This time next week, I’ll be on flight to England, wending my way towards the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton. There’s a lot of Australian folks doing that at the moment. I’d wonder how Brighton is going to cope, if it weren’t for the fact that England seems to be overrun by Australians as a matter of course, so they’re probably used to it.
Right now, I’m on a lunch break, trailing the not-quite-a-computer set-up that I’m planning to use as a trasnportable word-processor/blogging platform while I’m overseas. That consists of the Samsung Galaxy 2 tab I acquired earlier this year, plus a battery-operated Ligitech bluetooth keyboard that works way, way better than the peice of crap I gold sold when I first picked up the tab (the lag on the first keyboard was bad, and I tend to type really fast). The Logitech is working out pretty well. It doesn’t quite cope with my typing speed, but it catches up pretty quickly, and I’m a short-burst writer at the best of times, so catching up is a workable solution.
It’s been pointed out that not-writing was also an option for this trip. These people have been dealt with. I’ve done enough not-writing in the lead-up to my own con. I’d rather not let that become an ingrained habit while I’m at someone elses event. Plus, you know, there’s the epic pile of stuff that needs to be done. I really should get on that.
So if anyone’s got any tips for doing the writing thing while travelling, let me know.
I’ve ended up taking a short, unscheduled break from writing newsletters over the last fourteen days. Regular GenrePunk Ninja transmissions will resume
Like many of you, I have good weeks and bad weeks on the writing front. This week has been rocky, and if
Welcome to GenrePunk Ninja supplemental, where I occasionally post foundational essays written before I launched the GenrePunk Ninja newsletter, especially if they’re
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Notebook during the day, transposing to laptop at night. That's how I did all the things in LDN.
As someone who takes a trip to the US and back at least once a year, I have some tips and tricks, especially now that I have nifty tech to help me along.
ON THE PLANE/IN THE AIRPORT
During travel itself (on the plane, waiting to transfer, etc), have a main project and 2-3 side projects you're willing to work on. If your main is, say, a romance short story, it might be difficult to write the meaty stuff when some passenger's watching the newest Die Hard: Just Die Already in the middle of an ACTION SEQUENCE OF ACTION. Have some side things you're willing to play around with — snippets of scenes, goofing with character bios, etc., for those times the folks in front of you insist on watching material whose themes are poorly matched to yours.
For example, for me this Christmas it'll be my academic stuff, with creative character work and a campaign I'd like to run off on the sides. As long as I'm contributing creatively to *something*, all is well.
Also, I find making stories up about people you see in the airport is a fun exercise.
OFF THE PLANE
If you have to take care of e-mails, do it at the end of the day. You do it in the morning, you get bogged down in obligations that you can't really meet anyway since you're not even on the same continent. Keep your soul light. Knock them out of the park before bed.
Also, make sure you take minimum 30 minutes before bed to accomplish stuff. If you *know* you'll be having a night of heavy libations with friends, as you do at any decent con, then make sure you tackle stuff before breakfast, but screw the e-mails. They can go rot. Why are they e-mailing you while you're away, anyway? The point is, set aside a block of time every day that is for your work, and your work alone; use the creative momentum granted by a con to push you through getting this work done. Do minimum X number of words or what have you, across however many projects you end up working on. (I'm a multitasker, but I've been told this may not be the best way to accomplish things, so, take some of this advice with a salt lick.)
I also highly recommend livetweeting, but that's adding to your written work pile, so maybe not.
Don't make jokes with customs offices they have had the humour gene removed. Oh writing … have you sourced an internet provider for your devices.