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| Shaking up my writing life in a Crazy Barn! |
Where do writers go on vacation? To Storyland, of course!
It sounds like a lame joke, but in my case it’s true. I just returned from a mini-trip to New Hampshire with my husband and son. And we did indeed go to Storyland, a children’s theme park.
Storyland is less overwhelming (and way less expensive) than Disneyland. It’s also perfect for a five-year-old book lover and his book-loving parents. It has a retro feel — parts of the park, and some rides, are decades old — and its old-timey sweetness is a nice counterbalance to the mass marketing of childhood on TV and in the aisles of Target. You can ride to a Cinderella’s castle in a big orange pumpkin. Enter the house of the Three Bears and lie down in Baby Bear’s bed. Crawl into a shoe, formerly occupied by the Little Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe. Soar in a Dutch clog, whirl through a cuckoo clock, glide in a flying fish, or levitate and rotate in a crazy barn.
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| Humpty Dumpty, cracking me up |
I’ve never been big on amusement parks, but having a child forces you to leave your preferences and your quiet routines and ride the occasional roller coaster. This is not a bad thing, I’ve decided. Anything that takes you a little off your beaten path and gives you some new perspective is good for your writing life. If twirling in a fiberglass turtle, at high speeds, won’t shake loose a few new ideas, I don’t know what will!
What do you do to shake up your writing life, or your life in general? What vacations have taken you out of your comfort zones?