His wife is busy writing? #sailing Ripping back and forth on his windsurfer works pretty well. Nothing like the exhilaration of a good jump to keep a man busy.
Cruising on our Lagoon 380 catamaran give’s Matt a great platform to find awesome windsurfing locations.
#writetip Every season I have the dream that I’ll have endless hours to write. We live on a sailboat. What could we possibly have to do to keep us busy?
When the wind changes direction, and we have to move the boat, it’s not like I have an option. I can’t say, “This is my time to write, close a door and settle in.” Sometimes I’m even mid-sentence when an issue comes up and I have to move quickly. So much for completing a thought before leaving my Mac.
What I’ve learned is to write in short bursts. I still get my writing time in, just not in long sessions. I’ve also learned that if it’s impossible to write, I read about writing and how I can improve. Short time frames are useful if you read one good writing tip and think about how you can use it on your novel.
Meanwhile, I’m living on a Lagoon 380 S2 in the Bahamas, so who will feel sorry for me?
For each scene, establish a point of view character and stick to it. If you find yourself throwing in other characters thoughts or feelings, see if you can get rid of them without hurting the scene. This narrows the POV to one character.
Once you’re that far, check the scene for anything the character can’t know, but you’ve described. There’s a good chance this is telling. It might be something that can be removed or put in as part of what the character is doing. This way you’re revealing the character’s experience and not what you as an author want the reader to know.
I’m not saying write your whole novel this way. I’m not even saying this works. What it does is give me a process to check if I’m telling and not showing. Then I can decide whether or not to make changes.
If you have other ways to check if for telling versus showing, I’d love to hear them.
#writetip #sailing Continuing with my theme of writing and cruising, here are some tips on writing in a small space.
I don’t actually consider my Lagoon 380 S2 a small space. She is 38 feet long and with her two hulls, there is a lot of room. It’s just close together.
There are three sleeping cabins, a main salon and a cockpit. There is a built in desk in the starboard hull. But, and here’s the big but, It’s hard to be invisible and write. I can hear all that’s going on in the boat and around the area.
So I hear my friends launch their kayaks, heading out to explore and how to I resist? I allow myself one (okay maybe two) activities during work days (Mon – Fri). Saturday and Sunday are my weekends. I might write, but I don’t feel I have to.
That modern invention, the iPod, is a great way to tune out noise. If you can write to music, and don’t have a quite place, it might work for you.
#sailing As we sail through the Northern Exumas, we play the game of finding a WIFI connection or a cell tower.
We have a Bad Boy to connect to WIFI and a Kindle to connect to a cell tower. Other boats use other technology.
Connections are slow and that means no photos, no facebook or twitter, for a while, but these beautiful islands are worth it.
Monday is usually a day I blog about writing #sailing But we’ve arrived in the Bahamas.
Farley represents how we feel.
We left the Florida coast at 4 AM and arrived in Lucaya, Grand Bahamas at 3:30 PM.
Crossing the Gulf Stream was a little rougher than we expected, but we had enough wind to motor sail. We would have preferred no motor, but were happy having the main and genoa up to boost us along.
The window to cross was short and closed up behind us. We are now waiting in Lucaya at the Sunrise Resort and Marina for the wind to settle down and let us move further south. It’s a great place to get some writing done.
After this we island hop, so internet access could get a little sketchy.
If you’ve never tasted a Florida orange or grapefruit freshly picked, you should. #sailing
The last items we provision for before we leave Florida and head for the Bahamas are oranges and grapefruit. We buy them fresh, and then here’s the trick if you want them to last..
Wrap each piece of fruit individually in foil. Then store them in a dark, dry spot on the boat. They’ll last up to 6 weeks.
When the fresh fruit and vegetables get thin on the boat, that last orange tastes amazing. After that, we know it’s time to head to civilization and find supplies.
#sailing The most frequent question I get about Farley is: Where does he “go” when you are underway?
He’s not allowed out of the cockpit when we are underway. If he has to “go” he stares at me. That’s his way of letting me know.
I tether myself to the boat, Farley gets tethered to me, and then we head to the trampoline on our catamaran.
He’s chosen one corner of the trampoline as his area.
Farley will “go” on command. His command is “pay pay”. When he’s done, we use the wash down pump that is on our deck to clean the area, then I lead him back to the cockpit.
My little hero will go in any kind of weather. Sometimes he gets sprayed by a wave while he’s going, but he’s never deterred.
Sailing and writing together again. #writetip #sailing Off watch is the best time to write. I find when I’m on watch, there are too many distractions and I can’t focus on the words. Maybe I can do some editing ion watch, but not always.
A catamaran provides many spots to sit and write. If the seas are calm, lying on my trampoline always inspires ideas. This is where my digital recorder comes in handy.
If it’s too hot and sunny, I hide in our main salon. If the bimini is providing good shade, I’ll write while sitting in the cockpit. The one constant when I’m writing: Farley is always at my feet.
I guess the message is sailing and being underway is not an excuse to miss out on writing.
Farley looks how I feel after trying to shop for six months. #sailing The hard part comes after getting back to the boat. After loading the provisions into our dingy, we to lift it onto Mattina.
Then the fun begins. We open all cabinets and storage areas and play the game for figuring out where to store everything.
Farley is left with a corner to sleep in the cockpit. Behind him you can see our cockpit cushions, shoved out of the way, so we can access spots for oil, cleaners, etc.
The question. Why is the dog exhausted when we did all the work?
