Born and raised in Ramsey, New Jersey, Patrick Johns attended university at Virginia Tech, obtaining an engineering and mathematics degree. Go Hokies! However, writing is Patrick’s true passion. After writing his first novel, Junkland, the first book in The Hoarding series, Patrick left his engineering job to teach English overseas. Patrick currently lives in Spain. When he’s not writing, managing his literary magazine, The Kraken’s Spire, and teaching English, he’s surfing, hiking, or traveling.
On a Friday afternoon, I posted an Instagram story of myself eating an ice cream with beautiful views of the beaches of Santander, Spain. Ice cream and the beach are two of my favorite things in this world, and I was enjoying every minute of it on this sunny summer evening.
A colleague from university sent me a DM a few hours later. His message read:
“Bro did you know that by not working an engineering job you are losing out on the 401(k) match which is a ton of free money? Like if you would have invested 15% of your salary and a 5% match, so 20%, you could have around, or more than, $50K now since you graduated (Grimacing emoji).”
It’s a comment like this that reminds me why I left my high-paying engineering job to move to Spain to pursue writing. After graduating university with both an engineering and math degree, I worked for a large engineering firm just outside of Washington, D.C. It was everyone else’s dream…but mine. During this period of my life, I went through a hard time (you could call it my quarter-life crisis), but I’m fortunate for it now because it made me take the time to learn about myself. I realized that I didn’t want to solve problems in the real word. I wanted to solve problems in the worlds that I create; I wanted to become a writer. But in order to do so, I needed to make a change in my life and act now.
So I made it my goal to write my first book, publish it, and then leave my engineering job. I moved to Spain in 2018 to teach English and pursue writing. I’ve been living here now for three years, and it was the best decision I’ve ever made. Besides having time to actually enjoy life more, moving to a foreign country has also significantly improved my writing.
Over the past three years, I’ve written my second book in my fantasy series and also have written some of my best songs and poems here in Spain. So I encourage writers to go outside their comfort zones to open their eyes, minds, and hearts to become better writers, and more importantly, to live! Because for me, writing is living.
Here are my reasons how living abroad can improve your writing:
1. Living abroad will improve your grammar.
You heard it right! While living here in Spain, I became more aware of all the awful grammatical mistakes I’ve been using in my day-to-day English. This is because when you learn a new language, you focus on grammar, conjugating verbs, sentence structure, and pronunciation. When I learned English, I didn’t care about any of this stuff. I just spoke it because it came naturally to me and learned it to pass my English exams in elementary school. But learning Spanish has made me more aware of how languages are built and formed, which provoked my curiosity with English grammar. Overall, learning a foreign language will help you communicate better in your own native tongue and sharpen your writing.
As Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, “Those who know nothing of foreign languages, know nothing of their own.”
So if you’re looking to sharpen those grammar skills, it may be a good idea to live abroad.
2. Living abroad makes you appreciate your own language.
Every writer has had a bad day of writing. Those days when you feel like maybe you just weren’t meant to be a writer because it’s just so darn difficult. Well, I have news for you: writing is difficult! And when you live abroad in a country that speaks a completely different language, you realize this.
One day in class, I made my Spanish students write down in English what they heard in an audio. As I walked around the classroom, I noticed they were writing the correct words but spelling them wrong. And I totally understood why. How is someone supposed to know if the number one is spelled like “one” or “won.” Or which form of “to” is appropriate between “to,” “too,” or “two.” The only way to know is out of context, memorizing, and practice. But it just makes me thankful that I’m a native English speaker. English is difficult. Learning a language is difficult. Writing is difficult.
So the next time you’re hard on yourself, thinking you’re not meant to be a writer, stop yourself and take the time to be fortunate that it’s your native tongue, as other people are struggling to learn it. Writing is hard enough, but if you have a positive attitude behind each word you write down, writing becomes. . . actually enjoyable.
3. Living abroad teaches you how to accept criticism.
To be a good writer, it’s essential to accept criticism from outside the walls of your writing fortress. Writers need to thrive on positive criticism, but more importantly, on negative criticism. I believe there are two types of criticism: constructive criticism and deconstructive criticism. For example, if a beta reader writes a comment in your book saying, “I don’t like this,” well, that’s deconstructive criticism because it doesn’t give you any feedback to make your story better. But if a beta reader writes, “I don’t like this because it seems out of character. I think it should be like this. . ., ” that’s constructive criticism because it provides feedback on how to improve the story.
Now, as the author, you need to learn the skill on differentiating between constructive and deconstructive criticism and how to react to each.
When you live in a foreign country, you will be criticized from your cultural beliefs to your accent. I still remember my Spanish teacher here in Spain writing in big letters on my oral exam, “Patrick has a strong American accent.” Well, yes, I do, thank you for that deconstructive criticism. It’s obvious I have a strong American accent, as I’m from the United States and I’m learning Spanish. Maybe if she had pointed it out while also giving me some tips on how to improve my accent, well, that would be constructive criticism! The overall idea is to learn how to accept both sides of criticism, but more importantly, to grow from it. Not everyone likes Harry Potter, but that didn’t stop J. K. Rowling from writing what she loves.
