One of the reasons stories are as interesting as they are is because it opens a window to us to places we've never been before.

Having new places described to you allows you to be teleported into the shoes of the character, and it lets your imagination soar.

I know everyone is different, but I have to ask myself how often I actually go new places. Sure, there's the occasional family vacation, and even sometimes those are to the same places we've been to before.

Honestly, it's pretty rare. We might try a new restaurant from time to time, but with the way we pack our lives, we're all about getting from point A to point B as fast as we can, and we get in our routines to make sure we are as efficient with our time as we can be.

But we crave new experiences.

We read stories, or watch movies, or unfortunately, scroll endlessly on a screen looking for something fresh and entertaining... and I have many thoughts on phones and their roles in our lives... but those are filtered experiences.

We're experiencing something new through someone else, and if we're drawing on that for our own storytelling, it will be a weaker (and eventually cliched) version of what you can do if you learn to describe something from your environment and your set of experiences.

Activity: Not All Who Wander Are Lost

What I encourage you to do is to find some time to go somewhere safe that you've never been before. Maybe it's a walking trail you've always wanted to see. Maybe it's a different part of your town that you have never visited before.

It's summer, I get it, so maybe even riding in the car somewhere to go down some streets you've never been before. No GPS, no mapping system, just go somewhere you haven't been before and take in the sights of somewhere new.

And then, if you have the time and budget, find a restaurant you've never been to before and visit it. Check out the menu and maybe try something that isn't your usual go-to meal.

Spend time together soaking in all of the new experiences and talk about what you notice. And when your food arrives, talk about what you taste.

In Act 2 of stories, often our characters will find themselves in new places and experiencing new tastes and smells and sights. When you what you're experiencing first hand isn't what you're used to, your mind will be paying more active attention to it all and these can be great details to add into your book because you'll be more like your character who is taking it all in.

If a restaurant trip is outside the budget, then maybe visit a grocery store you haven't been to and pick up ingredients for a dish you've never made before.

Basically, I want you to jump out of the rut of your day to day and see if it doesn't jog your creativity in how you are writing your story and how you describe things.

As an aside, I've found some of my more creative times have been during road trips to places I've never been to before. I was wondering why all of these ideas were coming to me and I believe it is because my mind was making new connections and firing on different cylinders than it usually was.

Getting better at communicating what you are experiencing that is new to you will serve the story, and your reader. Plus I think it's an important life skill to pick up in general. Putting words to new ideas and concepts will serve you in so many areas of life.

One more thing.

What a character notices can actually tell you a lot about them.

* Do they pay attention to the animals they see?

* Are they always looking for where the exit is as soon as they enter a room?

* Are they more likely to notice the style of clothes the other person is wearing more than what the other person is saying?

Little details like that don't necessarily need to be pounded in, but they are little clues that we can give a reader about a character…and maybe can offer you some insight into yourself as well.

Ask yourself when you experience someplace new, what are you paying attention to? Maybe that's something your main character can share.

I hope your writing journey is going well. My apologies that these episodes are coming out a little less frequently.

When I originally planned out the Summer Writing Project, I had it scheduled to run alongside Camp NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), but in the last year that program has gone away, so I figured I'd give myself a little more grace in releasing these as this month has been more about offering some writing advice and last month was more about how to understand story structure and using that to build out your story.

Thanks for being a part of this!

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