I'm a travel junkie. Fortunately for me, writing is a portable job. For those of you who share my love of travel - and who'd like to combine writing and travelling - here are some of the things that worked for me during the year I spent travelling and writing in North America. Note, this isn't an article about travel writing, but about writing while travelling.
Firstly, let's start with the tools of the trade. If you can write a whole book using pen and paper, kudos to you. I can't, so I invested in a laptop that met my criteria: as light as possible, since I'd be carrying it on my back for months; with a fairly large screen, so that I could easily see almost a whole page of text; extended battery life, so I could work for half a day without plugging into a power source; and wireless internet capability. There are lots of laptops that are smaller and lighter than the one I decided on. If you don't mind a tiny screen, then there are some extremely lightweight models!
For me, the most important issue while travelling was backing up my data. Yes, I had a flash drive, but I carried all my belongings with me, so my original data and my back-up were essentially in the same place. Before I left New Zealand I invested in an online remote back-up service, and every day all the words I'd written were beamed up to an internet storage site. Even if the places I stayed in didn't have wireless internet capability, the local libraries and cafes did. If you're planning on writing while travelling, I'd highly recommend this option. Alternatively, you can email yourself your work each day - but the advantage of off-site back-up is that you can configure your settings to back up all your digital photos too!
(Note: Despite the ubiquity of the internet cafe, relying on the internet to back up data isn't feasible in all countries, at least not on a daily basis. If you're travelling in less developed countries and you're concerned about possible theft, a flash drive concealed on your person is probably the best answer.)
Security was another issue for me, particularly as I often stayed in youth hostels. Laptops have a way of vanishing from common rooms and bunkrooms. Fortunately, most hostels have lockers, so all you need is a padlock to keep your laptop safe. Where lockers aren't available - whether in a hostel, motel, or hotel - the reception staff will lock away your valuables if you ask. I also took care not to advertise the fact that I had a laptop. It lived in my daypack, which was big and roomy, with a padded pocket down the back specifically for laptops - but most importantly, it didn't look as if it had a laptop in it. No one sitting beside me on a bus or walking down a street behind me would have known I had an expensive laptop in my daypack.
So you've chosen your laptop, you've thought about backing-up and security ... what about the actual writing? Hands down, the best places I found to write in were the local libraries. Yes, I wrote in some cafes, and I wrote a whole chapter on the shaded verandah of a hostel on an island, but for a quiet space to work in, with a decent desk and chair, a power source to plug your laptop into, and access to research materials, printing services, and the internet, libraries win. And the very best libraries (I encountered only four in a year of travelling) allow visitors to borrow books!
For me, the more slowly I travelled, the more writing I did. When I found a place that ticked the right boxes - good library to work in, hiking clubs, yoga studios - I'd hunker down for a few weeks or even a month. I'd write lots, but I'd also go hiking several times a week with local clubs, and I'd keep my body in working order with yoga classes. Staying for a while in places, learning to know them and to slowly explore the surrounding countryside was, for me, one of the great pleasures of that trip - and it helped me maintain my writing output.
Occasionally it's necessary to travel faster. My personal focus while travelling in North America was the landscape and hiking, so when there was no bus or train to take me where I wanted to go - as was often the case in the US - I'd have to hire a car. But given the cost of a car, I had to keep moving - which left little time for writing. A catch 22 situation! I solved it by interspersing spurts of fast travel with long periods of slow travel. The key is to be aware of what works best for you. Can you maintain your writing output while moving every day or two? If so, great. If not, then plan your trip around longer stays in fewer places.
