An audiobook about how (not) to write a travel book: 9 lessons from my failed van-life memoir

“No endeavor to write a travel book is ever lost, since it gives you a useful perspective on (and intensified attention to) the reality of the travel experience itself. When embraced mindfully, the real-time experience of a journey is invariably its truest reward.”  –Rolf Potts

In this episode of Deviate, Rolf touches on nine lessons from attempting to write a (never finished) van-life vagabonding memoir at age 23, including:

On Pilgrims in a Sliding World (1:00)

Lesson #1: No work is lost (and “failure” has lessons to teach)

On the author as a character (6:30)

Lesson #2: “Show, don’t tell” is still good narrative advice

On depicting other people (14:30)

Lesson #3: Travel books require reporting (not just recollecting)

On recounting dialogues (22:30)

Lesson #4: Be true to what was said (but make sure it serves a broader purpose)

On veering from the truth (32:30)

Lesson #5: The truth tends to work better than whatever you might make up

On depicting places (39:30)

Lesson #6: “Telling details” are better than broad generalizations about a place

On neurotic young-manhood (48:30)

Lesson #7: Balance narrative analysis with narrative vulnerability

The seeds of Vagabonding (1:01:30)

Lesson #8: Over time, we write our way into what we have to say

The journey was the point (1:06:30)

Lesson #9: In the end, taking the journey counts for more than writing it

Books mentioned:

• The Geto Boys, by Rolf Potts (2016 book)
• Vagabonding, by Rolf Potts (2003 book)
• The Anxiety of Influence, by Harold Bloom (1973 book)
• On the Road, by Jack Kerouac (1957 book)
• The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger (1951 book)
• Epic of Gilgamesh (12th century BCE Mesopotamian epic)
• Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes (17th century novel)
• The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (14th century travelogue)
• True History, by Lucian of Samosata (2nd century novella)
• Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson (21st century memoir)
• Marco Polo Didn't Go There, by Rolf Potts (2008 book)
• Labels: A Mediterranean Journal, by Evelyn Waugh (1930 book)

Essays, poems, and short stories mentioned

• "The Mystical High Church of Luck," by Rolf Potts (1998 essay)
• "Greenland is Not Bigger Than South America", by Rolf Potts (1998 essay)
• “The Faces,” by Robert Creeley (1983 poem)
• "Reflection and Retrospection," by Phillip Lopate (2005 essay)
• "Why so much travel writing is so boring," by Thomas Swick (2001 essay)
• "10 Rules of Writing," by Elmore Leonard (2001 essay)
• "In the Penal Colony," by Franz Kafka (1919 short story)

Places and events mentioned

• People's Park (activist park in Berkeley)
• 924 Gilman Street (punk-rock club in Berkeley)
• Alphabet City (neighborhood New York City's East Village)
• Brentwood (Los Angeles neighborhood)
• 1994 Northridge earthquake
• Panama City Beach (Florida spring-break city)
• Gainesville (Florida college town)
• Athens (Georgia college town)
• Big Sur (coastal region of California)
• Humboldt Redwoods State Park (park in California)

Other links:

• "Van Life before #VanLife" (Deviate episode)
• Paris Writing Workshops (Rolf's annual creative writing classes)
• Picaresque (prose genre)
• Roman à clef (fictionalized novel about real-life events)
• "Jumping freight trains in the Pacific NW" (Deviate episode)
• "Telling travel stories, with Andrew McCarthy" (Deviate episode)
• "Rolf Potts: The Vagabond's Way" (Ari Shaffir's Skeptic Tank podcast)
• "A personal history of my grunge-bandwagon band" (Deviate episode)
• Gettysburg Address (Abraham Lincoln speech)
• José Ortega y Gasset (Spanish philosopher)
• Jack Handey (American humorist known for "Deep Thoughts" jokes)
• Laurel Lee (American memoirist)

The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber.

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