The Nature and Travel Essay
Just as the forms we call memoir, literary
journalism, and the personal essay often overlap, the nature essay and
the travel essay are true hybrids.
To write about nature, you should certainly begin by going outside.
Or as the Japanese haiku master
Basho once advised, "To know the pine, go to the pine."
You need also, however, to purchase an excellent field
guide and learn the precise names of things: plant, animal, or insect.
You may further need to interview a naturalist, an invertebrate zoologist,
or a park ranger for greater insight. And often, you need to meditate
on the self, your place in the natural world.
Travel writing is similar in this way. The travel essay often begins
with a personal encounter – a visit to a new place or a new culture.
Your primary responsibility is to see the place not as expected but
as it actually exists, right in front of you. Then youoften will want
to learn more, from books, from talking with people, from studying old
photographs.
Here are some tips for writing about nature and travel.
A Brief Guide to Writing the Nature Essay
Successful nature writing requires more than mere description,
though careful description itself is certainly important. Yes, nature
can thrill you, and often the urge to tell another person what we’ve
seen is very strong, but an experienced writer will move beyond that
original urge and search for what can be learned, what large or small
truths are revealed by the subject at hand.
Though it is certainly acceptable to reflect on the breathtaking majesty
of the Grand Canyon or the towering magnificence of an old-growth forest,
remember that nature writing is often best when focused on the smallest
parts of nature. For instance, consider Annie Dillard’s tight
focus in her essay “Living Like Weasels,” found in the textbook
appendix. Or observe how Maureen Stanton captures the magic and endless
variety of the natural world by focusing on a single evening’s
moth hunt, in “Romancing
the Light.” (Note too, that Stanton undertook considerable
research after the hunt and before completing her essay, in order to
provide richness of detail.)
In your case, whatever your relationship to nature, consider bringing it to the page through a close look at the undersized stream, barely on the map, that runs alongside the campus, or at a single, dime-sized toad resting on a withered leaf. As conservationist and author John Muir reminded us, "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe."
A Brief Guide to Writing the Travel Essay
Artists – especially visual artists – often talk about seeing “with fresh eyes,” and this certainly applies to travel writing. The world is full of clichés and expected conclusions, but what can you tell the reader that she doesn’t already know? What have you seen that no one else has seen in quite the same way? Take the time to see beyond the normal and usual tourist stops – the museums and cathedrals. How do people really live? How do they spend their time?
Travel writing, by the way, does not mean that you must
journey to Costa Rica, Senegal, or Tibet, though those locations are
clearly rich with possibilities. Travel writing can entail a trip to
a corner of your city where you do not usually venture – the wealthy,
gated suburb, or the impoverished, asphalt-and-brick housing project
down on its luck. Travel might mean a mere fifteen-mile journey along
the road leading out of town to a rural Harvest Festival where people
still compete to grow the largest ear of corn. If you are interested
in experimentation and mixing genres, try writing a travel essay about
the Senior Citizen’s Center you pass by every day.
Each of us is surrounded by differences in culture, ethnicity, geography,
and lifestyle, but we often exist wearing metaphorical blinders, spending
day in and day out traveling in our comfortable, standard grooves. Take
a step to the left, out of your normal track. Author Greg Bottoms gives
us two examples, one outside the French
Basilique de Fourviere, and one very
close to home.