Getting Out by Pam Uphoff
Writers find inspiration in a large number of places.
But as I reread John Ringo and Linda Sherrer’s Into the Real, it er, reminds me a bit too much of myself. Sitting inside in the air conditioning, avoiding the bugs and people . . .
I really do have to get outside, and do things, talk to people . . .
I know how to do a large number of things, but sitting here thinking about it and planning a fall garden doesn’t get it done. It’s time to get off my rear and out there to dig up the weedy remains of the spring garden and start over. Fix this, make that . . . It’s important to your writing to do a wide variety of things. You have to talk to people, and more important, listen to them. You have to go to the museum and look up at the T-rex skeleton and take a close up look at those teeth, and size of the feet and those claws . . . Fly in a plane, ride in a train . . .
Oh sure, you can research, you can read about, watch a You-tube.
Sometimes that is all you need. Other times you need to do it yourself, or talk to someone who has.
So last week I did indeed get first hand experience in viewing an eclipse.
This involved a three hour road trip with my son and husband . . . to the middle of nowhere (actually a bit north of Corpus Christi Texas) and finding a place to stop (a Love’s Truck Stop) and parking. To watch. And watch other people watching it.
And grabbing your extra solar spectacles and dashing over to the family trying to show their kids . . . “Here, I’ve got two extras.” And handing them to the kids. And enjoy them peeking through and dancing around crowing about “That’s so cool!”
And wishing you’d spent a bundle for a good camera . . . And then glad you didn’t because just experiencing something is much better than stepping back and taking pictures. I gave up trying with the ordinary camera I do have (Which took the picture above through moderate cloud cover) and just watched.
There were people with serious equipment taking pictures, and people utterly indifferent as they went about their usual day.
Fast food was eaten, many sodas were drunk, then it was a three hour drive home (with a stop at a Dairy Queen in Victoria).
All in all and excellent day out. I need to do things like this more often. And more people things.
Because even the little minor details, the flat coastal plain I haven’t seen for years, the accents overheard, standing out in a beautiful fall day watching the clouds blowing by . . . The wide variety of people, of vehicles . . . it’s all there to add a bit of depth to my writing.
Must get out, much more often.
And if you haven’t read Into the Real, you should. The second in the series is coming out next month.
Mad Genius Club 
8 responses to “Getting Out”
“But but.. There Are People Out There!” [Crazy Grin]
I’m thinking about a Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs scares off the Monster by showing him the people in the theater watching the cartoon. 😉
Seriously, I’m not a writer but I know that it isn’t a Good Thing to lock yourself away from the world. (Yes, that’s a problem I fight.)
I think it is attributed to Oscar Wilde, the quote pointing out that the people outside your head are much more fascinating than the ones inside of it.
I tend to lapse into hermit mode. That leads to all sorts of unhealthy mental things bubbling up, because I lose outside references. Or I lock onto the crises I’m bombarded with (part of my job is to monitor international news media) and forget that there’s a lot more reality in the world.
Having bad knees and being a few weeks away from completing my 70th trip around the Sun, I have too many excuses for being a hermit, and a single good reason to get out more–it’s good for me.
Heading out for the eclipse was fun, now I need to follow up by peopling more.
Maybe join one of the NaNoWriMo groups around here . . .
Next year’s eclipse in Texas is going to be crazy. We’re going to make a trip of it.
Apparently my youngest brother had forgotten the eclipse was happening last weekend. He was out running errands when it happened. It didn’t hit totality, but it got quite dark, and all he could tell was there was something wrong with the light but he just couldn’t put his finger on what.
Of you don’t know what’s happening it can be pretty ominous to see the world darken without any real reason. You can’t look at the sun to see what’s up either: you have to either have a pin hole camera or special sunglasses.
It’s lessened, but it’s still clear. It’s not like a hazy day.
Watch the seasons pass to give your flowers and other plants accuracy.
I love that book. 🙂