Five things Cambridge Taught me about Writing

Back in September 2o23, I went to Cambridge for a week and I wanted to document what that experience, nearly two months later, has taught me about writing (as well as give an excuse to show some of my beautiful photos). If you're interested in this, then I'll gladly give you a travel guide, too, maybe, as I seem to love traveling at the moment.

To Give some Context

We stayed from Monday the 4th of September to the 8th and this is an account of it. We were lucky enough to have an Airbnb which was pretty close to the centre and I only realised how walkable Cambridge was when I got back home and needed to go up a hill.

One: How fast, but at the same time, long, train travel takes

To get from my home in Southampton, I needed to take a train up to Victoria and then change once. I tell you this because it took about four hours to do. Trains in England, whist fast, are also exceptionally taking a very long time. Of course, I say this, but it only takes me about 2H40 to get to Birmingham, which is pretty fast for those standards. Whilst I'm not complaining whatsoever, I forgot the toll of travel on me.

As the train went through London, I found that it was very interesting to understand what the City held. Side note: I went to London back in October and I really liked seeing all the stations that I went past on my trip to Cambridge, there.

Credit: Foursquare city Guide

I say all of this because train travel is very convenient, but also, not as quick as some books make it seem. Of course, this then opens the question of if you should show the travel at all, but if you do, as train travel was quite boring on my Thameslink service (from Three Bridges to Cambridge), drama doesn't always happen on public transport, so you can consider cutting it out. I do say though, if you're going to be train travel into your works. make the trains beautiful and the stations magnificent if the history of the place calls for it. Just look at the Beauty of this station!

Two: The importance of setting

This is something that is taught in Creative writing classes all the time. It's even a tip that I have given, but when you see the beauty of the buildings in this city, then you'll have constant 'oh wow'. I might be biased, as I went as a tourist, and I am sure that if you lived there, then you would have some 'bones to pick' with the place.

All that said, there are so many different places that I saw on my five day trip to Cambridge. The Fitzwilliam museum (more on this later) and the botanical gardens were some of the most beautiful and well-curated places that I've been to. This just showed me the importance of setting, as there was so many different environments that I had way too much fun exploring (even if it was really hot). There is something here it say that slowing down was easily the best lesson, and I found that when I did, I could take a lot more of the setting in. Maybe have a scene where your character slowly takes the scenery of a new city in, or at the least consider how fast the buildings are rushing by as they run to escape something/get somewhere.

I also learned that the weather takes a significant toll on characters, makes some people slightly irritable because of headaches, which you'd think is common sense. As it was really hot when we went (and we, stupidly, decided to do the botanical gardens on the hottest day that week, go us!) it just reinforced to me that, actually, heat takes a very large toll of my white, English, body.

The Botanical Gardens (University of Cambridge)

I wanted to feature the gardens here specifically, as they are beautiful. As I've been fortunate enough to live somewhere I've always had a front and back garden, I always took them for granted. Although I didn't consider that, actually, these gardens and the way they are curated is beautiful.

The trees and some of the specific gardens, specially the rock garden and the ponds as well as the avenue of trees, really took my breath away (even if I didn't have much energy!) and I really suggest that you go here and that you do it when its not burning hot. I don't have many photos from the gardens, but the ones I do have make me want to do it again. I'm hopefully going to do the Oxford botanical gardens, soon, so I can compare them for you here!

Three: The importance of well-curated collections

Following on from the collection of plants to the collection of many different artifacts and museums. I wanted to highlight this especially because a lot of works happen in museums. The idea that you are contrasting the old and bringing it to the new generation is a really interesting idea to work with when writing fiction. A lot of the experiences, here, showed me the beauty of a lot of things. Originally, here, I wanted to write about the museums we saw, but I just want to encourage you to go to the museums, if you go to Cambridge, its like a literature of their own, but not necessarily in words, but items.