4. Living abroad can increase your creativity.
There’s a reason why Spain has inspired work from many foreign writers and artists who have spent time in this country filled with wine, food, fiestas, and siestas. Ernest Hemingway wrote The Sun Also Rises based off his fascination of San Fermin—the running of the bull festival in Pamplona, Spain. I was fortunate to experience this loco festival myself, and I totally understand why Hemingway wrote a book on it. It has been the most unique festival I’ve been to in my life; I even saw a girl from my university running with the bulls.
Paulo Coelho wrote The Pilgrimage, which was based off his experience of doing the Camino de Santiago. I’ve also done the Camino de Santiago and have written some of my best poems and songs along the way. Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist takes places in areas of Andalucía and Morocco, which I’ve been fortunate to live near. To this day, views of the Rock of Gibraltar and Africa still remain my favorite vistas in Spain.
Artists go abroad to enhance their creativity because, when abroad, the brain is constantly seeing new things beyond the normal day-to-day routine. When I arrived in Spain, I felt like a baby again, having to relearn everything while being amazed by every little detail around me. Even the On/Off switch to the bathrooms in this country shocked me because here they are usually located outside the bathroom instead of inside. It took me nearly a year to become accustomed to that. But even that little detail can expand your creativity.
5. Living abroad will make you more adaptable to change.
I’ve personally never had a good relationship with change. There’s a reason why the theme of most of my poems are related to it. I’m always the one crying at graduations and during Disney movies. Coping with change is difficult, and it becomes essential when moving abroad. I still remember spending two hours in the supermarket here in Spain when I first arrived, making me realize I was far away from Trader Joe’s. I didn’t know where any of the food was located. Plus, all the names were in Spanish. I spent the entire time translating names, searching the store, asking people for help, until I finally got everything I was looking for two hours later. Fear struck me, as I couldn’t imagine how I would ever become accustomed to shopping at the grocery stores in Spain. And also learning that Spain wouldn’t have my favorite Mexican salsas and ice creams. But now, if you asked me where the perejil is, I could take you right there.
Having a good relationship with change is important while writing. In my first draft of The Lost Soul, I wrote numerous chapters of a point of view character. It wasn’t until writing the second draft when I realized I had to cut the point of view of this character from the story. This entailed deleting all of those chapters and writing new chapters of my other point of view characters—AKA, a lot of darn work. I could have dropped it all and given up right then and there. But I took a deep, calming breath and accepted the change and pushed forward to the end.
You don’t have a choice when you move abroad. You are forced to accept change. And I think that’s a very important skill to learn in writing and in life, because both are full of surprises.
6. Living abroad will help you cope with stress.
Every time I tell someone I moved abroad, they usually say something like, “That’s a bold move.” And it is a bold move. Moving abroad is stressful. I don’t remember sleeping so much as I did my first year. My brain was always working overtime to function with the new language and culture and many hours waiting at the government offices to get my visa straightened out. Living abroad is not a walk in the park, and it will test every ounce of your mentality.
But isn’t that what writing does too? Writing a book has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done. And I’ve run a marathon! You spend hours of your time writing when you could be out with friends or working out or traveling. Meanwhile, the thought is always there, lingering in the back of your mind, not knowing how your book will even do when you publish it. And that’s the scariest and most stressful part of this business in my eyes. But if you learn to deal with stress, writing and life become a heck of a lot easier.
7. Living abroad will help you understand other markets.
Amazon rules the market in the United States. But when I moved to Spain, I realized Amazon wasn’t as popular here as it was back home. When I lived outside of Washington, DC, I never went to the local stores. And it makes sense why I didn’t when I could easily order something on Amazon while at work and have it arrive to my doorstep the next day.
In Spain, they go to the local markets more than what I had experienced in the Washington, DC area. They have a lot more bookstores instead of reading e-books on Kindle. When writing a book, you will also need to sell it. In order to sell your book, it’s important to know your market. If you plan on having your book reach other markets around the world, you will need to learn the markets of those countries. You will need to learn how other people from other countries buy books and how to reach them. For example, maybe your book will be more popular in a bookstore instead of only available online. What better way to learn than to go live in the country where you want to sell your book.
8. Living abroad increases your global awareness.
There’s a difference between traveling abroad and living abroad. When you travel abroad, your stay is short, and you never get the full experience of actually being present in a town or city. When you live somewhere, you have the opportunity to learn more of the culture, the language, see the surrounding areas only the locals know about, and maybe even learn how to make some local food. But more importantly, you see how people view your own country from a different point of view.
