absolutely spend days just writing/photo editing/creating blog posts. I love it. It’s always a compromise about how I spend my time.
Enjoy the Alps!
Alison xoxox
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Thanks. You are an inspiration to me!
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Hi Alison,
I left this comment at the other site where you guest posted, but it has been awaiting moderation for at least 24-hrs, so here goes… 🙂
I loved reading this and gaining a little more insight into your’s and Don’s means and methods… 🙂 I also appreciated your feelings about acknowledging you are a writer. You are an amazing writer, and I have very much enjoyed getting to know you through the blog. It is indeed that relationship that I find most satisfying, which seems to emerge through sharing the writing… I’m kind of in a similar phase of realizing I am closing in on the day when I call myself a writer… Blogging has been a similar “enabling” practice. It hasn’t always felt like a writing practice, because like you I have long viewed writers as those with publishers and agents and columns and books to their name, but I think that writing is indeed what blogging is. Writing is at its most essential simply the raw, vitalizing need to express ourselves meaningfully to others, and in the process the discovery of ourselves… You complete this task beautifully!
I do so appreciate the time you take to keep your great site going… It is a gift!
Michael
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I guess all the 5writers are busy. I know they’ve all been at a 3 day retreat to simply write, so maybe that’s it.
Thank you so much for your compliments. If enough people tell me maybe one day I’ll believe it 🙂
You too are an amazing writer! I pray for even half your imagination 🙂
It feels good to know the blog and my writing are both appreciated.
“Writing is at its most essential simply the raw, vitalizing need to express ourselves meaningfully to others, and in the process the discovery of ourselves” – yes it’s so true. The more I write the more I want to write because of exactly this – the need to express, and the self-discovery in the process. And I do very much find myself encouraged, by doing it, and by the positive feedback.
Thank you
Alison
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Whoa. What a marvelously crafted piece of writing. And thought. Because I see all the writing you do, the end result (posts, comments, replies, Facebook, etc), I know you write a lot. I think it was Malcolm Gladwell—don’t know if it was his thought or him citing someone else—said it takes 10,000 hours of doing something to be good/great at it. I think you are approaching the 10,000-hour mark in writing.
I liked the quote in your piece about committing and then providence taking over. I live my life like that, knowing providence better take over.
About Turkey–you just might not want to miss Saklikent Gorge. It’s very cool. We rented a car in Antalya and drove up the coast to Izmir…that was maybe the best road trip I ever took. I’ve seen lots of pretty water in the world, but the water along that coast is outrageously beautiful. Along with lots of ancient sites of stone along the Lycian Way.
I’d say rent a car. But buses are cool. And they have (had?) a special bus, called the Green Rabbit, or green turtle, or something like that for budget travelers, where they stop at certain places, and hotels, along the route.
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Thank you! I take that as a great compliment coming from you. And also must give credit where it is due. Don has extremely fine editing skills, and certainly helped me craft this piece. I like the 10,000 hours thing – maybe finally I’m getting to be good at it!
We find the same thing with commitment – over and over. *You* know how it works.
Thanks so much for the Turkey tips. Saklikent had come to our attention – this is the second time in a few days so I guess we’d better pay attention.
We’ve kinda got a plan – a week in Istanbul, train to Cappadocia and 6 days there, bus to Konya and 3 days there. After that? Thinking of fast train to Izmir. Then renting a car to drive that coast might be just the thing – but it depends on having time to get all the way to Fethiye for Saklikent and back in about max 12 days. Still figuring it out.
Plus – we really have to somehow get to Denizli for Pamukkale. So much to see and not enough time!
Alison
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Alison & Don, well, you two are, if anything, a very fine team at doing what you do: love, life, blog. Commitment–yeah, I see that working, but I admit, I have a terrible time doing it, committing. Or maybe it’s the discipline to keep committing I have problems with. Why is there one “t” in commitment, but two “t’s” in committing? That must tell us something?
Turkey: renting a car would allow you to go as far and fast as you could. Waiting for buses, or running on their time table would be less efficient (but perhaps less expensive). Saklikent is cool, if it’s a trade off for it or Pamukkale…go to Pamukkale: it is just unreal. My biggest disappointment…I did not get a good photo there.
