Most travel diaries fizzle. By day six of a big trip, people are struggling to recall what happened on days three, four, and five. They return home with mostly empty journals, or bland writing that fails to capture the full spirit of their journeys. Award-winning travel humorist Dave Fox comes to the rescue in this book that’s both informative and irreverently funny. You’ll learn to: — Bring … destinations to life with bold details. — Splash those details quickly onto your pages so journaling doesn’t gobble up your precious vacation time. — Elude your “Inner Censor” and write with confidence. — Weave together your “outer” and “inner” journeys, using unfamiliar places as a backdrop for self-discovery. Dave shares his favorite journaling techniques, shows how to find time to write in the middle of an exciting trip, and infuses it all with a generous dose of his off-the-wall humor. Whether your journeys are weekend road trips or excursions around the world, this book will help transform you into a travel journaling superhero!
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This book is crammed full of tips, exercises and inspiration. It will definitely change the way I journal while I’m on vacation.
Here are some of the things I took from this book:
Speed journalling. I am familiar with this concept. It’s a technique used when doing NaNoWriMo. While I find it easy to just blurt out the words in my head onto the page, turning off my inner editor is crazy hard. I really struggle with it. I can definitely see that it would speed up my journalling and allow me to get more of my day down on the page, thus allowing me to a) enjoy more of the day ‘in the moment’ and b) encourage me to keep up with my journalling and not fall behind.
He talks about choosing one interesting person each day of your trip and jotting down a character description. I love this idea. Not sure if I’d be able to do it every day, but it sounds like such a fun thing to read back over. He says to capture a quote they said that shows the way they talk, share their physical description, their mannerisms, their attitude and expressions. I’m not very good at including this kind of detail in my journalling, so I like this. I think my husband and kids would have fun with it too. Like, I could choose a character from the day that we came across and ask them to give me details over dinner or while we’re on the train or in the car. Could be a fun family exercise!
Another thing was the idea of a theme to tie multiple places or multiple days together. Like, one day you could just write about foods you’ve tried on your travels. Or even more specifically, just desserts you’ve tried. Or whatever.
Write your first draft for yourself. ‘If you travel intending from the start to share your journals with others, you’re likely to hold back certain details.’
He recommends that instead of writing about your day from start to finish, just choose 1-4 highlights from the day and write about those. I definitely need to start doing this. I have whole days on my trip to the UK last year where I don’t know what we did because we took no photos nor spent any money on those days. We spent them with my sister and her kids, but I have no more detail than that. Those days are lost. I should have jotted down a couple of bullet points from each day, and then I’d at least have those memory joggers.
I was constantly inspired by Dave as I read this book. He made me realise that I have a unique view to share, even if I’m blogging about a place that has been often blogged about. Your history, background and experiences are different to those of your spouse, your parents, your siblings and your children… Not to mention all the other people visiting the same place as you.
I loved this book. I found it inspiring and educational. It’s definitely going to change how I journal on my next trip. Bullet points for the win! And bonus bullet points under characters. Ha ha! But seriously, there was so much in this book that I can’t capture it in a simple book review. Definitely read it for yourself.