In this week's episode, we share six tips and tricks for writing while traveling.

00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 231 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is December the 13th, 2024, and today we're discussing tips for writing while traveling, which seems a timely topic as the Christmas holiday is coming up. First, we'll have an update on my current writing projects and do Question of the Week.

For my current writing projects, I'm very pleased to report that Orc-Hoard, the fourth book in the Rivah Half-Elven series is now out. You can get it at Amazon US, UK, Australia, Canada, and in Kindle Unlimited.

I am also very pleased to report that I have now published a million new words of fiction for 2024, which is the first time I've been able to do that in a year since 2020. I will probably talk more about that in an upcoming episode. Now that Orc-Hoard is done, my main project is Shield of Deception, the fourth book in the Shield War series. I'm 11,000 words into that and I'm hoping to have that out in January 2025, if all goes well. My secondary project will be Ghost in the Assembly. I haven't actually started that. I'm still in the outline writing phase, but I'm hoping that will be out in February or potentially March, depending on how long it takes to write Shield of Deception.

In audiobook news, Ghost in the Tombs is now out in audiobook (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) and you can get it at Audible, Chirp, and most of the usual other audiobook stores. She's also recording Cloak of Masks for us right now, and that should be out in January, if all goes well.

00:01:29 Question of the Week

Now it's time for Question of the Week, which is designed to inspire enjoyable discussions of interesting topics. This week's question: where do you obtain free media like free ebooks, free audiobooks, free movies, and so forth? There are no wrong answers though for obvious reasons please keep answers limited to legal media sources. No piracy, please.

The inspiration for this question was our 12 Days of Short Story Christmas, during which I’ll give away a new free short story every business day until December 23rd. If you want some of those free short stories, head to my website now. They will remain free at my Payhip store until December 31st. Now on to answers from Question of the Week.

Our first response is from Grimlar who says: Well, it's not exactly free, but I do find myself buying books from LMBPN publishing every Saturday for $1 each (their new releases from earlier in the week, usually Thursday or earlier). They drop the price of new books for Saturday as a loyalty bonus for their readers. Also, when a series has been completed, they tend to release a box set (or several for a long series), also priced at a dollar per box. They tend to release several books a week, which is handy, provided you like their stuff, which is mostly urban fantasy with some fantasy and some sci-fi. As I said, not free, but does make reading a much more budget friendly pastime.

I should note that LMBPN publishing also puts nearly all their stuff in Kindle Unlimited so if you're paying for a Kindle Unlimited subscription already, that is an easy way to check out their books.

David says: Some places I buy ebooks and audiobooks from offer some free material from time to time. So when I’m looking for something new I stumble across the odd book that is free that I am interested in, when I do stumble across these free offerings, I sometimes look to see if these authors have other free books. I don't bother with free movies.

Jeanne says: I get emails from BookBub, which sometimes has free ebooks, but most of the ebooks are between $0.99 and $2.99. That's probably actually how I came across you (you being Jonathan Moeller in this case). Otherwise, Kobo has a selection of free ebooks, if small.

Jenny says: I love Libby, and back when it was available, Axis 360 and Hoopla. I'm not sure if they've just gone from my library or gone forever. (Side note from transcriptionist: Axis 360 changed names to Boundless in 2023. Hoopla is still in business.)

Adeline says: The only time I ever received free items is when they're directly given away by the owner. Downloading virtual freebies from somewhere just seems wrong since they would still belong to someone. Although I don't have any movie subscription services myself, I still don't download free movies.

Bonnie says: I use Amazon for ebooks. I usually pay quite often though. I get a free town newspaper every two weeks. I don't watch TV anymore, so that isn't an issue.

Rob says: Amazon (you can search and order by cost) and authors do free downloads with their newsletter, not just Jonathan Moeller, but PA Mason, Kelly Armstrong, etc.

Chris says: Kindle Library, following you online gets me updates.

For myself, I get free ebooks through Libby (the local library system’s ebook app) and very rarely audiobooks as well. I also, if I see something I like on the Kindle store that's free, I will download that right away. For free and legal movies and TV shows, I usually go to Tubi, which is free but ad supported and has a surprisingly large collection of stuff. So that's it for Question of the Week.

00:04:38 Main Topic of the Week: Writing While Traveling

Now onto our main topic this week, tips and tricks for writing while traveling, since of course many people travel over the Christmas holidays, so this seems like a timely topic.

Two principles to start with: First, think of why you are trying to write while you're traveling. Is this something you really need to be doing and more to the point, is this really something you should be doing? This obviously depends on the nature of your trip. If you are traveling for business reasons and you're sitting in an airport for four hours waiting for your flight and then you have a five hour flight, that would be an excellent time to get some writing done since otherwise, you would just be like everyone else in the airport paying too much for coffee and staring at your phone. If you are on the kind of trip that is a vacation, it might be a good idea to put aside writing while you are doing that just for the sake of your own mental health. If you are on a trip that involves a lot of family obligations, like for example, a funeral, then it might be a good idea just to set aside writing for that time, focus on the emotional needs of the moment and then pick it back up once the trip is over.

The other thing to keep in mind if why you are writing is if you have a deadline. That sort of focuses the mind quite a bit and if you have a deadline, you're going to have to plan accordingly. The other thing to keep in mind is flexibility, why you are writing and flexibility because as we know, modern travel is utter chaos. I mean, it was worse in the past. I mean, Odysseus tried to get home from the Siege of Troy and got lost for 10 years, which is less likely nowadays, but travel is still unpleasant and a lot of things can go wrong, and you have to be flexible and seize the moment when you can and accept that sometimes things are beyond your control. If you are working on a deadline while you are traveling, then you'll have to treat it like any other remote work job while you are traveling.

Having a true external writing deadline means you need to plan your vacation or trip differently and in a more structured way if possible. You absolutely need to plan this with your traveling companions in advance (if you're traveling with people), so everyone's prepared for this and pick your destination based on internet access instead of relying on standard hotel Wi-Fi because as we all know if you travel, standard hotel Wi-Fi generally is pretty terrible. You may need to bring some sort of mobile hotspot with you or pay extra to use your phone as a mobile hotspot while you are traveling.

If you are genuinely on a deadline and don't want to burn through your mobile data, check the internet setup of your destination before you arrive. It might also be wise to check on guest internet use policies at nearby libraries or universities if your destination does not have reliable internet and you'll need to use the internet for a significant amount of time. Many of these places require registration or a fee for non-residents/non-students but tend to have far more reliable internet than coffee shops or hotels.

Also, if you're in the phase of writing where you're writing your rough draft, if you're not editing and relying on an online editing tool like Grammarly or Pro Writing Aid, then you can probably do without internet if you absolutely have to. If you're just writing, just open up your laptop, sit down and write, it actually might be beneficial to have the internet off if you are prone to being distracted by the internet, but if you do need internet, bear that in mind.

For the next part of this episode, we're going to focus on the second type of writing while traveling, the feeling that many writers have that they should be writing while traveling or on vacation and fear of missing progress or falling out of their hard-won routine. I'll also provide some suggestions if you decide you want to write while traveling in spite of the various obstacles you might face.

If you don't have a deadline and this isn't a necessity for you and you really want to get some writing done while you're traveling, you need to ask yourself why. Writing because you want to means you can be flexible, but you still want to plan your expectations in ...

Episode 231: Six Tips For Writing While Traveling