November 22, 2015, 5:55PM
I am not totally sure why I am here. It started when I heard about a week-long residency Amtrak offered to writers. The idea caught my imagination and before I knew it, I had applied.
I didn’t get it.
But, not one to let that throw me, I started thinking about creating my own personalized writers residency program. And by personal writers residency program I mean I thought about taking a three-day train trip alone where I would write.
What would I write? Well, a book, of course.
And a blog.
And a blog/book.
These are three separate projects. All of which I work on an hour here, 20 minutes there. Never much time and certainly not in any systematic way. The book has especially floundered with this method since for months on end I have done nothing at all.
Honestly, I would never have put this trip together on my own. It would have just have been one of those ideas that sounded awesome that I didn’t do (where would I find the time and why would I spend that money on something so self-indulgent?) BUT, my husband Jeff gave it to me for my birthday. Three days on a train, going from LA to Boston. Three days for my DIY writers residency program.
Tonight I begin. We left at 6:15 PM (right on time) and I set up in my tiny, tiny room. Glad to have a duffel bag and not a suitcase since it would need to share my bed with me.
Tonight’s schedule:
6:00 – Write
6:30-7:30 Read and get settled
7:30-8:30 Dinner
9 Bed
Here is a tour of my room:
Yay for you! I love train travel and frequently take the train to Pismo. Seven hours to work on the way up. A day with good friend. Seven hours work on the way back.
I was thinking about you this morning j g with much gratitude and hoping you would pay daily about your trip! I will traveling with you vicariously.
A cross country train trip should be on everybody’s list!
Hint–shower in the evening before bed. It will relax you so much! And use earplugs.
Very interesting! Rather cramped space though…but I would love to do something like that. Hope your creative juices start flowing and you create something really marvelous! Have lots of fun!!
Haha, thanks for the tour. I took a train trip cross country and back once. NEVER AGAIN. Hope your trip is everything you want it to be and all you hope it will be. Happy Birthday again.