Mini-hub from Barbados
I am not a writer in Barbados.
If you are anything like me, then I would recommend that you do not go to any of the tropical islands with the assumption that your writing will not be interrupted. Especially if you are going for a family wedding, and are only staying for one week.
I am writing this mini-hub on a beach in Barbados. Oh, the horror. I am such an unfortunate, to be brought to this paradise against my will.
I had high hopes for the island, I really did. I packed several notebooks for several different kinds of writing: hub and blog books, scribbling and sketching books, one book to use as a photo album (portable printer also packed), and some note paper for writing some of the novel. I imagined seven days of childfree writing time, of getting a few of my six or seven remaining chapters drafted, of diary entries and blogs to flow freely, extolling the virtues of all-inclusive Caribbean vacations. I basically imagined that the words would come pouring out of me at every given opportunity.
This has not proved to be the case.
Barbados does not seem to be conducive to scribbling. Not to me, at any rate. To me, Barbados is conducive to lounging on sun loungers with paper and pen idle on lap/in bag/buried in sand, and conducive to trying to stay awake. Yes, strange as it may seem, Barbados is very tiring. This is the problem. I am certainly not short of inspiration here, not at all. Only lacking the energy to pick up a pen and write down what's in my head.
Trips out to see the island, 'swims' in the sea, games of catch in the pool for hours on end, nights 'out' at the hotel bar every evening, sipping icy blended cocktails, and relentless beating sun that makes a person's blood sound very loud; all these things have the effect of rendering me literarily mute. I have the will to write, but not the muscle power. You will never know the effort I have gone to to construct these few paragraphs.
Barbados is stunning, and I am having a marvellous time (who could face the prospect of swimming with turtles this afternoon, and not be having a marvellous time?!). But in Barbados I am not a writer. In Barbados I am tired. In Barbados I am tired, but happy. In Barbados it is fine to take a break.
I have all the time in the world to write when I get back home. Right now, I have to go for a swim...
