S. W. Raine

Yesterday, I attended my 5th writing field trip. My author friend Diana Kathryn Penn hosts full-day excursions to entertaining places around Michigan that encourage the creative process, and I love attending them, so I thought I’d share my experiences with you.

Greenfield Village

I love Greenfield Village in Dearborn. It’s an open-air 80-acre history museum founded by the one and only Henry Ford. It contains various artefacts—and even houses—from famous Americans. I have anxiety when it comes to driving to new areas, so I’d missed out on other writing field trip excursions such as the John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids and the For-Mar Nature Preserve & Arboretum in Burton. But when I found out one was going to be at Greenfield Village, I jumped on the opportunity.

It was just Diana and me that day, so we walked around for a bit before settling down to write up against one of the mills. Since we can’t access plugs or Wi-Fi for our laptops, it’s suggested to bring pen and paper. And since I was in the revision and editing phase of Project Elementals 2, it was just easier to start a new story.

The old railroad turntable we’d passed immediately inspired me, and thus the first chapter in my new story was born.

Afterward, we decided to eat. One of my favorite places at Greenfield Village is the Cotswold Cottage, a gorgeous stone cottage and garden the Fords loved from southwest England. They serve tea, English-inspired pastries, and some savories. We took the train—and both got the idea to write in the gazebo as we passed it—but when we arrived at the cottage, they were closed for renovations. So we had to eat elsewhere.

Cotswold Cottage

My other favorite place in Greenfield Village is Dr. Howard’s office, or “the apothecary,” as I like to call it, so we decided to stop by there on our way to the gazebo. Dr. Howard was an eclectic physician who used herbal medicines during the Civil War. I absolutely love his medicine cabinet and the herbal garden out back. But as with the Cotswold Cottage, Dr. Howard’s office was also closed for renovations, and the garden hadn’t been tended. Boo!

The gazebo was in a picturesque spot, and there was a vendor tent from an earlier event being torn down as we sat to write, but it had already sparked my imagination for the next chapter in my story.

Gazebo and weeping willow tree

On our way back to the front gate, we couldn’t help stop by and ride the Herschell-Spillman Carousel, which was built in 1913 and still works!

All in all, it was a productive writing field trip, despite my favorite places being closed and having to walk to other places.

Detroit Institute of Arts

I’d been to the DIA a few months prior on a field trip with my son’s school. So when I met up with Diana and another author for this author field trip, we all had our preferences for where we wanted to gain our inspiration to write. My favorite is the Ancient Middle East gallery, with its Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and Arabian art and, of course, the Egyptian gallery.

Assyrian Eagle-Headed Winged Genius on gypsum alabaster

Unfortunately, these galleries didn’t fit with my new story… but that didn’t stop me from basking in the amazing atmosphere. And even though I wasn’t specifically working on it at the DIA, I was still in the revision and editing stages of Project Elementals 2, and I call Kamran my Persian Prince, so it was indirectly fitting.

We had a great lunch and got to get to know our new author friend better, and then we did more writing. One particularly entertaining moment was during one of our writing sprints, when a disembodied voice alerted a patron of being too close to one of the paintings. I knew of these alarms because my son had set off a few of them, but it surprised everyone else. The man who’d accidentally triggered the alarm backed away, and his daughter was shocked. The mother, on the other hand, as nonchalantly as ever, said, “It’s okay, that was just the museum gods letting Daddy know he got too close to the painting.” We all cracked up laughing. It was such a well-placed explanation.

This was another productive trip as we managed eight (!!!!) writing sessions between gallery visits.

Natural History Museum

I’d never been to the University of Michigan Natural History Museum, but I’d been to Ann Arbor before, so this writing field trip didn’t make me too anxious. It was a great place with lots of exciting things to look at, like mastodon bones, prehistoric whales, and life-size dioramas of animals and ecosystems in Michigan. They have a nice Planetarium & Dome Theater too. Diana and I got in a writing session before checking out the Dome Theatre’s movie on meteors and dinosaurs.

After our lunch break, we checked out more exhibits, got in one more writing session, then explored even more exhibits. We realized we got a lot less writing done when we’ve never been somewhere, because we’re more interested in looking around and learning. But that’s okay! We still got in a few sessions while having fun. Who doesn’t like getting their picture taken with dinosaurs?

Dino skull

Southfield Public Library

I’d never been to the Southfield Public Library, so that made me a little anxious. The fact there are not one, but TWO roundabouts to get to it brought my anxiety to a whole new level (I hate those things!) But I survived the trip, and in the end, I’m so glad I went.

This library has three floors: one for kids and teens, one for adult fiction, and one for history and reference materials. Diana and I met with a new author friend, and we explored the first floor. They have a storybook castle, a tree house, and even a cave with a snoring dragon! The snoring didn’t bother me from a distance, but the closer I got to take a picture, the more the snoring grated on my nerves because it sounded like my husband’s snoring. lol

Seeing as the library has plugs and Wi-Fi, I decided not to work on the new story in favor of continuing to revise and edit Project Elementals 2 from my laptop.

After a bit, we headed up to the second floor. The fireplace was gorgeous, so we got in a few pictures before sitting down to get more work done. Our new author friend left us shortly after that session, so Diana and I returned down to the first floor for lunch before taking selfies with statues of Mark Twain and Mowgli & Baloo in the library’s foyer. Then we made our way to the third floor.

Mark Twain

There is a definite noise difference on each floor. The first floor, with the kids section, has regular noise happening. The second floor was more quiet, with hushed chitchat here and there. But the third floor? It was so quiet, I felt bad just having my laptop bag rustle. But we got some productivity in, and that’s always good.

Southfield Public Library… again!

Since we’d already had a successful and productive writing field trip at the Southfield Public Library, Diana decided to do it again. Another author friend stopped by with her adorable grandson, so we explored a little. In the end, she didn’t get any writing in while Diana and I worked in the children’s section.

One of the trees in the kids section

I once again brought my laptop and continued revisions and edits for Project Elementals 2. Since it was just the two of us, Diana didn’t set any timers. We just worked at our own pace. Sometimes, it’s nice just to have that accountability.

Our author friend left us at lunchtime, so Diana and I ate, then made our way up to the second floor to work. We didn’t go to the third floor this time, and that was fine—we’d already explored it once before. We just wanted to get some work done, and work we did. Another productive session!

I’d love to hear about your own field trip experiences. Where have you been? Where would you like to go to? Let me know in the comments!

Raine