I love going on vacation. It’s not just because it gets me away from whatever superficial problems I might be dealing with. It isn’t merely so I get a break from work. One of the greatest benefits that I receive by getting away for a little bit is this rush of writer’s adrenaline.
When I finished As Darkness Falls, it was my intention to put down the pencil for at least a month or two before I took it up again to begin the next one. A friend and I ended up taking a short November vacation in Florida, and I took some things with me to pass the time. I took a Nintendo DS, some cards, a magazine, and, just in case a flash of inspiration struck me, I took a fresh notebook.
I spent more time with that notebook than anything else. The pencil scribbled so furiously that I almost had to put out a fire on multiple occasions. When I arrived back home, it almost seemed silly to take that break that I had scheduled. Too much work had already been put into The Enemy Within, and I wasn’t about to stop.
This past May was a repeat of the vacation from that November. I shared it with infinitely better company, and thought that my days would be completely planned out, but that wasn’t even remotely the case. I still made time for the novel, and it still welcomed that time openly. At best, I thought that maybe it was the Florida weather that had somehow inspired me so.
Again, I found out that this just wasn’t the case. Rhianna and I took our last vacation of the year this past weekend. We went to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire, and followed it up with a visit to Atlantic City. You’d think the pageantry and the knights would be nothing but pure fuel for the old imagination, and you’d probably be right, if I needed it. Even in AC, whenever I was given the chance to put my palm to the paper, it was there.
There’s no real explanation that I have yet for why it’s so easy for me to write when I’m on vacation. I don’t know if it’s the idea of having nothing else in the way, or if it’s that feeling of being cut off from the people in my life that I would otherwise be involved with. In any case, The Enemy Within received a huge boost this weekend, and it might be done earlier than I anticipated. A little extra polish couldn’t hurt!
Michael DeAngelo
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