On Writing Abroad

Last month my Beloved and I went on our belated honeymoon to SCOTLAND.

We’d been planning this for quite some time and were both very excited. I’d been to Scotland a couple times before, but he never had, and we planned a three-week trip that took in as much of the country as we could: Edinburgh, Islay, Oban, Inverness, John O’Groats and the Isle of Skye. It was simply glorious. (And the parts we missed? We’ll just have to go back and catch them next time!)

While we were there we visited as many used bookstores as possible and came back home with quite a collection of books (so much so that we may have had to purchase two extra bags to carry home all of our souvenirs, but nevermind that).

[A stack of the books I picked up in Scotland, some for myself and some to give away. How glorious ❤️]

[Can we also celebrate that I found a copy of The Private Life of the Rabbit, the book which greatly influenced Watership Down (my copy of which finally fell apart on this trip), my all time favourite travelling book?]

But even more importantly, the writing ideas I had in Scotland! The sheer amount! The absolute creativity! (The quantity! The quality!) Oh, how wonderful it was.

I knew I was going to get writing ideas while travelling around Scotland, but what actually came out of that trip and how it came about was amazing. Often inspired by the architecture and landscape around us, and sometimes by the history, I jotted these ideas down on the notes app on my phone, stopping frequently for ‘a wee writing break’.

[The writing ideas started on our very first day in Edinburgh, walking through a random close on our way from the hotel to the High Street. I saw a stone tree in the wall and it sparked an idea about magic in a stone city. So I took a picture of it (not a very good picture, admittedly) and began what became a Very Long Note in my phone.]

I do have an overall story idea to bind together all these individual Scotland ideas, but I’m working on something else at the minute (of course). So when will this story be ready? Who knows?? I have too many other ideas already!

[My Incredible Supportive Husband was very patient with all the “hold on a sec, I have a writing idea” stops 😁]

[Oh yes, and I did get to hold a first edition of Lord of the Rings at a wee used bookshop in Dingwall.]