Travel Writing with Spirit - a wokshop with Walter Mason and Laneway Learning Sydney, August 4, 2015

In August I am so excited to be working with Laneway Learning Sydney teaching a travel writing workshop.

Please note that it is essential you book ahead for this workshop.

Details:

Travel Writing with Spirit

$14
Wednesday, August 5th
7:00pm to 8:15pm
Waverley Library
Register now
 

Please note:

We will have some fun colorful Archie Grand hardback notebooks for $8 at the venue, or choose ticket option 2

What’s it all about?

We are all travelling more and more, and we all ache to make something more meaningful of our experiences. To be able to write down our adventures in a way that is both entertaining and engaging moves us beyond the mere collection of sights and destinations. Get in touch with your spiritual side by turning your next holiday into something more transcendent: a soul journey. Learn how to be a special kind of travel writer, one who engages the heart as well as the head and seeks to make a greater understanding of the incredible insights and connections made during travel. Eat, pray, love and get it all written down – who knows where the journey might take you?

What will we cover?

    Thinking about your soul, not just your airline ticket

    How to begin to write with spirit about your experiences at home before you even head abroad

    The importance of journaling and the various tools you can use

    Beginner’s mind – cultivating a mood of awareness and allowing amazing things to happen to you

    Enriching your experience – what to look for when you write it all down and how to make it sing

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. 

Learn More About Ireland With Rosamund Burton

Acclaimed travel writer Rosamund Burton will be speaking about her wonderful book Castles, Follies & Four-Leaf Clovers at Balmain Library in November.




Illustrated with some of the most evocative photographs from her journey along St. Declan's Way, this is a unique opportunity to learn more about the deep spirituality of Ireland and see the beauty of its mystical landscape.

Details:

Author Talk: Rosamund Burton @ Balmain Library

30 Nov 2011

6.30pm - 8pm

Adventures along Ireland’s ancient highway and pilgrim route St Declan's Way

Come and hear travel writer and journalist Rosamund Burton tell of her adventures along Ireland’s ancient highway and pilgrim route St Declan's Way. Rosamund's adventures begin when she is lent a map of the ancient route. Stories of goddesses, ghosts and fairies are intertwined with the eccentricities and daily lives of everyday people—this is a journey full of surprises.

Bookings essential: ring Balmain Library 9367 9211

Destination Saigon: Adventures in Vietnam - Cover at last

The cover has been finalised for a while, but it has received some minor tweaking here and there.
I found out today that it may even end up with some gold on it, which sent me over the moon. I've always been a glittery gold kinda guy.
I think the jacket just looks fabulous - the designers have done a terrific job, and it's really going to stand out in the bookstores.
So don't forget:

Destination Saigon: Adventures in Vietnam
by Walter Mason
March 2010 release
Published by Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 9781741759495

The Next Book?

I had to change some of the chapter names again - apparently as soon as this was done the whole thing goes into editing. Quite exciting, and I suppose a landmark moment.
Now I have to think about my next book. Knowing publishers (who like their authors to keep writing the same thing), I will need to do another travel book, and I do have an idea planned. I have actually run the idea by my publisher, and she loves it. The problem is, until my first book is released and proves a financial success (which I am confident about), I seriously doubt the publishing house will give me another advance to do the relatively expensive - and extensive - travel that the new book will require.
But I want to keep writing, and working on a serious project, just to keep the momentum up and keep me in that psychic space of "being a writer."
So for now I am working on a project that I call Spiritual Journeying. It has elements of the travel genre in it, but all the travel is being done in my own city, or even closer to home - my own head. Basically it is a manifesto for the spiritual dilettante, an account of my own, unashamedly syncretic, spiritual journey. I have already written a substantial part of the first chapter, which is on the organised Interfaith movement, but so far have been to shy to show it to my publisher. Mostly because I feel certain that she will reject it and tell me to wait for the next travel piece. But I am still working on it, because I am passionate about it, it excites and interests me, and it seems the perfect thing to be writing about.
Is it the Next Book? I don't know. But it's my new lifeboat, the thing I can point to when people ask me what I am working on right now.

Over the Moat

I'm leaving soon (on Wednesday) and to get myself in the mood having been reading Over the Moat by James Sullivan. At first I hated it, but now I'm about halfway through it I'm absolutely in love with it. Sullivan isn't afraid to make himself look foolish, and when an author is that honest it's almost impossible to dislike their book.
What intrigues me is that it all took place back in the early 90s - why on earth did it take him 10 years to write it all down? It was confusing me at first - he was writing about all kinds of things and I was thinking, "That isn't true! Vietnam hasn't been like that for years!" And then I read more carefully and saw that he was describing the events of 1992, when things were exactly as he describes.
Amazing how much things have changed - this book is a fascinating little window into a specific moment in Vietnam's history.
Well worth a read.

My Book - At Last

For years I've thought of myself as a frustrated writer - now at last I have an opportunity to become the real thing.
I have decided to write my first book - a spiritual journey through Vietnam. Vietnam is a place I know well and love very much - it is my second home, and in many ways my spiritual home.
I will be leaving for Vietnam in a couple of weeks time, and will spend 2 and a half months there, travelling and writing about all the the things I do and see. I will also be keeping a record on this blog.
So who are my influences when it comes to travel writing? Paul Theroux, Gontran de Poncins and Osbert Sitwell are probably my main inspirations, so I will blog more about those extraordinary figures in the days to come.