Writer's Notebook - James Rafferty Blog

Seeking Inspiration? Try a Change of Venue

This post is about writing, but it could apply to any work, especially when it involves creativity.  

I just finished editing my first novel, Growing Up Single, and there were plenty of times when I got stalled.   Here are some thoughts about how to get through that block.  

We've all been there   You are working on a story and it has come to a dead end.   The characters seem to have lost the spring in their step.  The dialogue is wilting.   It's time for a change of venue.   

 

Perhaps your characters will come alive again if you put them in a different place, maybe even a different country.  What happens when the steady mother of two ends up in Vegas?   Does love feel the same in Paris, Texas as it does in that better known Paris in France?   

Or maybe you need the change of place, scene and time.  Think how inspired you'd be if you pitched a beach umbrella along Waikiki and were able to look up at Diamond Head.  

Picture palm trees in the twilight! 

So, think about it.  What do you do to break the ice and free up your creative juices?   Do you try for a change in your life or a new writing space?   Is it time to head off down to Baja for that writing vacation?    Are your characters yearning for a latitude change?  

 
Spill the beans.  What do you or your characters do to get inspired?   

 

Laser Lights in Hong Kong

In many ways, my last full day in Hong Kong was the best.  I started out the day with a walk in Kowloon Park.   During our group excursion to The Peak the night before, one of my local colleagues told me how to find it.   The Royal Pacific hotel has a restaurant called Cafe on the Park; in fact, if you look closely, there is a side exit that takes you out of the hotel and provides access to a skywalk, several stories above the street level.   After two days in the concrete jungle, Kowloon Park was a relief.  I arrived about 6:45 and quickly noticed that that park buzzed with activity.  In cul-de-sacs off of the main path, people of all ages performed slow motion twists, bends and stretches, akin to my own morning regime but more influenced by Oriental disciplines such as Tai Chi.   

Unlike the grid pattern at street level, paths, walkways and twisting stairwells branched off in many directions.  My own route led past an evergreen maze, composed of emerald green shrubs, and then descended down a twisting series of steps, before I began to loop back under a canopy of local deciduous trees.   The greenery reminded me of Hawaii and the temperature hovered at about 65 degrees F (25 degrees C) during my walk.   I continued across and found an aviary at the next level, first passing a covey of white flamingos.   The bird sanctuary itself housed birds with bright green and yellow plumage, reminding me of parrots, but without the chatter.   I continued my walk, tracing loops within loops, before dropping down to the main park level and beginning my return.   

After a busy day of meetings and presentations, our group walked on foot about 6 blocks over to the edge of the harbor.   We took an escalator up about two stories and reached a restaurant which specialized in Northern Chinese cuisine.  Our food was served up one dish at a time.  The items were first placed on a circular platter for viewing by all and then divided up and served to each person.   The food was quite good, but the process went on a for long time.   

We sat in a corner of the restaurant, overlooking the harbor and we had fine views of the rest of Kowloon before us and Hong Kong city to our left.  The sunset was colorful, but the real show began at 8:00.  The peak of a skyscraper across the harbor squirted a pencil thin burst of laser light in the direction of a building across the harbor in Kowloon, then was joined by other bright colors emanating from one  building after another.  The bursts of fiery white, green and yellow, creating geometrically spewed ephemeral designs across the waters of the harbor, showed Hong Kong in its role of high tech celebrant, flexing its muscles with an optimistic light show for all to watch.  It felt like a statement to the world saying, yes, there is economic pain now, but don't forget to celebrate.   

Later that night, I watched a snippet from a local news program on my hotel television.  My favorite columnist, Tom Friedman of the New York Times, gave an interview to a lissome twenty-something newswoman in a setting that looked like a fast food restaurant.   Friedman talked about the many challenges faced by today's world.  When asked how he chose his projects, he said that he followed his gut instincts based on what caught his attention.  Shortly, the interview came to an end.  The woman smiled through her pasted red lipstick and made up ivory cheeks, signing off the interview, Live from Hong Kong.  

Friedman's presence symbolized to me that Hong Kong is one of the centers of change that will likely lead the way to a different world for those in the next generation.  It felt like a validation of the trip, one sign among the many that I experienced in my scant few days in this city.   

I'll leave with a couple glimpses of the laser show we saw, in low def, courtesy of my cell camera:  

Hong Kong City - To and From The Peak

On the second evening of my visit to Hong Kong, the group from my company all piled into a bus and took a ride through a tunnel, taking us over from Kowloon to the Hong Kong city side of the islands. 

I was chatting with a colleague who lived in the city and he dropped clues as to what was ahead for us.   A few minutes later, we queued up for a ride up to the top of Hong Kong, known locally as The Peak.  My friend told me the best experience would come from sitting in the back of the transport vehicle, which consisted of a circa 1890 cable car, complete with wooden benches, which would be hauled up to the top of The Peak.  

We were tilted at an angle of about 40 degrees when we began and continued ascending at a similar angle.   My ears popped several times just in the first couple of minutes and the city's buildings beside us looked liked they'd been punched into the soil at angles that threatened to let them topple at any moment.   Rather to my surprise, this cable car still serves as a general public mode of transport and we stopped about one quarter of the way up the mountain to pick up another passenger, before the creaky sounds of the car being pulled uphill by a chain began again.  Looking back, we could see the dense configuration of buildings that made up downtown Hong Kong and we were steadily rose until we were above all of them.    

