You and the World:
Writing a Travel Memoir
Travel memoirs and travel guides may both paint pictures of faraway vistas and fabled cultures, but a travel memoir is more than a travel guide. Although it’s certainly a fortunate effect, the memoir doesn’t primarily seek to invite readers to visit the places it talks about. A successful travel memoirist balances descriptions of places and exploration of their personal backstory to take a reader on an emotional as well as mental journey. To do so, you must reveal how your travels have helped you grow and encourage others to contemplate their own journey.
Reading well-written travel memoirs
Before you embark on your travel memoir, equip yourself with some well-written examples of the genre to get a feel for the approaches you can try.
The Colossus of Maroussi by American writer and artist Henry Miller reads as a love letter to the Greek islands Miller visits. It’s supposedly a portrait of Greek poet George Katsimbalis, the eponymous “colossus,” but Miller brings Greece to the foreground as he portrays days spent nakedly sunbathing on beaches and traversing secluded villages.
In Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, the reader follows the narrative thread of Strayed’s thousand-mile solo hike along the Pacific Crest Trail, all the while making stopovers at flashbacks of Strayed’s troubled twenties. Strayed deftly intertwines the physical challenges of the trail and the death of her mother, estrangement of her stepfather and siblings, her divorce, and her drug use, guiding the reader towards her emotional and spiritual revelations.
English writer Douglas Adams travels with his zoologist friend Mark Carwardine around the world in Last Chance to See, immersing the reader not just in the sights of China, Indonesia, New Zealand, and other locales but also in the company of the world’s most endangered animals.
Setting out to write your own travel memoir
Your travel memoir can’t be written in the midst of your travels since the significance of your journey only becomes apparent at the end of it, after some time has passed. Don’t set out on a trip expecting to produce a memoir or else you’ll end up with a work that feels contrived. Take notes on the road if you must, but allow your journey to conclude before doing some introspection. Let your memories settle before taking them out for examination; by then, you will have gained awareness of how your experiences have altered you.
Moreover, don’t hand the reader a pair of rose-tinted glasses through which they can read your story. Be as honest as you can and refrain from presenting a picture-perfect narrative. Authenticity is key to creating a relatable memoir that the reader can learn from, so by all means, include your unfortunate decisions, embarrassing incidents, and subpar adventures.
Creating an engaging narrative
To keep the reader engaged, make your travel memoir read like fiction, incorporating such elements of storytelling as a well-defined setting, protagonists and antagonists, a solid plot, tension and conflict, a clear theme, and a well-developed narrative arc.
You could also recreate events by drawing maps of scenes. This way, you can recall more details that will help guide the reader’s mind through the landscape of your story.
Ensure that the reader is transported to your world by following the old “show, don’t tell” rule. Go over your text and look for opportunities to transform simple lines into more descriptive statements.
Telling: I entered the shop. I was hungry.
Showing: A bell above the door tinkled as I entered the patisserie. My stomach growled at the golden display of freshly baked cupcakes and croissants.
Telling: The room was dirty.
Showing: The floor of the room was coated with several months’ or possibly years’ worth of grime. Scraps of food and bits of refuse littered the space underneath tables, and the aroma of stale beer wafted through the air.
Telling: The ocean was beautiful.
Showing: The ocean imbued a rare serenity that reminded me of seaside holidays with my mother.
Writing a travel memoir may seem daunting, but if you have the courage to explore the world, you will have the courage to explore your inner geography.