The Benefits of Writing in Trains
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 12.17.09 | 3:17 PM ET
Most of the writers featured in Emily St. John Mandel’s essay in the Millions write on trains out of necessity: They need to squeeze in writing time whenever they can, even if it means doing so during a commute. But there’s something else about trains, Mandel writes, that’s “oddly conducive to writing.”
For me it’s not so much about the hand writing—I write almost everything in longhand before I transcribe it to my computer anyway, whether I’m at my desk or on the F train—but the rhythm and the white noise, the momentum of travel, the feeling of being immersed in the life of the city.
Agreed. I occasionally write on trains out of necessity, but the rhythm of the rails does help me focus. It’s great. Until I miss my stop.
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Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor-in-chief of World Hum.
Megan Hill 12.17.09 | 5:02 PM ET
I tried to write on an Amtrak train once and almost tossed my cookies. Probably didn’t help that the tracks snaked along the coast of Puget Sound. Much respect to those who can read/write while aboard a moving object.
Dick Jordan 12.18.09 | 3:33 AM ET
I spent the entire month of September 2009 traveling through Europe. It was my fourth trip to the Continent, the second during which I’d write a trip blog while traveling, and my first as a published travel writer. On my 2006 trip, I used a Palm LifeDrive PDA attached to a separate folding keyboard for blogging. This time I took a Dell netbook along and drafted blog posts on the netbook while riding the train (Prague-Dresden, Dresden-Berlin, Berlin-Munich, Baden-Baden-Frankfurt-Amsterdam). Here’s the blog post about what happened during my final train ride, from Amsterdam to London:
“(Tuesday, Sept. 29) Just as I was about to close the document with my blog posts for Monday and today, the Eurostar train lurched and the impossible happened: Not only did my notes typed in the last few minutes disappear, but everything I’d typed on the train from Brussels to England bit the dust, along with 28 pages of posts I’d written over the last month. It simply isn’t possible, but it apparently has happened.
The good news is that even though I must re-write everything I wrote today, all of my earlier posts are up on the blog and I have a copy of the e-mails forwarding those posts to you.
Nothing is ever simple, and in the Train vs. Technology department, the train always wins.”
Cathie Currie 12.18.09 | 6:32 PM ET
I have never been able to figure out why train raids are so conducive to good clear writing—I am happy to find others who have the same experience.
As a research psychologist who studies cognitive task performance, I haven’t a clue as to what aspect of the train experience ‘jogs’ my brain. It could be the rhythm of the wheels, but it could be many other factors. I had initially thought of the trainride as being symbolic of ‘getting somewhere’ but, try as I might, I do not write on planes or boats. I like flying—so it isn’t flying anxiety that prevents my writing on planes. I have spent weeks/summers on boats—sailboats, QE2: no writing. The other odd place that I get thoughts into words is when I goal tend in pick-up soccer games. Anyone else have any odd places where writing ‘happens’?