Writing on holidays

My last holiday, I took the laptop, believing I would be able to squirrel away some writing time. I didn't, and it was a big disappointment (in terms of writing, not in terms of the holiday).

So when we went to Sydney, I didn't take the laptop. I didn't even take a print-out of any of my existing projects. All I took, writing-wise, was a shorthand notebook, a biro, and a copy of a story a friend had asked me to critique.

It turned out to be a great decision. Without the pressure to work on an existing project, in a new setting, and without the laptop, it turned out that I wrote quite a bit (not sure how many words because I haven't transcribed them yet) of a story that I thought was dead.

Until the holiday, I hadn't thought about this story for a couple of years.

And of course, that flows on to other projects, because you realise that projects are never really dead -- all you need to do is pick up the pen (or open the file) and start work again.