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I think the spelling of commitment must be the answer to the riddle of everything 🙂
We were just looking at a map and seeing it would be possible to do a round trip Izmir, Selcuk, Bodrum, Marmaras, Fethiye (and Saklikent), Denizli (and Pamukkale) and back to Izmir. I think it will work. We’ll get us a good GPS and just follow instructions.
I’ll try to get a good photo of Pamukkale for you 🙂
A.
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No…now see, you actually do not know everything. The “answer to the riddle of everything” is…”42.”
Oh, that would be a fine trip. And while you are in the area (Denizli), do not miss Hierapolis—very cool Roman stone stuff.
We found a great, inexpensive place in Selcuk…but I can’t remember (or find) its name. But they were linked with Hanedan Hotel in Istanbul (if you stay at one, you get a discount at the other). You could call/write Hanedan, ask about there buddy hotel (same owner?) in Selcuk. And the Hanedan is in a prime location in Istanbul, and they have one really small room that is extra inexpensive.
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Yeah, but wot’s the question?
Thanks for the Turkey info.
A.
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Hi Alison and Don,
I have been catching up on the comments here. If you are going to the south coast of Turkey, we really enjoyed the Dalyan River. For us we had a different perspective because we did the visit from our sailboat with the kids.
If you want to learn more, here is my post from our visit a decade ago:
http://davidgreer.ca/cruise/diary/djg/2003/jul/20030716.html
Good luck with the planning.
Cheers,
David
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Thanks David. It sure sounds like you had a wonderful day on the Dalyan River. And we are planning to go to the south coast – maybe drive from Izmir to Fethiye and back, something like that.
Would love to get together and pick your brains 🙂
Will email.
Alison
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Your commitment to the blog and the writing process is commendable Alison. Your writing is excellent I must say, in all aspects (mechanism, details, descriptions, etc.) – with credit going to Don’s editing as well.
I find it interesting that you just step away when you find the words don’t come. That’s was a lot of people do!! But that strategy has never worked for me, in part because I’ve always had to meet deadlines writing/editing for a living. Blocks terrify me because I’m afraid I won’t get through them or that the words just won’t come.
I remember one of my instructors in journalism school said just stare at the blank page long enough and it would ‘start to bleed’, and the words would follow. I have found this to be true.
And when I’m revising text I discipline myself to reword/rewrite sentences in every imaginable way, and usually I come up with something that satisfies.
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Thank you so much Gayle for your wonderful comment about my writing! I take that as a great compliment coming from you who writes/edits professionally. It’s very encouraging. I seem to have gotten over some hump through this whole exercise. Now the more I write the more I want to write.
I do set myself deadlines with blog posts. Ten days between posts is the max, and if it gets beyond that I start to panic a bit, but it’s not the same as a professional deadline I’m sure. I love what your journalism teacher said. Next post for sure I’ll be bleeding all over the page 🙂
I like the idea of your last sentence. I do do that of course when I’m crafting a piece, but it is not a conscious deliberate decision. I’ll start to apply it more consciously and see what happens.
Would love to see you. Gonna start a conversation on FSU for a get together 🙂
Alison
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This is exactly what I needed to read today. Thanks so much for sharing your experience through the guest post. I am a destination blogger. I write about Anguilla. I started the blog because I knew I wanted to write. Fast forward 2 plus years, my full time job, family and other commitments keep me super busy that I am often too tired or lazy to write. I can’t give up on the blog though so it is discipline and routine I need and something has to give. Thanks for the inspiration.
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Hi Shellecia, I’m so glad that writing about my own experience has helped you. It sure takes some discipline to keep a blog going. I’ve had a quick look at your blog. It looks wonderful and only a brief look has enticed me to want to come visit! I’ll have time to take a closer look in the coming week or so.
Cheers for now
Alison
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Would love if you visited Anguilla :). Thanks for visiting my blog. Working on that discipline now!
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Wow! I certainly find your commitment inspiring. I’m committed to many things at the moment, including writing. Way to go Alison, and glad “to happen into” seeing your blog post today.
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Thanks Ka. It’s really is quite often the commitment that keeps me going. Then I get into whatever post I’m writing, and it always starts as a slog and then becomes something I’ve ‘birthed’ and that feels wonderful. Perseverance is such an important part of it for me.
Alison
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