The Writer's Take 11; The Places You'll Go!

I know, I know, I KNOW. I promised you “Barbenheimer” this week, but you’ll have to wait a week because I realized, I must share why I have skipped the last two lovely weeks from you all.

Travel.

It is something we all think happens when you lock yourself in your home for long enough until you’ve saved up enough money to be let out of your cage, sorry I mean house and go do something you want to do. But, in reality, traveling, and the experiences you gain from your distance away from home is the lifeblood of any good writer. So while I want to get to Barbenheimer, this is just more important for the week at hand. But fear not, the glitter-packed, pinked weapon of mass destruction is not far from your inboxes. 

So back to travel. I decided to write this because I spent the last 2 weeks in Japan with my wife, on a true vacation for the first time in a very long time. I took about 1 meeting and answered emails for 1 project only. I know, you are oozing to know which project, all I can say is there'll be a press conference on it at the end of the month ;)

Now I know what you're going to say, “Matt, that’s nice that you traveled, but I have no money, no resources, no way to do it.” These are excuses, plain and simple. For years, I traveled by taking Greyhound buses and the cheapest flights (which I still do). Spend your money on experiences not on transportation, unless the experience is the transportation. God damnit, isn't it about the journey, not the destination? You get my point, but I digress. Stay in a hostel, eat at the local watering holes, and experience the culture of the place you go. Because, as a great writer, you have to be able to be a chameleon. You have to be able to BE everyone and anyone. To do this, you can’t have one life experience, you have to have many. You have to have many perspectives, and many lenses of life. You have to be well-traveled. 

When you contemplate a character or imagine a journey for your tale, these inspirations come from personal experiences. Every publisher, fan, studio, or other financial or emotional supporter will know the difference between a story written from personal experiences framed in the construct of a story versus the stale stench of YouTube and Googled “experiences” to try and “learn” the culture through digital means. Go out in the world and see it for yourself. 

It is one of the core reasons I was a tour and production manager for nearly a decade. I got to see the world, cultures, and life as part of my job. But even if you can’t travel for work, you have to travel, by any means necessary. I went to Mexico City on tour but stayed after to explore and it gave me the inspiration for my best-selling novel, Above The Ground. I was walking through customs at Heathrow Airport in London when I got the idea for a forthcoming project called “The Diplomat”. Inspiration can come from anywhere, it can be a random sign outside of your accommodations in any city, it can be those accommodations, it can be the temples you explore, it can be the local foods you eat that open a new flavor palette that explodes a new wave of inspiration. Have I made my point clear?

Now, as I have alluded to, traveling is not cheap but can be done cheaply, and if you need some help in how to do that, this TEDx is a great starting place to start thinking about how to do world traveling on a budget:

For a more personal example, being in Japan for the last 2 weeks, had me rediscover why I love creative expression, why I love to take words and twist them into ideas, to bring life into sounds, and to birth souls from scripture. We went to many temples and shrines in Japan, well of course we did, what else do you do? Just seeing these incredible structures gave inspiration for several new IPs, one being a Western samurai tale, and another being a far-reaching space opera. Not every idea, inspiration, or tale is a direct correlation to the experience you're having, sometimes, just having experiences, sparks and unlocks ideas you’ve had stored away in the deepest recesses of your mind. 

We hit all the major tourist destinations and then some, but we also hit the lesser known areas, the Manga Museum in Kyoto, the Ramen Museum in Yokohama, a baseball game in Yokohama, it was wild seeing an American sport in another country, and how it adapted and changed, and quite frankly improved on the experience of the event. We had standing room and I would say it was more fun than the seats themselves. It was raw, exciting, and lively. Every fan knew every player's personal chant and screamed at them each time the hitter was up. It was spiritual as much as it was athletic, and that type of experience, that sort of visceral memory is what we writers need to consume constantly. 

Travel can provide new perspectives on old ideas, such as the baseball moment I had, or seeing 12-year-olds and younger kids navigating the cities by themselves. The crime rate in Japan is less than .03% in the entire country. It's safer than your own backyard here in the States. Witnessing this gave me a different perspective on how humans can coexist, something I will be weaving into my stories. It's ideas like this that can provide your readers with a global frame of mind and make you stand out when it comes to having unique viewpoints. 

Lastly, it is important to do things in other places that are hard. We climbed to the top of Mount Fuji. Summiting the highest point in Nippon was a two-day expedition that you can do for less than 200 bucks. The huts are bookable on your own and will include 2 meals and all you need is some hiking boats, some walking sticks, which you can buy there for 20 bucks, and some warm weather for the sunrise at the top. If this post inspired you to go to Japan and climb Fuji, HERE is a good starting point for doing it for under 200 bucks. At the top, 12,388 feet above sea level, the ideas and inspiration were indescribable. The feeling of being up there, of accomplishing something so uniquely cool, gives any writer, artist, or creative years worth of fuel for their dreams. 

Traveling is the heartbeat of all creatives who not only look for inspiration but look to be diverse in their art. It’s critical, it's non-negotiable, and it's possible to do at any budget. Now, go out and explore the world, and come back and write about it in your own way. Because without these types of people, without people like us, the uninspired, the ones who need to read, watch, and listen to those who are, will be as lost as those who wander through the Aokigahara Forest. 

Stay inspired, and keep writing.

Matt Medney

Herø Projects, Gungnir, and other musings…

I wanted to take a moment during our intermission here to shamelessly and directly promote my two companies. Gungnir Entertainment, a genre-focused publishing company with best-selling titles from yours truly hitting shelves nationwide this Fall.  With books focused on classic sci-fi ideas like “What does it mean to be human” and “is the bible right?” “Adventures throughout the stars” are just a few of the prompts for the books you can dive into with Gungnir. Gungnir’s website will launch this summer, and you can stay up to date on the forthcoming titles on my Instagram, @matthewmedney, or at my author page on Simon & Schuster. 

And then there is Herø Projects. The Perennial leader in custom comics and animated services, Herø is a state-of-the-art creative studio that has worked with talents such as Floyd Mayweather, Shaggy, Nghtmre, and brands such as Remi Martin, Live Nation, and Rolling Loud. If Branding through storytelling isn’t your thing you can check out our original titles, the Onyx line with books such as Stable, Remnant, and Best Selling Comic The Red.  To learn more about Herø Projects visit us at