Five Tips for Writing (or Traveling) on a Train

I’m sure many of you have heard of Amtrak’s free writers’ retreat or even applied for it. While I haven’t applied, I recently rode from Chicago to Washington DC and back on an Amtrak train to take a family vacation. The train rides were the most productive parts of the trip for writing, but it’s not always easy to actually write on a train. Here are a few pieces of advice if you want to try writing on a train:

1.    Decide your budget, retreat time, and sleeping requirements in advance. – Longer trips mean more writing time, right? Not necessarily. If your trip is overnight, then you may find yourself in a car with quiet time. During this time, the overhead lights are off, and noise is discouraged. I think you’re still allowed to have your personal overhead light and equipment on, but you will need to sleep sometime. Can you sleep sitting up? If you’re in coach, you may have to. (If you can find two empty seats, then you can stretch out--or curl up. You are allowed to sleep in the observation car, but there are more distractions there too.) Sleeping cars are much more expensive. If you’d rather not sleep on the train, then you either need to choose a shorter trip or stay overnight at your destination before returning home. If you do want to sleep on the train, it may be helpful to bring your own pillow and blanket, as well as a sleeping mask and/or earplugs. You can buy them on the train if you forget them, but why not save money if you can?

2.    Decide what to bring.-- You can bring a laptop onto the train without any problems. (Checking in and boarding a train is much easier than a plane.) Even in coach, you’ll have outlets available, though not all trains provide Wi-Fi. (On the route we took, Internet signals were intermittent, since part of the time we rode through mountains and tunnels.) The train can be rocky at times, so it might not be a good choice for you if you write by hand. Snacks and bottled water are available on the train, but they can be expensive, so think ahead and bring your own if possible.  You can check bags and bring on two carry-ons per person.  If you’re traveling overnight, make sure to put hygiene items in a carry-on. It’s not a pleasant feeling to go for a long time without brushing your teeth.

3.    Feel free to move around if necessary.—Because you do need to eat, visit the bathroom, and take some breaks. After the conductor has checked your ticket, you’re free to move about the train. The seats are wider, and you have more legroom than you do if you’re on a plane. You can hang out in the observation car or visit the café. It may be a bit disconcerting to pass from car to car while the train is moving, but it’s safer than it appears. Be prepared to steady yourself as you walk around, though.

4.    Be prepared to deal with distractions.—Even if you think depriving yourself of Internet access for a few hours will help you write, there are still conversations by other passengers, official announcements (you don’t want to miss your stop or your dinner reservation!), and unexpected stops that may distract you. Plus, depending on when and where you travel, you may want to watch the scenery. (I wrote this in the observation car and was lucky enough to see a rainbow.) Know what’s going to interfere with your writing and plan accordingly. That could mean bringing earplugs or earbuds or even shutting your curtain.  Oh, yeah, and if you’re traveling with a child or children, they can be distracting too, even if they’re well-behaved.

5.    Consider using the trip as research.—Perhaps you can combine the travel with a stop at a setting you want to experience first-hand. Or perhaps you want to get into the mindset of your characters as they journey from one place to another. Even people-watching on the train or in the station can give you ideas for characters. Remember, sometimes writers need to retreat for a while to write (or to stop and take pictures of their stuffed traveling companions), but you can’t retreat from life permanently.


Have you ever taken a train trip? If so, did you find it useful writing time? Do you have any questions about train travel? Please post in the comments. If you can’t sign in to comment, you can always e-mail me too.

Writing Marathon

Once again we're between interviews for the Blog Ring of Power, so you'll have to wait until next week to hear from Denise Verrico. Technically, her series of mini-interviews will start on Wednesday at Terri's blog if you can't wait until next Monday.

 My family gave me a wonderful gift yesterday: a writing day! Normally, it's hard for me to get much writing time on the weekends since I have to catch up on housework and keep my five-year-old son entertained. However, yesterday my husband took our son to the local Railway Museum. While they spent all day riding diesels and taking pictures (my son borrowed my camera and took the pictures posted here), I got to revise Twinned Universes.It's hard to say exactly how much I got done, since I was just tweaking in some spots and writing new material in others. However, since I skipped over some scenes, I probably advanced about one hundred pages in the novel. Ideally, I'd like to finish this pass before Labor Day weekend so I can send this off to my editor for line edits.

How long is your typical writing session? If you get a day to focus on writing, are you productive, or do you do other things instead?

Help! I've Been Pinned!