During the ride, my friend entertained me with tales of the local history of the place.  Until 1999, this peak was where the Governor and various luminaries of the English staff had their luxurious mansions, looking down on all of the rest of Hong Kong in more ways than one.  Since the turnover of HK in 1999 to the Chinese, the Peak has been opened for more general use and we would see a variety of large single family residences, as well as condominiums, which offered superior views both looking down to the city and also gazing back toward the other, forested side of the island. 

The trolley drops everybody off at a landing which is adjacent to a highly commercialized set of shops and restaurants.   Our group went to a place which offered Asian fusion cuisine coupled with excellent views of the city below us.   The thick glass partially obstructed our views, but we could still see the skyscrapers of Hong Kong, lit up by light strands of white, blue, green, yellow and other colors.   Across the harbor, another cornucopia of light festooned the Kowloon side.  

Dinner was festive and we enjoyed copious portions of food and wine in the aftermath of a very busy day.   Later, I joined a colleague and we took an escalator up onto the observation deck to get a better view.   The skyscrapers huddled in the mists below us and a mosaic of light painted the peaks of the tallest buildings.    My cell camera could not do justice to the scenes, but here is an example of the tallest building in the city, as we looked across to it.  

I stayed on The Peak for about another hour, but these early views had been the essence of the experience for me.  We ascended yet another observation deck, this one affording views of both the front view I'd seen before and of the heavily forested hills on the other side of the island.   Another American who'd lived in Hong Kong for several years pointed out sights in both Hong Kong and Kowloon, adding to my understanding of this city.  

My main insight from this night is that Hong Kong is still the sum of its history.  The Brits are officially gone, but their influences are still felt, in subtle ways like escalators that lead in from the left and in the more laissez faire brand of capitalism which drives Hong Kong's remarkable economic engines.  Hong Kong, a blend of the old school British style and the latest high tech trends, all progressing at a rapid pace forward.  It truly struck me as a fine example of a 21st century city.  

Next Stop, Hong Kong

The day began early: 3:00 am.  One hour later, a black limousine came by in the early moments of a fluffy snowfall and we drove to Logan Airport in Boston.  For the first time ever, I witnessed Route 128 with virtually no traffic; the snow began to cover the roadway and no trucks emerged to plow it off.  

Our plane was supposed to leave at 6:00 am.  But two inches of snow already stuck to the wings of the regional jet.  The de-icing truck came by and promptly its spurt of green liquid sputtered and died.  We didn't get underway to JFK Airport until 7:30, consuming all of our buffer for the trip.  

Upon arrival at JFK, we needed to switch terminals, since Cathay Pacific operated the plane.  We had to trudge outside in the 20 degree weather, bags in tow, board a skytrain monorail, then reverse the process to enter the terminal.  Upon arrival, one of my colleagues discovered his seat on the flight was taken, leaving only two of us to board the 777 which would bring us to Hong Kong.   

May I say, sixteen hours is way too long for a plane flight.  I won't describe it; simply, one wants to get off the plane after about 10 hours or so.  We finally arrived.  My head was sore, my gums felt swollen  and my toes were numb.  Otherwise . . .  

We changed our money to Hong Kong dollars and the agent also sold us a high speed train ticket.   After a short delay, we boarded the train.   Whoosh -- the train easily exceeded 150 mph as we took a twenty minute ride to our destination of Kowloon.  Outside, we saw a high density of fifty story apartment buildings inland and dark green mountains rising up behind us.   

At Kowloon, we found our way up one story to a shuttle bus stop.   The free bus took us through a loop on the very busy streets of Kowloon, dropping us at the final stop, the Royal Pacific Hotel and Towers.  Twenty-two hours after departing home, I was grateful to have my feet on the ground again.  

A quick shower and shave washed away the worst of my aches and pains.  About an hour later, I walked with a colleague down Canton Road, through a shopping district that looked like a cross between Times Square and Picadilly Circus; one downtown mall after another vied for our attention and dollars.  

Per the concierge, our destination was the Peking Garden.  We rounded a corner and the expanse of Hong Kong harbor lay before us.  Twilight neared and a faint veil of low clouds overhung Hong Kong city, but we had a clear view of the skyline and my colleague told me how the last Batman movie had a scene set among those buildings.   The harbor skyline looks like this from our hotel.   The tall building is Two International Financial Centre, the tallest structure in Hong Kong City.  

  

The restaurant was on the fourth floor.  The service wasn't very fast, but the food was hot, diverse and filling.   I began with a fish soup, which was okay, but eyed the Hot and Sour soup served to my friend.  We expected dim sum next, but instead our main dishes of chicken with vegetables and scallops sauteed in a soya sauce came out.   The dishes didn't disappoint and helped to fill our stomachs with more substantial food after the various lighter meals from the plane.  We washed it all down with mugs of Tsingtao beer.   The promised dim sum, filled with bits of pork, finally emerged and struck the right ending note for the meal.  

Walking back, we were approached several times by men attempting to sell us goods like watches and leather goods.   It dawned on us that we were now the minority -- caucasians in a land where the average tint of flesh tones had more yellow than ours and where even our hair stood out.  Overhead, a neon banner wished us "Season's Greetings" -- the Chinese New Year was only a few days away.    

Thus ended our first night in Hong Kong.   Exhaustion overcame us and I began the foggy sleep of the jet-lagged traveler at 8:00 pm and weighed in with ten fitful hours.  I'll write more about the trip in another post.