Bye, Heathrow!

About my Heathrow excision from Douglas Adams’ London, A Map by Herb Lester Associates

Writing is a solitary practice and I am not, by nature, a solitary person.
(I’ll pause to give those of you who’ve actually met me a moment to finish laughing at the scale of that understatement.)

I crave external validation. I want reassurance from someone I trust. I hope for positive feedback while simultaneously reminding myself it affects me like a heroin rush. Totally addictive.

Compliments? Really…?

At the same time, I also mistrust compliments. Maximum reward for minimal effort was already a big deal during my upbringing. Participation! Woo-Hoo! Collect them all: The kudos certificates. The ribbons for just showing up. And the medals, even for crossing the finish line dead last, as long as you aren’t actually dead. After all, winning isn’t important! Trying your best is the only thing that counts!

I’m skeptical.

So when an unasked-for, pure compliment comes my way—a compliment with absolutely no possible hidden agenda, from someone who is trustworthy—I am grateful. And I let the gratification of it burst forth from my heart and fill me with joy from head to toe. Today that sensation came from my editor at Herb Lester Associates.

I drafted 56 places for us to choose from for creating our Douglas Adams’ London map. Ultimately, we only had space for 42 entries. Between version one and version three, we cut it down to 51. During today’s meeting, we cut the last 9 places. As I named Heathrow as a cut I would recommend, he said (paraphrased):

Ohhhhhh. I agree, but you did such a good job of making that one interesting and totally relevant that I’m hesitating. That’s unheard of for something like Heathrow, because it’s literally just an airport, right? No one actually wants to go there, but you made it sound almost fun.

Mmmmmm validation-heroin.

During my high, I talked to my writer friend, Muse on The Mountain. She shared that her writing coach once said that the quality of writing can be measured by the quality of what gets cut.

“He would say that it’s easy to cut bad stuff and really painful to cut good stuff. If you’re cutting good stuff, that means you’re left with the crème de la crème.”

The painful crux of being an untried, unknown, unpublished writer, is that it is hard to get (and harder to trust) feedback. You have to let your words go out into the world without caring who will find them trite and who will find them terrific.

Is Heathrow Loveable?

Because I knew I was walking in Douglas Adams’ footsteps, I started to love this airport. Because I’ve had a blast each time I’ve passed through, Heathrow excisions are difficult. Luckily, I can include more descriptions of what I love about the airport in my book, for those who have to traverse it anyway, just to get into England. Here are some examples:

I love the MC Escher-esque Escalators:

I love the quiet corners for travelers working on the fly, while they fly:

Is Heathrow worth visiting? Loveable?
At the end of the day, the audience decides.

And since my entry for Heathrow, Terminal 2, located at Inner Ring E, Hounslow TW6 1EW is now definitely cut, I have the luxury of letting you decide. Here’s the concise description I wrote for the map:

Douglas Adams frequently came and went through Heathrow, so it is no surprise the airport is both a setting and a plot lynchpin. To experience the woes of travel felt by Kate, Thor, and Adams himself, try to locate a Terminal 2 check-in desk and a flight to Oslo. According to Teatime, this task is notoriously difficult (and that was in 1988 when the airport was half the size). Terminal 2 now has hundreds of check-in kiosks, for dozens of airlines, and most resembles the exhibitor floor of a Maximegalon luggage design convention.

Does my Heathrow excision make you want to stop by? Would you include it on your Douglas Adams Pilgrimage? Or would you just check it off the next time you happened to be passing through?

Regardless, I hope that knowing this is what we’re cutting for better things, makes you excited to see and hear more about the map. We will be doing a cover reveal, an un-boxing, and taking pre-orders in January, so sign up for my list to make sure you don’t miss out.