All I Needed to Know About Writing, I Learned from A Fast Trip to Hawaii

In my last blog, I wrote about “All I Ever Needed to Know About Writing I Learned from Watching Kansas City Win the Super Bowl.” 

Over President’s Day weekend, I had a fast trip to O‘ahu. By fast, I mean I boarded the plane from St. Louis at 5:30 a.m. on a Friday and was home Monday evening around 7 p.m. Besides learning that I want to go back again, and missing the three inches of snow back in Missouri, I picked up some valuable lessons that apply to writing. 

Ask for Help

I touched on this in previous column with “There’s No I in Team.” However, in this case, sometimes you don’t have a team. You’re at the mercy of the computer algorithm that put you in a seat that, while quite lovely, has not put you by the best of seatmates, and you know that there’s no way that you’ll be able to do 9.5 hours without becoming a viral sensation if you stay.

Hats off to the United Airlines flight attendant who moved my seat, not even to the window seat in the row behind mine (because the woman was upgraded to first class), but instead to the foremost front seat with no one in front of me and no one in the middle. (And a shout out to Nav, who sat in the window seat and was probably one of the most interesting traveling companions I’d had in a while. Hope your Micronesia trip was awesome. And dear people who I left, you had the entire row once I did—for which I knew you were grateful.)  

So ask for help and in some cases, it will work out even better than you ever dreamed. When I finished my first book, I reached out to two of my favorite authors via email. I was headed to the RWA convention in Chicago and I didn’t know which Harlequin editor with whom I should schedule an editor appointment. One author emailed me back and said, “Your book fits this line.” The other said “And the new editor is…” 

That’s who I met, and two months later I sold my first book and now I’m under contract for book 30. Had I not asked for help, from two strangers really, I wouldn’t have been the author I am today. Later I learned that this is not the norm to do, same for setting my book in the spot I did. 

There are such things as dumb questions, as I tell my students, which are those you can answer using Google. But for others, it might not hurt to try. Always trust your gut. It’s right more often than it’s wrong, or at least in my case. (And thanks to the American Airlines customer service rep in LAX who got me home an hour and a half earlier by changing my plane for free.) 

Embrace the Unexpected

I had no idea what to expect in Hawaii, so luckily those I was with did since the first day I was up for 27 hours straight. The last day was on my own. I got up before the sunrise, went to breakfast at Eggs ‘N Things on Waikiki Beach (so worth it, but you’ll wait if you don’t get there early), and found myself sitting next to retired married couple who told me that American Idol was filming at the Disney resort where they were staying, and that when they’d arrived they learned they’d get to go to tapings, and thus they’d had met many of the contestants and the judges.

They’d had the best time—and then they told me that one of their nephews was a butler for the late Queen Elizabeth II, and that they’d eaten Thanksgiving at Paula Dean’s house. They were honestly more excited about American Idol (and yes, I saw all the pics as I gave them half my strawberry waffles and they gave me banana pancakes). 

Later I went on a guided tour to Pearl Harbor and met even more people who I hung out with for the rest of the day (and four people on my tour were from Missouri). The only disappointment? That it was too windy and the water too choppy to take the boat out to the memorial. But that was it. The day ended on a glorious sunset, I met some new friends, I had great people next to me on my first red-eye flight in forever (which I slept through!), and same for the next two legs, and then I was home. 

Writers are observers. The more things we can see, read about and catalog in our minds, the more our minds are able to process and create words. Get out of your house and go sit in a café. People watch. Let your subconscious take it all in. Your words will be better for it. 

Go with the Flow

While I’m an extrovert (clearly), life moves a little slower on the islands, people are friendlier, and things still manage to get done. As a writer, it was great to step back from the intensity of creating an entire world from scratch. Let this be a reminder to take breaks, even if they are short. I’m the middle of a novel and the middles are always the worst stretch. It’s when I doubt myself most as a writer. 

Step back from the work-in-progress for the day. Maybe set a timer and dance around the room. Go for a walk. Read a book. Watch part of a movie (I still have to finish the latest Mission Impossible that I started on the plane).

Don’t say no. I took a day and a half to have two and a half days in Hawaii, which were two and a half more than I’d ever had. I had people tell me that was crazy, but that’s okay because it’s what I needed. As Fitz and the Tantrums sing, “I march to the beat of my own drum.” 

Sitting on the beach and watching the waves made all the intensity of traveling there worth it. And the restaurant where I lost my light jacket even had it on Sunday when I finally figured it out. Now the book I left on the plane because of jetlag? Oh well. A small price to pay for a grand adventure. 

Now it’s back to writing, and my brain feels refreshed and ready to seize the day.