Go Explore! Ideas Come from Everywhere

This past week I went on vacation, and had the chance to take a small break from my writing and go see some sights I had never seen before. Strolling the streets of San Francisco, seeing the flashy lights of Vegas, taking a tour through wine country, walking through the redwoods, and just driving new city streets provided great memories. But my trip also provided a wonderful chance to encounter many new sights, people, and cultures that all serve as the basis for great new ideas.

I think there is something to be said about the way we see things when we are encountering them for the first time. Fresh eyes, a bit of wonder, and keen observation allow for a viewing experience we don't often get from the things we see every day. How easy it is for something to be overlooked when it  becomes repetitive or familiar. But when vacationing, or visiting a new museum or landscape, we have a new perspective that interests the mind and sparks a thread of creativity is a new way.

One of most common things you hear in writing is to write what you know. Of course, there is ample room for imagination and fantasy, but I do think there is lots of value to this statement. When you know something, when you can deeply understand a place or a concept or a feeling, it comes across in your writing. Paired with this idea of exploration and new experiences, I think great things can happen in your writing. Not only are we increasing what we know by seeing and experiencing anew, but combining the exciting, inspired creativity of a new place with the more concrete, though perhaps intangible reality of what we know in our hearts and minds can provide the basis for a truly fabulous story. We need the newness as well as the old. We need to blend the architecture and dialect and unique aspects of a new city with the familiar characteristics and emotions and regions we know to make a story that is both alive and moving but also fully believable and grounded.

My trip reminded me of the value of simple observation. It reminded me that I need to get out and experience the greater life beyond my small niche. The world is happening all around us. There are millions of conversations and sights and ideas to be taken in. And the details you pick up from all different sections of the world will combine beautifully with the unique, important truths you already know.

So explore. Go for a long walk. Venture into a new neighborhood. Take the bus in a different direction and see what's out there. Seeing new sights doesn't have to mean traveling across time zones and state lines. It can simply mean opening up your eyes to the little, unfamiliar things that exist all around us. It will improve your stories, I know it will! And it might just give you a great new idea or two.