Writing Tip — Writing in Time: Road Trip as Writing Inspiration

I love to drive. I especially like to drive in rural areas. Highways get so boring. So it’s fortunate that I live in the U.S. and in the Buckeye State where there are plenty of rural roads to satisfy my wanderlust. Although road trips can happen at any time of the year, summer seems made for this kind of adventure. Below are three advantages to using road trips as writing inspiration.

Limits of Technology

If a car blows a tire, you either fix it yourself or wait for road service. There is no digital quick-fix, and that’s true for any car malfunction, making such mishaps perfect for adding tension to a story. Another technology plot point is for your characters to drive in a rural area that has spotty or no reception. How do the characters cope?

Even when technology is working, Something Can Go Horribly Wrong. I’ve had recent experience with this when my family and I drove to Blackwater Falls State Park. Because we made a detour to lay flowers on the graves of relatives in Shinnston, the GPS routed us a different way from the one we took two years ago.

As we approached Parsons, the county seat where the state park is located, I was surprised the GPS indicated getting away from the state route I knew would take us right to the park and plotted a course through a tiny town called St. George. Always ready to see new sights, I told my husband to take it.

The road out of St. George wound up the mountain, just like the state route, except that it was one and a half lanes with turns so sharp you couldn’t see oncoming traffic. At one point, the edge of our lane had crumbled down a steep cliff. My husband, a man without any Mountaineer blood in his veins, bravely followed the road and saw us safely to the top of the ridge, where we reconnected with the state route. He did wipe his sweaty hands on his jeans shorts all the time he was driving, though.

We still have no idea why the GPS would recommend such a route. But it’s a great plot point to remember if I’m writing about a road trip and the narrative begins to stall.

Fish Out of Water

“Fish Out of Water” stories are always fun and a great source of tension when you throw your main character out of her comfortable habitat. Maybe she’s accompanying her new fiancee to meet his parents in a part of the country she’s never been to. A new salesperson could be heading into unfamiliar territory. An aspiring writer drives into a new state to attend a conference. (This is slightly autobiographical.)

Family Commitments

We often endure great inconveniences and hardships for the sake of friends and family. Road trips fit that bill. They also give your characters plausible reasons to make decisions that under other circumstances readers might find unbelievable.

Great-grandma has died. Main character wants to go to the funeral, three states away, and is broke. So he grits his teeth and asks to ride with a cousin he can’t stand.

A quarreling husband and wife must endure a long drive to the graduation of a relative.

Trying to get to a wedding, a family accepts help from a passing driver when their car breaks down.

How would you use a road trip as writing inspiration?