In the folk museums, for example, I saw what I call an oath to the people of Cambridgeshire, which as someone who has grown up in Southampton and never started traveling since last year, I found this adventure and the ode to people and places I never heard of, interesting and like I was stepping into a new world. My family's view of fun, after all, was going shopping when I was little and because my mum is still a shopaholic, we only go there and don't do anything cultural. Family issues aside, the museum in this city are beautiful and I found that, and I'm going to do the deadly comparison to Oxford here, that the Fitzwilliam, for me, was much better laid out than the Ashmolean.

The Fitzwilliam museums (pictured on the right) was such an amazing collection of a variety of things and I was told many times to make sure to carry my bag in my hands, not on my back, because of safety concerns regarding the objects. I want to show you a few of the different things I had the privilege of looking at whilst there.

Four: Food (or my travel allowance)

Food, my seemingly, recent love was very good! My partner and I went for a meal at the Greene King (best fish and chips and lovely server, who when I complimented her, she was so happy about it). I have to say that some of these beautiful foods and drinks was one of the large highs of my trip.

For the creative writers, though, who don't really care about food - consider what restaurants you could put into your work and what the food is like in your world. Are you writing a fictional representation of something, or are you writing a contemporary romance where two characters go on a date to a local pub? Consider looking at the menus or even, if its affordable, traveling to the place yourself. Food is one of the best parts of a trip and I personally have grown to love it, and love eating out (but if I tell you that story, we'll be here forever).

When writing food in your story, as Cambridge had taught me, you should understand what it tastes like and go for a meal out if possible. this is as much of a writing guide as travel guide it seems now.

The importance of history from different Angles

Every city has a history that you can discover if you look close enough. Here, in Southampton, for example we've got lots of history, if you know where you are looking. In Cambridge, however, this is a city that many, that wears its history on its sleeve. Its both a historic dream university city (like Oxford) and has a significant amount of history that I only scratched the surface of during my trip. If you want a world of history and intrigue, Cambridge is definitely going to give you that!

Saint Mary's Tower

I went up the 128 steps (I think) of thew tower and got rewarded with a lot of views for my troubles of the old market town. Seeing it from up here was a beautiful experience, which, if you're able to, I would highly recommend it. You get to see a bunch of different ways, such as the markets, the different buildings that are important to Cambridge, ect.

On the Ground

Before I tell you about Punting, I want to show you some of the bookshops that I went to. This wouldn't be me without going into some kind of bookshop, would it? We saw the market town and also the University Press bookshop, the Waterstones, and the Haunted bookshop on our trip. I wanted to just say that this was one of the best parts of the trip. Well, actually, that's coming up, so this is the top three parts. there is so much history in these walls and the streets and every corner of the city. I just want to tell you that if you want a beautiful city to walk around, this is it.

Punting

Punting was easily the best part of the trip for us as a couple. I don't mean to turn this too much into a travel guide, but if you are in the area, definitely try to see the world from a boat. If you can, the experience isn't the same without a tour guide, so please get one. It was really interesting to be able to ask questions of the guides, and also flex my love of the recent Oppenheimer film (I remember screaming in the theatre out of excitement when the iconic Cambridge scenery came on screen when I saw it in August).

Regardless of my nerdiness, I personally loved the ability to see the different colleges (which aren't actually that worth it if you're on a budget) and also learning about the library and the history and the people who studied at Cambridge. Stephen Fry, for example studied there and the large amount of projects in the Wren Library - called such as it was built by Sit Cristopher Wren - is staggering! They have the Winnie the Pooh original manuscripts, how cool is that? We couldn't get inside the Wren on our trip, but its utterly beautiful and a sight to behold, even from the river.

Each experience, but especially Punting, taught me that seeing thigs from the different perspectives (and encouraged me to work more on dual POV works, and read some more) was an eye-opening experience for me.

The end

I hope that you've learned something or gained some sort of advice from this about writing or now want to go to Cambridge to see it for yourself. If you do, email me, or send me a DM on Instagram or contact me on Threads (@ericaj.kingdom), I am always happy to give recommendations and help people out!