Increasing your global awareness will help when you need to write characters from different places around the world. If you’ve never experienced someone from a certain country or culture that you’re writing about, how will you know what they look like, how they act, how they interact, how they speak, what they eat, etc. Yes, you can google stuff, but I can tell you from my time living in Spain, there are things you can only experience and learn with your own five senses.
9. Living abroad will help increase your job performance.
Struggling to finish that book? Well, living abroad can give the boost you need to finish it, because making the move to another country is known to increase job performance. I’ve been living in Spain for three years now, and during my time here, I’ve written the second book in my fantasy series, put together a poetry collection that will consist of three books, created a literary magazine, wrote fourteen songs, and started my own freelance copywriting business. I did all of this while teaching English and dealing with all the craziness that comes with living abroad. People think I’m on a long-term vacation. But actually, it’s quite the opposite. I’ve never worked this hard in my life. And it’s because I became more in tune with my inner self after moving abroad, allowing me to know how and when to get work done. But it’s work that I love, and I still have time to enjoy an ice cream and travel with friends.
10. Living abroad will help you learn new things.
To be a great writer, you need to always be learning new things. Living abroad can teach you things beyond learning a new language, which you would never have learned back in your home country. For example, back home in the United States, I always thought Pablo Picasso’s famous painting Guernica was just classic Pablo Picasso at it again with his weird cubism doodles. Now, living in Spain, I learned that this painting is actually one of the most famous anti-war paintings in history. Picasso painted it after the Spanish Nationalists gave the A-okay to Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy to bomb Guernica, a small town in Basque Country in northern Spain. It took moving to another country for my brain to finally comprehend this.
Also, within Spain, there are seventeen autonomous communities, which are like states in the United States. Sometimes I feel like traveling to a new community is like going to a new country. Each community has its own culture and sometimes even its own language aside from Spanish. For example, in Catalunya, they speak Catalan; in Basque Country, they speak Basque; in Galicia, they speak Galician. It’s hard for me to imagine being a Galician child in school who has to learn Spanish, Galician, and English. Meanwhile in the United States, we grow up learning mostly just English.
Another interesting fact I learned from my time here is that Francisco Franco, the dictator of Spain from 1936–1975, banned some of these languages while he was in office. When Spain became independent in 1975, they began to speak these languages again and became really proud of them.
Already starting to feel the creative juices flowing? These are all ideas you can incorporate into your next story.
11. Living abroad will increase your patience.
Your patience will be tested when you live abroad, as you will have to become accustomed to new ways of living. And since you are a writer, you will know how important having patience is. Especially when you run into a plot hole with your current story and can’t figure out how to dig your way out. Patience is key. The answer will come.
My patience has been tested to my limits while living abroad. Spaniards are known to take their time with everything, as they are overall more relaxed. If you’re in a rush, prepare to be late. Spaniards don’t care if you need to be somewhere. They will talk to you without stopping to the point where you need to cut them off, or else you will never make it in time to catch the train or whatever important thing you have going on at that moment. In the restaurants, you need to wave waiters and waitresses down. And when they come, you need to take advantage of their presence because there’s a chance you will not see them for another twenty to thirty minutes.
Spain is the fifth country in the world with the longest life expectancy, which means. . . there are a lot of older people. And you notice it when walking in the streets. My biggest pet peeve here is not just how slowly people walk on the sidewalks, but how they take up the entire width of the walking space. Even if you say, “Excuse me,” they usually don’t move out of the way, making you risk your life by stepping out into the street just to get around them.
Patience. Breathe in, breathe out. Practice yoga and meditation. It will do wonders for your mentality and writing and dealing with old Spaniards abroad.
12. Living abroad will help you learn more about yourself.
Let’s be real: if you stay in the same job in the same place around the same people and culture for your entire life, you will never question whether or not the life you are living is meant for you. When you live abroad, you will be able to reflect more on your own personal beliefs. And if you’re confident and clear with yourself and in your own beliefs, you will be confident in the words you put on the paper.
Living abroad has taught me what triggers my creativity. It has also taught me a lot about my work style, allowing me to know at what time of the day I can get the most work done and in what kind of setting. Like George R. R. Martin, I cannot get writing done while traveling. However, there are other things I can do while traveling to still help improve my writing. For example, reading. Reading is always important to increase your writing skills, and what better way to pass the hour on the next train or long flight. Journaling has also been my favorite thing to do while traveling. I usually bring a small travel journal with me and write my journeys down. This keeps my writing skills in tune while I’m away from tapping at my keyboard.
Also, if you don’t know your own personal self, how are you supposed to know your other characters? Being in tune with your beliefs, passions, goals, and emotions will help you develop memorable and relatable characters.
Conclusion
You don’t have to be as extreme as I was and move to a new country to improve your writing. But I truly believe that being a good writer means living. So go outside. Have that ice cream with beautiful ocean side views at 5:00 p.m. on a Friday summer evening. No one’s judging—at least not me. But most importantly. . . live in the moment by being present.