Liam Livings
Twitter
  • Home
  • Books
    • Kieran series >
      • Kieran's Out
      • Kieran's Pride
      • Kieran's Prince
    • Kev Series >
      • Adventures in Dating...in Heels
      • Rocky Road of Love...In Heels
      • Kicking Up My Heels...in Heels
    • Regiment of Majestic Gays Series >
      • The Regiment of Majestic Gays
      • I Should Be So Lucky
      • Say You'll Be Mine
      • Don't You Want Me
    • Christmas Books >
      • Plus One Christmas Elf
      • Coincidental Christmas Boyfriend
      • Bear Best Friend
      • Mistletoe Kisses
      • A New Life For Christmas
      • Silver Daddy Jingle Bells
    • Standalones >
      • And Then That Happened
      • Wrong Room, Right Guy
      • The Guardian Angel
      • The Player and the Geek
      • The Journalist and the Dancer
      • Unlocking the Doctor's Heart
      • Guarding the Prince
      • Wild for You
      • Love on the Dancefloor
      • Finding Home
      • Perfect Catch
      • The Trouble With Rent Boys
      • When Robbo Met Daniel
    • Non-Fiction >
      • Marketing the Romance
  • Contact
  • GHOSTWRITING SERVICES
  • Liam's Lovely News

4 Tips For Nervous Flyers To Relax And Increase Productivity

18/5/2015

2 Comments

 
I normally dislike flying. I'm a very nervous flyer. From the moment the alarm goes off to get up, until the moment I am at the final destination, I find it stressful., heart racing, hands sweating, stomach sickness, unable to eat properly. Taxis, airports, security, queuing, checking luggage, crowds, weighing luggage, and the flight itself is pretty scary.

I don’t enjoy it, but realise it’s a necessary evil if I want to holiday anywhere outside the UK. Since my dad died in a light aircraft crash, and I've got older, my fear of flying has become worse, but I manage it. I try to be part through a good book and bury myself in that during the whole flight/airport/taxi experience. That combined with some deep breathing and it’s ok. And that’s just for a two hour flight to France!

Last year we went to Australia. It was my second time, after I went in my gap year before uni, in the nineties, and it was my BF’s first time. That’s a twenty three hour flight and two internal flights of at least 3hrs each.

Wonderful.

Marvellous.

So in preparation of this, I decided to take a different approach to flying. I embraced it, loved it, welcomed it in a few different ways.

1. I revelled in the campiness of flying: the flight attendants, the uniforms, the ‘lights along the aisle and emergency exits’ movements. Kylie even has a song – Light Years and there’s Pam Ann, whose cabaret about the campness, the difference between airlines, is legendary. And of course, there’s The High Life, which I’ve always loved and is mentioned in Best Friends Perfect of course. On a flight to France recently, the woman looking after the gate was so strict I felt like I was at boarding school. She ran her gate with a rod of iron. I was in awe of her ripping the boarding passes, moving people from priority boarding to the other queue without hesitation, deviation or toleration of anything. So I embraced all that, and more.

2. I made the most of the enforced isolation away from the internet & phone. How often do you get a break from the pings of social media, emails, and your phone? Never really. I leaned into the situation of being everywhere, but nowhere. Rather than watching 23hours of films, which would have given me a headache, I made the most of this time to think and more...

3. I brought a notebook, 2 pencils and pencil sharpener & wrote. On the flights to and from Australia and the 2 internal flights I managed to hand write 24,000 words on my work in progress at the time. The advice about taking a notebook and pencils on a flight was one of the best pieces of writing advice I've ever read. This was the first time I'd tried it, I thought a long flight to Oz would really test out if I could do it. It was the perfect distraction from the flight, and a productive use of the otherwise dead time. I rested my notebook on the table and the post it notes of scene planning underneath and I wrote. Interestingly, when I typed up the 24,000 words in February at my New Forest  writing retreat, I didn't change much, I think writing it slower by hand meant it was already a bit more 'self edited' than my usual frantic fast drafted typing. We'll see how it works when I edit the whole thing together.

4. I disappeared into a big thick book that would normally take me a few weeks to read, and ploughed through 600 pages with no distractions. When we flew to New York in 2012 to avoid the Olympics in London, I read most of The Best Of Times by Penny Vincenzi, and I loved it. I dreamed about the characters.

So that's my four point plan for future flights, I threw myself in the deep end with a long one to Oz, but I like a challenge.

How do you feel about flying?
What tips do you have to help with nervous flyers?
What do you like to do on a flight?

I’d love to hear from you,
Until next time,
Liam Livings xx
2 Comments
Jan
19/5/2015 08:54:55 pm

I love flying. I'm anxious getting to the airport (but I am a dreadful car passenger anyway), but form the minute I get out of the car I love it. You check in and the responsibility for your bags is whisked away from you, you go through the gates into the world of duty free shopping, so a browse round and then to identify the gate. Then the wait is uninterrupted reading time. :-) No worries about being on the wrong platform, getting off at the wrong stop, or in my case sleeping through my stop!
Once safely stowed on board its time to bring out the audio books. Having someone read me a story is so relaxing I often doze through meals and turbulence!
My tips for travelling with a nervous flier are decongestant tablets before flying and as necessary during the flight, along with sucky sweets they stop your ears getting bunged up, paracetamol if headaches are an issue. And distractions, books, games, pencils what ever. If those fail dope them! :-)

Reply
Liam Livings
22/5/2015 03:07:42 am

Wish I did love flying too. I watch those who relax sit back & enjoy it, with such envy. I've actually been sick a few times from nerves! Haven't tried audio books yet, may have to investigate. :-)

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Liam Livings

    Gay romance & gay fiction author

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Archives

    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.