So You Want to Write a Travel Book?

I often get approached by people who want to write and publish their own travel book.
More and more I am inclined to tell people that before they consider anything they should spend a period of time honing their skills, learning about the book industry and seeing what their options might be.
So I thought I would share some of my wisdom, and hopefully help any of you out there who want to write a long-form travel narrative:

Since you are wanting to write travel, of course you should read my own travel memoir, Destination Saigon.

Seriously, if you are going to ask an author for advice, make the effort to read their book first. It might answer a lot of the questions you have, and it will certainly give you an insight into what they write and what they are trying to say. It's a courtesy, and authors like and expect it. The sooner you learn this the better. You will make a lot more friends and allies in the writing industry if you buy people's books and read them. It seems obvious, I know, but you'd be surprised at how rarely people do this. Normally I hear: "I haven't read your book yet, but I'd like to pick your brains about..."

You should also set about reading as much travel memoir that you possibly can. I have created a list of classic travel books elsewhere. At a minimum you need to read:




Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (no matter what you have heard about it, it is the biggest selling travel book of the past decade, and needs to be read).

The Tao of Travel by Paul Theroux

Nine Lives by William Dalrymple

Reading these will give you a very thorough grounding in what long-form contemporary travel writing looks like.

Then, you need to read a couple of things about writing.
I would recommend:

The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron (and actually follow it)

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

Stephen King

On Writing by Stephen King 

Author Natalie Goldberg

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

Of course, I would hope you read a lot of other things besides, but these four represent the minimum required.
And if you don't have time to read all of these books, or have no interest, then you really have no business writing.






You also need to join your nearest Writers' Centre or writers' group and sign up for a creative writing course asap - while you are still enthusiastic.  Yes, writers' groups and writing courses can be enormous wastes of time, but they can also be invaluable sources of help and support. Use your time with them wisely and you will reap many benefits.

Attend your closest writers' festival. And go and hear everything you possibly can. This is not so much about learning technique but more about finding out trends and the realities of writers' lives.

Journal, blog and enter writing competitions. These will all help you hone your craft and think of yourself as a writer. 

The Wat

I have been reading Vittorio Roveda and Sothon Yem's simply exquisite Buddhist Painting in Cambodia, probably the most fascinating, and certainly the most beautiful, book about Cambodian Buddhism.

I read the following passage, and it prompted me to share some of the favourite photographs I have taken in Cambodia at temples:

"Withing the urban and rural landscape, the Buddhist monastery, referred to as a wat, has traditionally occupied a dominant place in Cambodia. The monasteries are sites where Cambodians have perpetuated ancient rites and traditions for centuries. Historically they have served to structure and sacralise the village space, creating the centre around which the population was installed."

 Vittorio Roveda & Sothon Yem, Buddhist Painting in Cambodia, p. 23

Modern naga balustrade

Wat Langka, Phnom Penh

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teasers:

"For despite European contacts with both Cambodia and Laos during the sixteenth and and particularly the seventeenth centuries, including travel on large sections of the Mekong itself, it was not until the nineteenth century that anything like a detailed map of the Mekong was finally produced. This state of affairs at first seems puzzling, until one remembers that the Europeans who were the first to see the Mekong and travel on its waters were interested in other things than cartography. They sought souls, trade and power. Provided they survived, charting the river, however essential it was to providing a means for their travel, was a secondary concern."

~ p. 43, "The Mekong" by Milton Osborne 

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your ‘teasers’ in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks! 

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teasers:

"For, until the arrival of the French in the second half of the ninetenth century, Cambodians whether royalty or commoners knew virtually nothing of the distant past. Angkor, it is true, had remained a site for Buddhist pilgrimage and the distinctive towers of its most famous temple, Angkor Wat, had appeared on a coin struck during King Ang Duang's reign in the middle of the nineteenth century. But no-one in the kingdom had known why the temples of Angkor had been built nor who had ruled there."

~ p. 43, "Sihanouk: Prince of Light, Prince of Darkness" by Milton Osborne  

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your ‘teasers’ in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks!