My Two Writing Teachers colleagues and I are hosting the 14th Annual March Slice of Life Story Challenge, in which teachers from around the world participate in posting a story per day.
I just read two separate blog posts about people who go on family vacations with little to no planning, and my brain was like Whaaaaaaat?
For me, planning isn’t optional. I can’t even fathom hopping in the car for a road trip without hotel reservations, dinner reservations, multiple checklists, and a first aid kit. I would have a panic attack. In fact, now that I think about it, I have so many questions for these people who just hop in the car and go. Do they call for hotels on the way (!!) If they can’t get a restaurant table, do they just get take out or visit the grocery store? If something requires tickets, do they just not do it?
All this, to me, seems an insane way to spend precious vacation days.
However, now that I think about it… the best adventures I’ve been on have been when I’m with a mix of planners and non-planners. I think we balance each other out nicely. Even though I secretly think they are missing a crucial survival instinct, I love my non-planning friends dearly, and always have fun when I’m with them.
We’re planning a trip this summer to Block Island, in Rhode Island. Brinton and I used to go there in the summers when we were younger, to visit a friend whose family had a house there. We aren’t going until the end of June, but I made Air B&B reservations and ferry reservations back in January—and even then I felt like I had waited a little too long! Now that I think about it, I should start looking into restaurants soon.
Weeks ahead of time I will begin making a packing checklist for each member of the family (and our dog) using the Reminders App in my phone, and I’ll start gathering up everything and putting it into suitcases so that I can physically see what we’re missing. Then I’ll figure out where to get anything we don’t already have, so that everything for everybody (including the dog) is packed a few days before we need to go. (And in case you’re wondering, yes, I am the type of traveler who loves packing cubes.)
Even then I know from experience we’ll still be missing things things at the last minute, and it will still take us hours to get out of the house on the morning we leave, and we will still show up missing some crucial item - like Jackson’s “duggie” (lovey), or Lily’s bathing suit on the drying rack.
In writing, there’s the concept of “planner” or “pantser.” Planners prefer to plan out their writing ahead - using an outline or just rehearsing it in their head or telling the story out loud. Pantsers, on the other hand, prefer to just start writing and see where it takes them.
Can you guess which one I am?