BootsnAll Travel Community

Does anyone have an interest in travelling and writing about a subject other than travel?

This forum, though mainly about those aspects of writing pertaining to travel, also addresses combining travel and writing (in any form). My interest is in travel and writing philosophy, and I am sure there are others who are interested in travelling and writing fiction, or other forms. I am interested in hearing what other writing interests people have, and what the unique challenges are for travelling and writing for a specific kind of writing. It seems as though there are different sets of challenges, since TRAVEL writing relies heavily on documentation and observation, whereas in travel WRITING one may often need access to other sources of information, such as libraries. Yet such sources are more accessable in our electronic age. What does a writer need to write when on the road, if he or she is writing for some subject other than travelling (e.g. history, philosophy, sociology, ...), and is such a project feasible? Comments?

There's that old saying: 'Write what you know'.

Travelling is one way of gaining experience. I'm still hoping to write some decent SciFi one day and travelling gives me some exposure to exotic landscapes/cultures/flavours which I can maybe embellish and use as background for stories. We also use our senses more when travelling--I'm more aware aware of what is going on around me and that helps with these observations. Writing about travel itself is an incredibly useful exercise.

Travel is also a great motivation to do some background research into the countries' history, culture or language which will further enrich the writing. Research can be carried out before or after travel, but I would not recommend to do too much on the road as it distracts from travelling itself.

Visiting great libraries and museums is the obvious exception. Not everything is available online!

quote:

Originally posted by Socrates:
Does anyone have an interest in travelling and writing about a subject other than travel?

Definitely yes. I travel about, writing much more often than I write about traveling. In fact, the only reason I really write about traveling is I've discovered that people will give you a fair amount of money for doing stuff that isn't very hard (like writing travel humor).

quote:

What does a writer need to write when on the road, if he or she is writing for some subject other than travelling (e.g. history, philosophy, sociology, ...), and is such a project feasible? Comments?

Well, it seems to me to make quite a bit of difference WHAT you are writing about. I write technical stuff for work or school (which I promise will bore you if you aren't into systems theory) and that requires prior preparation because I rely on documentation and references that aren't always available on the web. It can be maddening when you find a citation online but can't get to the actual paper. In those cases, I try to get my outline done and references selected before I leave, and then make a list of things I've missed as I go along and pick them up when I next reach a place with a good technical library. I DO NOT try to do this sort of thing while backbacking. You just need too many paper books. It works okay out of a car, and stellarly out of a camper van. I tried it once on a motorcycle, but the books and computer took up so much room that I could only pack two pairs of socks and a coat. I probably won't try that again.

When I write fiction, I usually don't need a lot of references that I can't find online, except for one story where I'm getting a lot of background from my dad and uncles.

I've written informational articles on the road, and sometimes I didn't even need to go to a library - my expert sources got me all the info I needed, either electronically or verbally.

So, yeah, I think it can be done, and the amount of challenge involved varies. Try it. The worse think that can happen is it doesn't work.

Good luck,
La

I make no secret of the fact that I prefer writing fiction to travel writing per se, and that travel is really a source of background, culture etc. for my fiction. I am basically a writer who happens to travel, as Patrick Leigh Fermor, ironically a great travel writer, put it. But yes, I do occasionally 'travel' write as well, more to keep my eye in and to amuse myself and to remind me of what actually happened.
Fiction is much harder to write well, and as you say, write about what you know, so research, getting into the culture, and so on, are all important and useful ingredients for that. Again, you can do some research on the internet, but information on such esoteric subjects as I like to throw into my work is somewhat limited, so trolling around museums, libraries, or even just watching the world go by on a sunny day in downtown wherever helps.
As has again already been pointed out, sometimes just taking a few notes and not dwelling on things too long in your writing is better, because you can always round up on your writing after you have travelled. Leif P. told me that he hated spending too long at the laptop while travelling around; he said it made him feel antisocial, and got in the way of seeing things, or even just spending time in a pub with some locals and finding out what they think, and I am inclined to agree, though I don't have a laptop...
I am no expert in philosophy, so I can't give any advice on that one. Do you maybe sit under the tree in the ruins of Bergama where Aristotle was supposed to have given open air classes? I'd be too distracted by the stunning view, but I'm not a philosopher...