Travel Writing and Resolutions

Keep a diary and one day it'll keep you. ~ Mae West

I spent the holidays exploring Australia and New Zealand. When I travel, I entertain fantasies about travel writing. I see myself writing while I am exploring, in restaurants, at bedtime, sending off articles, and then planning my next trip. The reality is that I am so in the moment that I don’t want to break the travel experience by writing or even taking a photo. When I get a chance to write it is an insanely plain diary entry that barely captures the highlights. The truth is that I am no travel writer. At best, I am a travel reader. So, if you want to read a really good book about Australia, I recommend Bill Bryson’s In a Sunburned Country.

The other thing that dogs me when I travel is the aching desire to write more. I make all these unrealistic resolutions about my writing, resolutions that fall away like dangling prepositions. So here is my new resolution—no more resolutions!