by Mr. Rozell
Some
of you know you will be traveling abroad before you leave high school, others
will certainly do so in college. Writing a travel narrative is a great way to
learn a lot about a different culture, history, and about yourself.
Before the advent of mass communications and entertainment,
travel narratives were always best sellers among the literate classes of Europe.
The writers were usually well educated young men with enough money to finance a
sustained trip-usually a couple years! They recorded snapshots of life just by
observing, comparing what they saw to what they knew, and frequently passed
ethnocentric judgments on the people they encountered. Today, historians mine
these unique resources to learn more about the past. One of my favorites is Peter
Kalm’s Travels (1748). He was a Swedish naturalist who
passed through the eastern US in 1748, describing everything around him. He even
passed through this area on his way to Montreal, terrified of the wilderness and
hostile Indian war parties about. He was tormented by mosquitoes day and night
and writes about stripping a birch tree of its bark in the vicinity of Fort Anne
to make a canoe to put into Lake Champlain to get away from here as soon as
possible. Great stuff.
What's my point? The point of a modern day travel journal
should be to inform yourself, not necessarily a wide audience. A photograph
won't remind you of your immediate impressions years later. A journal will.
I
was 26 and out of college when I traveled to the USSR in 1986. I did set out to
write for a wider audience, combining history gleaned from other sources with my
first hand impressions of what turned out to be a system that was on death's
door. I was reasonably well educated on my subject and absolutely fascinated
with it before I even thought of traveling there. From the feedback you have
provided I think my narrative was successful
I
did not write 130 pages while in the USSR for a week. I wrote maybe 20 or 30,
then in my time away from cooking in a restaurant continued my research and added more detail of my
encounters in the weeks after (before my impressions faded away). I spent at
least a month on it, and it wound up in my trunk, untyped but largely completed.
This is the first time I've gone through it in 14 years. It turned out to be
quite a slice of history, and I wouldn't trade it for thousands of dollars!
That's why it has to be published.
The
moral of the story? Write things down! I had forgotten all about about Wayne the
black marketeer, and can't even remember what my roommate Scott looked like,
with or without his zit cream. lrina, on the other hand ..........
My trip to the USSR was my third (and, in 1997, fourth) abroad.
I spent
a month in Spain on a summer trip while in high school, and a week in England my
freshman year at college. Regrettably, I wrote NOTHING then, and remember few
details. Maybe that's why I exploded with the USSR narrative. Maybe you can
profit from my experience. Here's my recipe …..
1) Try and learn
as much about the nation you visit as you can,
before you go. You'll start forming impressions to write about before you even
leave.
2)
Purchase
a special book to write in. Make sure the lines are suitably spaced for your size handwriting.
Get a couple pens you like to write with. Don't use red ink or pencil because
they are tough on the eyes later. Trust me. I wrote all my college notes in
pencil. They are just about useless to me now.
3)
Record
your expectations for the trip. In the days before you
leave, begin your journal.
4)
This is the hardest, but most important, part. You simply have to
be disciplined
enough to do it. Your peers are definitely going to call you a geek, and maybe
you are, but deep down they are admiring you for it and wish they had thought of
it.
a) Find a quiet time to write, everyday.
On a structured tour you might sneak away from meals with the group early. You
have to be alone to record your thoughts.
b) Try to write the same time on most days,
if you can. This gets you into the habit.
Personally
this time for me is the morning, before "distractions" wake up. (it's
6:14 am, and I've been writing here for over an hour! My little
"distractions" should be ending my writing session any moment!) For
you, it might be at the end of the day, if you are not too tired. The main point
is you should not skip one day. On some activity filled days, you will want to
write more than once.
5) Try to limit
your writing sessions to an hour a day. After all, you went on this trip
to live it, not just sit in a room and write about it. Some times you have to
jot quick notes. Deal with them soon after you get back to the US.
6) If you want to
write for a larger audience like I did, find time
to flesh everything out upon your arrival home. Add more detail as you go
through your journal while it is still fresh in your mind. This is important.
Life tends to get in the way. This takes the most discipline of all. Try not to
put it aside until you are satisfied with it. Then you can stick it in a trunk
and be amazed when you dig your work out 14 years later.
Ciao, baby!