Writing away : a creative guide to awakening the journal-writing traveler

232 Pages·2009·1.19 MB·English

by  Lavinia Spalding

Table of Contents

Praise
SOME OTHER TRAVELERS’ TALES BOOKS
Title Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Introduction

CHAPTER 1 - Let the Wild Writing Begin
Q&A
Inspiration

CHAPTER 2 - It’s the Intention that Matters
Inspiration

CHAPTER 3 - Write Two Pages and Call Me in the Morning
Q&A
Inspiration

CHAPTER 4 - Travel Is Stranger than Fiction
Inspiration

CHAPTER 5 - Distance Makes the Art Grow Stronger
Inspiration
Q&A

CHAPTER 6 - Journal to the Center
Q&A
Inspiration

CHAPTER 7 - And Now for Something Completely Different
Inspiration

CHAPTER 8 - Don’t You Forget About Me
Inspiration
CHAPTER 9 - The Sum of Our Misadventures
Inspiration

CHAPTER 10 - Free Your Mind and the Words Will Follow
Q&A
Inspiration

CHAPTER 11 - Tell Me the Truth
Q&A
Inspiration

CHAPTER 12 - Having a Great Time, Wish I Were Here
Q&A
Inspiration

CHAPTER 13 - Bring It on Home
Inspiration

Journal Prompts
Recommended Reading
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Copyright Page
CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR Writing Away

“Spalding doesn’t just give you ideas for keeping a travel journal—she makes a convincing case for
why keeping one is important, and how this personal writing ritual can deepen your journey in
unexpected ways. Recommended for anyone who endeavors to travel mindfully.”
—Rolf Potts, author of Vagabonding and Marco Polo Didn’t Go There

“Whenever we travel, all that we experience vanishes far too easily, a victim of flawed memory. In
Writing Away, Lavinia Spalding has given travelers a witty, profound, and accessible exploration of
the hows and whys of keeping a journal. Novices and veterans alike will find inspiration and fresh
ideas on every page, along with practical suggestions to bring out the best writer in anyone. Spalding
seems to have read everybody who set pen to paper while on the move, and her narrative is laced
with their wisdom and her own hardheaded yet searching advice. Best of all, she knows that the
‘memoir’ has grown ever more diverse wings. At once a worthy addition to the literature of travel
and the psychology of writing, it is also a handy, encouraging toolbox. Buy two copies—one to
meditate on at home, and another to dogear, underline, and carry alongside your own journal en
route.”
—Anthony Weller, author of Days and Nights on the Grand Trunk Road

“Writing is a sacred and an irreverent art. As such, Spalding reminds us to journey conscientiously,
to arrive awakened, and to write with all our hearts. This is a beautifully vital antidote to the frenetic
buzz of blogging and texting, to be savored and shared.”
—Alexandra Fuller, author of Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight and The Legend of Colton H. Bryant
SOME OTHER TRAVELERS’ TALES BOOKS

The Best Travel Writing
The Best Women’s Travel Writing
Marco A Sense of Place Polo Didn’t Go There
Kite Strings of the Southern Cross
100 Places Every Woman Should Go
A Woman’s Path
Safety and Security for Women Who Travel
The Royal Road to Romance
365 Travel
The Spiritual Gifts of Travel
The Road Within
Unbeaten Tracks in Japan
Stories to Live By

for Erin

who encourages me to rock my gypsy soul

&

Mom

for saying go, saying write.
A traveler without observation is a bird without wings.
—MOSLIH EDDIN SAADI
Introduction

For behind all seen things lies something vaster; everything is but a path, a portal, or a window
opening on something more than itself.
—ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPERY

Some years ago, while packing to move from San Francisco to Utah, I unearthed
the journal from my first trip abroad, a college break I spent in Europe with my
best friend. It was a fat black sketchbook with a colorful collage of ticket stubs
and photos haphazardly laminated on the cover. Considering my stress level that
day, I’m not sure why I took the time to open it, except that it looked inviting,
and I’m a woman with a tender spot in her heart for procrastination.

A familiar line caught my attention on the first page: “Our ride from
Heathrow to the hostel was the scariest ten minutes of my life.”The journal was
written in my hand, but younger—the cursive more deliberate, with wider loops
and an endearing overuse of exclamation points and ellipses. What can I say, it
was irresistible. Wild, wild horses couldn’t drag me away.

Inside were my own experiences, but lived by another me—a young woman I
recognized only vaguely. I sat sandwiched between cardboard boxes on the
hardwood floor of my bedroom, reacquainting myself with a gutsy, curious,
naïve, self-conscious, intense, bad-ass, twenty-something version of myself. The
writing in my diary was raw, affected, and—let’s be honest—not good. And I
already knew how the story ended. Still, I couldn’t put it down.