Research Your Travel Essay--Before You Decide What to Write

It's great when a travel story--even the entire narrative--burns into your consciousness on the plane ride home. And it does happen. But, as someone told me recently, good luck comes from good planning. So if you want to write a travel story after your summer travels--whether you travel around the block or around the Mediterranean, think ahead and collect details purposefully. It could be those details tell you what to write.

Here's the first half of "Eight Tips for Researching Your Travel Essay--Before You Decide What to Write."


PAY ATTENTION
Be sure not to ignore critical advice from rodeo photographer Louise Serpa who cautions us: "Never don't pay attention." She, of all people, knew that if you don't pay attention for a brief second, you will surely miss the cowboy's slide into the manure or the clown's slide into the bull. 
So keep your eyes and ears open, watch the cobblestones, and remember the writer's mantra: Everything is material.

TAKE PHOTOS OF PEOPLE 
Rather than more typically shooting monuments (you can find better ones online), take photos of local people doing their jobs or carrying on activities of daily life. Catch the barista making your cappuccino in Venice, boys playing soccer in the piazza in Monti, very old women working at a construction site in Bali, transporting dirt in baskets balanced on their heads. 
Capture the triumph of cooks in a tiny trattoria in Florence (who clearly added zing to that sauce). Seize the moment the nonna sits down to rest after making the day's pasta in Portavenere. 
Ask first. If you tell people you will be writing about their town, they will most likely open their arms and you might embrace a memoir essay.

PHOTOGRAPH SIGNAGE 
Take photos of significant wall text in a museum, hotel signs, handwritten warnings ("Don't Tuch!" outside an Amsterdam museum). Great stories can come from small incidentals.A favorite photo in my album is the Lucca train station because its sign brings back good memories of  an entrancing walled city where late one night college-age boys called out  "Lucca, Lucca," the humor in their voices echoing back and forth across piazzas and winding streets. I was never sure whether they were touting their town or searching for their buddy, Luca. 


PHOTOGRAPH THE UNUSUAL  

Notice the plethora of three-wheel trucks in Sicily, entrancing door knockers in Barcelona, flowers spilling off balconies in San Miguel de Allende. Find a holy niche in nearly every corner in Florence and preserve the Madonna in all her incarnations as she watches over the stony streets. 
A thematic collection of such photos can illustrate an article you might eventually write describing the change that came over you as you strolled the streets of distant towns. 

Next week: 
All about notebooks, ephemera, 
chatting up locals and finding a 
purpose before leaving home.