I’m curious about something. How far have you gone for your writing?

I’ve gone so far as to learn Dutch. Or to start to learn Dutch, rather. I’m using DuoLingo, which is free and pretty easy, though to be honest, I know nothing replaces actually learning and speaking with someone else who knows the language. I decided to learn Dutch so that I could read source material in my research and because someday I hope to go back to Amsterdam to see the places I’ve put on the page.

It’s not that difficult, either. I’ve already got some handle on German, thanks to mom. And when you know English and you know German, you sort of know Dutch already – at least you know how to read a lot of it. Some of the sounds are different, and some of the sentence structure will throw you for a loop. And sometimes, some of the words and spelling will really throw you, but for the most part it’s fairly intuitive.

So I’m wondering, how far have others gone for their writing?

I have a friend who recently took a trip to Europe to do some research and see some of the things she’s written about. Such a supreme sacrifice!

I wonder if others have taken or given up jobs, moved to certain areas, taken classes — anything. To what lengths did you go for your story?