Take a Creative Getaway

You feel it in the pauses of your days. Between picking up the kids from school, getting your work done and taking care of the house, the urge to get away pecks at you.

You imagine yourself in a cottage by the sea, or perhaps a cabin surrounded by trees. There, you feel a spaciousness you don’t find at home. Away, you’re able to finally focus on your writing.

This is a common urge for creatives, this desire to escape the daily demands of life and slip off somewhere secluded. There, we are sure, we will finally be able to focus and write the masterpiece we know is inside us somewhere.

I have felt this urge, and many times I’ve been able to honor it. Two months house sitting in a remote French village, a week here or there house sitting in the mountains, and now, this sojourn I’ve embarked on in Paris.

Get away without leaving home

While it’s true that time away can give us the focus we need and want, we can also get that focus at home. I know, because I’ve often felt the urge to get away. I’ve known, very sincerely, that if I just had a month away, I could finish my novel.

But that month away wasn’t available for me, and there will be a lot of times when it’s not available for you, either. How to focus anyway? Here are a few suggestions.

Master the art of the mini getaway. An hour, two hours, three hours away from home in the library, a park, a friend’s house while she’s at work, a quiet bookstore or a café can give you the sense of getting away. Toni Morrison used to check into hotels to focus on her novel.

To make it feel more like a getaway, turn off your phone. Go offline.

Go somewhere new, a place where you’re not known.

If you can’t get away from the house, write in a room you don’t normally frequent. If you’ve got a one-room home, turn your chair in a new direction.

While it’s largely a question of changing locations and stepping away from our obligations, my clients have found that they can do this with a few small adjustments at home.

Practice the art of the mini getaway until you can take a real getaway.

Planning for bigger getaways

Your real getaway may take a whole year to plan and save for. Mark the dates on your calendar.

Figure out where you will go. Estimate the costs, and start saving.

Plan what you will work on while there, and know that it may take you a day or two to settle into your focused zone.

This doesn’t have to cost a lot, be far away, or be complicated. I’ve often house sat, saving money on accommodations.

The point of a creative getaway is to focus, to release yourself from your other roles, to set aside distractions so you can write.

What works for you to get away, even when you can’t escape your daily routine?
What have mini or big getaways done for your writing?

Share your getaway tips in a comment below.