Wednesday, March 26, 2014

#422: Writing in Hotel Rooms

Reason to Be Happy #422:
Writing in Hotel Rooms

 I don't know why, but I write like crazy in hotel rooms. I feel inspired and I get a lot of words on the page. Maybe it's because I don't have to worry about anything else—I'm not at home where other tasks might distract me, and no matter how lovely a hotel room is, it's essentially just a room. I don't question it—I just embrace it. When my fella had to be out of town for a work conference and invited me along, I jumped at the chance to spend some days in a hotel room alone while he was at the conference. I told the front desk not to service our room, I fired up the coffee maker, and I got SO. MUCH. DONE. I'm really nearing the end of this draft and it feels so good!

 Perhaps the only thing that makes writing in a hotel room better, is getting to eat cake straight out of the box while I'm doing it. This beautiful cake came from the wonderful women at Thurber House where I spent the month of October, and where I began the draft of this same novel (which seems very fitting). I took a writing break Friday and left the hotel (gasp!) to go visit them. Left feeling inspired (but in a food coma). They sent the leftover cake for me to share with my fella.
Well, they even included little plates and forks, so we could eat it in a civilized manner, but I forgot to include a knife, so in a plot twist frenzy, needing sugar, I had to resort to eating the cake with a fork right out of the box. I highly recommend this the next time you're in a writing marathon. I made huge progress on the draft and now safely report that I will finish this draft by the end of the month (and, yes, I know that's less than a week away. It's gonna happen). I'm telling you: cake.

4 comments:

  1. I'm jealous. I need a hotel room and three or four days to do revisions. Work and dirty dishes distract me. Go you!

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  2. I know we can't ignore work, but Ignore the dirty dishes for a little while at least! My home currently looks like a crack house...but it'll be worth it!

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  3. I'm scared of this book you are writing. I've never watched a zombie movie, read a zombie book, or had a conversation about zombies.I'm sort of anti-zombie. However, I am completely pro-Katrina Kittle, so I'll give it a go. <3

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  4. Never fear, Jennifer! There are no zombies in this book. I swear. It's not really a zombie story, but a pandemic story. It's not even a real apocalypse, just a temporary containment/quarantine. You'll see. But it means the world to me that you'd give it a go even if it were full of zombies! :-)

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