I really like airports.

Going through security doesn’t bother me. 

It’s kind of fun to hunt through the terminal for a chai latte.

I find it satisfying to refill my water bottle at those little fountain things that are only at airports.

I don’t mean airports are good places to hang out for no reason. Neither am I saying that delays are great fun, or that I would choose to put all my liquids in separate 3-ounce bottles if I didn’t have to.

What I am saying is this: I’ve come to enjoy airports because they take me where I want to go.

The same is true with writing.

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Is writing fun on its own?

Do I enjoy grammar, punctuation, and syntax in its own right?

Is any of that an end in itself?

Not really.

I like writing because of where it brings me. Because of the ideas it’s opened up for me. Because of what I’ve learned, and what I continued to learn from doing it.

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Airports make travel possible.

They make going home possible

They make the life I want to live possible.

I don’t just tolerate them; I actually enjoy them.

Ditto writing.

(I wrote this from the Rochester airport, as I was about to fly down to Atlanta en route to Lima. Ideas seem to come to me in airports, which makes me like them even more.)

If you have a book in you, but you also believe that actually writing it stands in the way because you’re “not a writer,” or you don’t enjoy writing, or you think you’re not good at it…

…well, maybe think of writing like air travel.

First, you need to know your destination. (Did you know that there’s a counter in the Austrian airport for people who meant to fly to Australia?)

When you know where you’re going, you can map out the best route to get you there.

If you can do all the prep required to fly, then you can do all the prep required to write a book.

If you’d like to work with a reliable travel agent who can hook you up with the best airline, and provide some fun games while you wait at the gate – oops, I mean a book coach who will help bring your book to life – send me a message.