I'm probably one of the last people to get on board the Pinterest train, but I finally did so the other day. Ironically enough, I did so to save ideas for my real-train-obsessed son. Now I have several other boards up. I've seen other writers use Pinterest to collect inspiring images, so I'm doing that for my Catalyst Chronicles series. I have another board dedicated to my favorite books, plus additional boards for some of my other interests. (I was hoping to use this for the science links I post on Fridays, but apparently Pintrest is more interested in collecting images instead of text.) You can follow me at Sandra Almazan or sf4ever if you're interested.

Writers: Do you have any other writing-related uses for Pintrest? If so, what are they?

The Leviathan

I didn't blog this morning because I was waiting until we got back from the Illinois Railway Museum. This weekend, they had a special guest: a working steam engine. The Leviathan 63 is a replica of a steam engine built in 1868. This engine is much more recent; you can read more about it here. Here are some pictures of it:


We got to ride the Leviathan--well, behind it in a coach. It wasn't as noisy or as rocky as I thought it would be, but we did see water get splattered on the window from the engine. We were actually in the second coach, so that was even more impressive. I also saw rainbows outside the window, and of course smoke.

While we were at the museum, the engine had to take a couple of water breaks. The trip is only a few miles back and forth; I'm not sure how many miles it can go between water stops, but it must not be much. It's amazing how much this inefficient engine was able to accomplish in its day.

A Visit to the Train Lady

Not too far from us lives The Train Lady. She owns a company that manufactures and installs model railroad layouts. Once a year, she opens up her home and grounds so the public can see some of her setups. Sounds like the perfect activity for a trainiac like my son, doesn't it? Here are some of the pictures I took this weekend:


At the Train Lady's place, trains are everywhere! Even the bathroom was decorated with a train motif.













Alex is riding in the boxcar.















My husband and son admiring one of the train layouts. The Train Lady's daughter took a picture of Alex in his Amtrak outfit for her mother.













Inside a building set up to look like the outside of a train station. This layout includes some Chicago landmarks, like Millennium Park. We're looking down at the setup from the control area.











I wonder if Alex will try to get a job working here when he's older....

A-Z: Trains

My son (who turns four next month) is obsessed with trains. He wears striped overalls and a striped cap every single day. His favorite things to bring for show-and-tell are model train catalogs, and he gets upset if one of the other kids tears a page. At home, he likes to cut the engines and cars out of the catalogs and tape them all over the walls and furniture. (I finally took down the ones in the living room, but there are still some in his bedroom.) He knows the difference between steamies and diesels, and he also recognizes the various types of freight cars. As you might expect, he has a ton of Thomas the Train toys, and he's also showing interest in Chuggington. However, he prefers "trains with no faces," such as the G-gauge freight train set he got for Christmas. Luckily, we live near the Illinois Railway Museum and the Chicago Botanic Garden, so we take him to those places, hobby train shops, and train shows. Here are a few of the exhibits we saw last year:

Every year, the Chicago Botanic Garden sets up an outdoor model railroad exhibit featuring American landmarks. Here's one of the trains.












My son riding in the Zephyr at the Illinois Railway Museum last year.












Here he is posing with his favorite train at the Railway Museum, a Baldwin Steam Locomotive. It doesn't run, but Alex talks about fixing it when he's old enough. I wonder if he'll still be as much of a trainiac at twelve as he is now.















We're actually taking Alex to a live Thomas the Train show tonight, so I wonder how he'll like it. While he does watch the show occasionally, he's more into other shows like Curious George--especially episodes involving trains.

Although train fascination seems to be a boy thing, I have written about trains in my stories. The final volume of my Season Lords trilogy was supposed to include a train trip, although I don't think I got to that part. There's also a train ride in Twinned Universes.

Are there any other current or recovering trainiacs out there?

Holiday Train

Since our son loves trains, we like to give him opportunities to ride them when we have the chance. During the holidays, several places around here run special holiday trains. We did one last year that had a Polar Express theme. This year, we decided to try the holiday train ride run through the Illinois Railway Museum. We hoped that they would run one of their older trains; however, when we got there, we saw one of the Chicago El trains from 1993:

We think they used it because it was heated. At least it was decorated inside:

Since it was early in the holiday season, the train wasn't full. We drove a short distance into the countryside, admiring the snow, before the train stopped, then reversed course. We drove back to the museum and finally stopped at the diner, which doubled as Santa's Workshop.








Mrs. Claus was there to greet us:




















They served us hot chocolate right away, but we had to wait in line (right by all the train items for sale) before Alex got to see Santa:




















Santa gave Alex a bag of toys and treats, and Mrs. Claus gave him a cookie. We then got to sit down for a while and do some crafts (scrapbook pages). An entertainer played a few carols on a keyboard.

We were on the last train ride of the day, and by the time they ushered us out, it was dark and cold. Alex said "good-bye" to his favorite trains for now--at least until next year.