How Travel Shapes Storytelling
You want to write about a place you’ve never been to physically. You’ve never felt its unique air on your skin, never seen how busy the day truly gets, never smelled the distinct scent of food on the wind. It just doesn’t hit quite right when you try your hand at it.
Even as I write this, it makes me think of how I never thought to wake in a city early enough to witness the absolute silence. Like Rome, for example—in the early hours does something to you. The lampposts throw a silvery light along the streets, the buildings give out a golden glow like they're lit from within, and the light pollution is low enough that you can actually make out the stars. I was wandering, with no agenda and no notebook, when it occurred to me that this would make a perfect scene. Not for a travel post—but for a novel.
That's when I knew it was time to change what To Be Explored was for.
THE VISION ON THE RING ROAD
I was driving along the Ring Road in Iceland in June 2023 when I was struck with a sudden, deep chill, enough that my teeth were chattering. I had to pull over because I couldn't stop shaking. I parked in this makeshift parking lot of an overlook of a river that trisected towering pale green mountains, the water a frothing milky blue. To others, it was strange having to explain that I saw something flash before my eyes, a scene that would appear in various drafts of a novel I attempted to write (I will eventually try again another time); two women clashing swords, mud and blood caked on their faces, hair a tangled mess, lips contorted in vicious snarls. It was so brief, but that made enough of an impact that it stayed with me. At the time, I wasn’t even looking for a story idea, but it came to me unbidden, and burrowed its way into my brain like a creative little worm and stayed with me until I put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard).
The next day, I walked from my hotel to a cafe, sat down and banged out an outline. This was back when I was a plotter, planning everything from the beginning to the middle to the end. Later I would learn that it would dilute how I told the story.
Even then, jotting down a practice scene, noting things like how the sky was gloomy, how the wind blew my hair this way and that with a strong enough gale to knock me over. For the record, I'm 5'10" with some curves, and that wind shouldn't have knocked me over, yet it nearly did a few times. I had to do the Michael Jackson lean to fight it.
I kept those strong gale forces in mind, and how in those mountains, I could feel a lingering presence of the old Norse gods. How cold it was, despite it being summer (I even saw a few snowflakes!). There's just so much of Iceland's landscape that could craft an entire story. And not just the landscape, but Iceland's history, the myths tied with its culture.
THE DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD
Whenever I travel, I only let the "tourist" out of me occasionally, but I do it with intention. If I am doing a tour of a building or a city, I listen to the details about the architecture, the history, and I let it sit with me as I turn over how to weave it into the story. But really, I let the inspiration latch onto those details. When I decided to travel and write full time, I promised myself I would never be working and writing 24/7. But sometimes, inspiration can strike you when you least expect it. And there were times where I would come back from a trip burned out because I never fully took that time to relax, because, frankly, my mind was always at work, always holding onto those little details and working it into a plot. But then there were times when I was so deeply exhausted, I would mentally check out during tours and let my eyes glaze over as a tour guide provided information. It's a double-edged sword, wanting to be off to enjoy where you are and wanting to capture every single detail.
There are very few moments when I wish I had stayed longer to latch onto those details, where I kicked myself for being too tired to pay attention, for doing too much at once. It's hard to pinpoint which of those moments I think of specifically, yet if I had to choose one—it would probably be Scotland. There's such an ancient wildness about it filled with mysticism that I would love to explore deeper into it. I kept wanting to go back and it felt like a physical ache leaving it. Not just because of how much I loved it, but because there's so much to see in such a short time. Honestly, I would love nothing more than to spend a week or two in Edinburgh and explore every nook and cranny it has to offer. The gothic architecture there… Man, that's the bee's knees for us gothic writers.
WHAT NO SEARCH ENGINE CAN GIVE YOU
But what most people don't know is that all it takes is for that one place to stick with you forever, to jump start that story brewing inside you. Just like that one Iceland location. For the record I do know the name but I'm afraid if I try pronouncing the name, I will summon a Nordic demon.
I want this new iteration of To Be Explored to be a place where writers can learn how to travel with intention, how to use their surroundings to shape the stories within them. A simple Google search can't tell you how the wind feels on your face and in your hair. Or how the gray sky is vastly different from the gray sky elsewhere. Or how you can sense a primordial presence looming above you. No simple internet search can help you with that. I know this because I see and feel it every day, and even though a view remains the same, there's always that minor shift that can't be captured online.
Right now, as I write this blog post in my home office in Lisbon, I'm looking out my window, listening to distant church bells marking the new hour, seeing the hazy gray horizon of distant mountains and city across the Tagus River, and seeing the occasional boat pass by. The other day it was a bright blue sky, white fluffy clouds, full sun. Today it's gray. That's setting a scene already for a future gothic heroine, wondering what horrors await her if she were to step outside the building. And when she does, who knows what stories the world will tell her.
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