There are two ways to know yourself: expression and travel. Introspection can also be helpful, but too much tends to be detrimental. You can never travel too much or express yourself too much. Expression is often easier, cheaper at least, and can vary from writing to painting to flower arranging to designing buildings. Talking is another option, but just about everybody does that. Expression can force you to see the thoughts/feelings you’ve been hiding from yourself. It can also reveal how you see and interact with the world. Travel, on the other hand, is more about testing yourself. Travel forces you to see how others see and interact with the world. And in doing so, can change your thoughts/feelings. Traveling is also about knowing yourself through others. This is possible because of a shared experience, that human condition everyone likes to go on about.
But how are expression and travel connected? Sure, as social creatures, we have to live with others of our species and try not to kill one another (which we’re not great at). But by traveling, we take it one step further. We start gaining empathy. Everyone has at least a little empathy (unless they were raised by wolves…) and that allows us to get along. But to actually know and understand others, we have to work for it. And that is what traveling, being around different people with different customs and views, forces us to do. And because empathy is essential to writing believable characters, traveling can and will improve your writing. (It also doesn’t hurt to write believable settings. Which means of course you have to go to Hawaii in order to write about it. Better stay for a few weeks to really capture that island breeze.)
writing before breakfast 