by Peggy McKenzie
“Traveling–it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.”
Ibn Buttuta
I stumbled upon the quote above and realized that as all of us get the opportunity to travel, we all can become storytellers.
Originally from Oklahoma, I transplanted to Colorado, and now live in East Texas. By now, you get the idea that I like to travel. I do! I love it! Part gypsy? Maybe. Storyteller? Absolutely! And although I do a lot of my writing in my home office, I do my best writing on the road traveling in my RV seeing new places and making new friends.
I love to write. I love to write anywhere. By the pool. Waiting at the doctor’s office. On a plane. In the car. I have even jotted down notes while I waited at a red-light. But my favorite place to write by far is at my desk in my RV somewhere on a river or at the end of a dirt road or a mountain or…well, just about any destination because there are so many places chocked full of opportunities to gain new perspectives and insights, new descriptions, and unexpected view points. Why, I’ve even based some of my quirkiest characters in my books on real life people I’ve met in an RV.
Are you a storyteller? Maybe you have no desire to ever write a book, but if you have ever told stories of your adventures around a campfire to friends and family, you, my friend, are a storyteller!
I’m writing this from my RV in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I’m backed up next to a river that leads into Lake Catherine, and the serene beauty of the landscape is so lovely and peaceful. I’ll bet you have some stories to share too. Let’s share! Visit my website at http://www.peggymckenzie.com and leave me a comment in the chat box about your latest travels. I’d love to hear all about them!!
A picture is worth a thousand words so share your travels in picture form with us over at Word by Word Facebook group @ https://www.facebook.com/WordbyWordWomen/
*Ibn Baṭṭūṭah was a medieval traveler who wrote one of the world’s most famous travel logs that described the people, places, and cultures he encountered in his journeys along some 75,000 miles (120,000 km) and across the world.
Word by Word 
The same works for me, Peggy. I’ve incorporated travels. Based description of characters on people I’ve seen. This makes for far more interesting reading.
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Sounds like some inspiring backdrops for your writing muse! Enjoy!
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Peggy, what an adventure. Great you can combine two things you love. 🙂
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It’s true that whether you travel to a town ten miles away or on another continent you’ll see different things, meet people you could never imagine and find yourself in situations you couldn’t imagine. I had an uncle who renovated an old bus and travelled around in that for awhile but, to the best of my knowledge, he never wrote any of his stories down.
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Hey, Peggy. Sounds like you’ve got the best of all worlds–traveling and writing at the same time. I love to travel, but I do my best writing right at my desk at home. On occasion, I’ve done writing retreats where I used a lap top, but I’ve given that to my husband, and I don’t make much progress on my Surface Pro. And yes, I really count on the locations from my travels for my books. Locations are almost like a character in my books. I’ve shared. 🙂
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