Erik Gauger on Travel Writing from the Road

Erik Gauger was interviewed for a GoNOMAD story. His lush, huge photos make his site, Notes from the Road, a fascinating read. Here is an excerpt of the story.

What are some of the biggest challenges to travel writing?

For me, the process of travel writing is dependent on a very simple thing. If all sorts of things happen to me when I’m on the road, and I meet some interesting people who tell me amazing things, I find that writing is easy. The narrative comes to me in my head and I can put it together without effort.

Alternatively, I can travel to a faraway place and find that, in the end, I haven’t a single thing to write about because I didn’t get a single good interview or run into any sort of trouble. In those cases, I try to pull in some history or botany or something into my narrative. But in the end, the most enjoyable travel writing comes when unexpected events keep happening.

I’m sure your camera attracts a lot of attention from bystanders, is this true?

My large format camera attracts people. If I’m shooting in a city, for example, sometimes I get a crowd of people watching. When lots of people want to talk to you, it makes for a great travel interview setup. Also, when I travel alone, people find it easier to approach and talk to me.

What sort of advice would you give a travel writer who is just starting?

One of the biggest mistakes we make in travel writing is assuming that people care about our experiences, or how open we are to a different culture, or how great this one café is. Readers want to get something out of the writing for themselves. What attracts me so much to travel writing is that it is the non-fiction medium that has the greatest capacity for the consiliance of all disciplines. Travel writing is geography, history, art, zoology, sociology.

Travel writing is adventure and sports and food. Travel writing is international politics and humor. In travel, the only grounding rule is that you are taking your reader on the road with you. The rest – where you go from there – is up to you.