Comments on: We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live* – TBEX’10 Wrap Up

By: pam

pam — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 16:41:41 +0000

I wanted to hug everyone on your panel, hard, for your love of story and words and language. Story isn’t why we travel, but it’s why we read about travel, I think, when we’re not deep in the guidebook/planning phase of things. I loved knowing that it matters to you and those with you, I loved feeling like I was one of you. Okay, that’s about me, but I’m thinking you get my meaning.

Putting together that reading for the keynote was challenging, often, and reading the criticism of it has been difficult, so I’m really glad to know that you enjoyed it. Thank you.

By: Steven Roll

Steven Roll — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 02:10:06 +0000

Your post reminds me of a thought-provoking book I read recently called “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.” It’s a memoir in which the author describes the process of adapting his book into a movie. He discovers that many of the same principles apply to leading a fulfilling life. For instance, you need action to replace parts of the book where the character is just thinking. As applied to someone’s life this might mean actually taking the trip you’ve always been thinking about etc.

By: Alison Wellner

Alison Wellner — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:03:01 +0000

Hi Kathy, wonderful to see you again! Would I recommend the Story workshop…well, if you’ve seen the movie Adaptation, McKee’s workshop figures into it and it’s pretty accurately portrayed. He’s not a cuddly fella — he basically harangues students from the stage, and goes off on various diatribes, in between performing the material that’s in his book, Story. Often, it’s verbatim. But, I learned a lot from it. It’s one of those things that’s not pleasant but extremely helpful.

Also great to meet you, Doug, and I’m so glad you found the panel useful! Karim, I think you’re making a good point. For one thing, the act of feeling a strong emotion can be a great tip off to the fact that you’re onto a good story. For another, a change that doesn’t generate a strong emotional response is probably not going to lead to a compelling story.

I guess my only bit of resistance to this idea of emotion being key is that it’s possible to be too emotional. You want to use emotion in writing, but not get used by it — you need to have some emotional distance in order to have insight.

By: Karim, Good Travel Writing

Karim, Good Travel Writing — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 06:44:36 +0000

I can see the importance of these elements in travel writing but I couldn’t help to notice that emotion is a common element in your points. That’s why many people say that emotion is the key. To transmit the emotions through the words could sound simple but it’s very difficult to achieve for sure. And yes, as Doug says, humour is important too.

By: Authentic Seacoast Resorts

Authentic Seacoast Resorts — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 22:01:39 +0000

Great to meet you at TBEX, Alison. Thanks for this summary of the travel writing session and for your insights on the panel. It was an inspirational morning that gave us new ideas on how to share the stories of our region with others. In addition to sharing the importance of self-awareness with us, we think you showed that a little humour also goes a long way. Doug