How Write at the Beach

1. Choose a luxurious location or whatever you can afford that gets you next to warm, relatively clean water.
2. Bring an accommodating partner of choice (best if said partner can pony up at least half of the shared costs).
3. Practice calming breath exercises for the ride on the tiny airplane / reckless ferry / perilous cab / faulty rental car.
4. Develop a list of vacation writing goals.
5. Bring paper! You don’t want any sand in your computer!
6. Pens would be helpful, too. Bright sunlight reflected off of white paper makes the pencil scratches hard to see. White paper blindness is like snow blindness but without the possibility of frostbite.
7. Deck yourself out in baby oil, bug spray, long pants, a long-sleeved shirt, and a wide-brimmed hat. (This is my vacation! The bugs love me, and my skin was not meant to tan!)
8. Position yourself under a tree but not under falling coconuts.
9. Find your list of vacation writing goals. Throw the list away.
10. Watch the waves and the water. Open your mind. The good ideas will come.