Ceramics like white skulls

Why you should be journalling.

Love these things.

Busy af doing all the finishing stuff and starting to promote the new Fischer novel, blah, blah, blah. You writers know the routine. So what I really want to talk about are journals—notably the ones you keep while you travel.

Back in my 20s, I backpacked my way across Europe, and I knew that my memory (even at that sharpened age) was not going to be worth shit. I think that’s when I first started travelling with a journal. I don’t do it much in my every day life, but if I’m leaving my adobe, well it’s coming with me.

When I started doing it I didn’t really think it would play a part in my writing career (then non-existent), it was more of a way of remembering. I urged my kids to do it when they went on a trip (Florida-Disney comes to mind.) I told them, you’re not going to remember this. Write it down.

Maybe that’s more what I want to talk about: memory. And how it plays into my life as a writer. I’ve never been able to write about a place if I haven’t been there, it doesn’t seem quite real, no matter how much research I do. And wow, are there resources now that there didn’t use to be! Not just maps, but video travelogues of what it’s like to drive from one location to another. As a guy who loves road trip books, these have proved essential. But not as much as the journals.

When I’m travelling, every day, sometimes several times a day, I write in a journal. You might think, what a pain, just relax and enjoy your trip. But the thing is, this makes it even more enjoyable. There is nothing better than sitting at a small outdoor café in Mex. and writing in a journal. In a way, it’s like looking closer at something… or even stopping time, to consider what is around me.

Around ten or twelve years ago I went on my first trip to Mexico. The journals I brought back from that time proved essential when I sat down to start writing the first Fischer book. I hadn’t journaled for that purpose. But when I tried really hard to recall what it had felt like to be there, it was the journals that took me back.

This past April, the Lovely and I travelled to Mex. (her first time). And she knew about my journalling habit/obsession. She was happy to read a book, drink a coffee, or pet a gecko while I wrote. Now that we’ve been back home for a bit, I’ll bring up a detail from the trip that she has forgotten. It wasn’t because I’d read it in the journal, just the act of writing it in a journal helped me recall it more than her.

I filled two Field Notes journals during my time there (seen in the opening photo.) These have become my favourites to write in. I can squish them into a breast pocket, or even my shorts. They are super well-made and designed (thanks to design guru Aaron Draplin.) They also don’t feel so overly precious to write in like some of the fancier ones.

So what do I write? Mostly descriptions of things, events that take place, I might slip into something a bit of philosophical… but that’s rare. Mostly it’s a recording of what is around me.
Here’s an example from a morning where I discovered a small bakery:

A young woman stands behind two baskets covered in cloths with a bright square pattern. Behind her a man in a baseball cap nods. He is American or Spanish.

She uncovers the baskets full of rolls, sweet buns (cinnamon), the other holds bollilos (Mexican baguettes). They are still warm.
The man says he has been coming for years. Her mother was the baker and now the daughter is. Uno bollilo, 2 cinn. rolls, and a banana bread 80 pesos (Just over $5)

I say that I will be back. Behind me another rides up on a motorcycle. Down the street I find the small stand, just a table and an umbrella, where a woman makes juice, carrot and orange (naranja). She is also making some sort of smoothie, which she pours into a bag with a straw, sprinkling in cinnamon.

Here is one more, from a night spent in the town square:

After our drinks, the sun went behind the hills, more blues and yellow in the sky. We go into the square, which is full again, like Saturday night. Kerry likes the stack of white unpainted ceramics looking like skulls, but are different cartoon characters like the Minions, or the creatures from Monsters Inc. We are both tired and don’t stay in the square long. We head back to the villa.

Part of the challenge is trying to read these things. Should have been a doctor.

So, like I said, not earth shatteringly deep or even poetic (though I like the ceramics that look like skulls part.) It is more to capture something, so that when I go back and read… which I just did now… I can remember that tiny bakery, the woman squeezing fresh oranges, and the feel of the town square at night.

I’d highly recommend travelling with a journal. Some readers have remarked on how in my novels the setting becomes a character. That is a high compliment to me. I like stories that have a strong sense of place. I don’t want the prose to be purple, but I also want to feel like I’m there.

These recent journals will join the stack I have in my studio. Hard to say or know when I might dip into them again, or how they might show up in a story or a novel. But if you’re going to travel, you won’t remember shit. So write it down.

Hey cats - my new Luke Fischer novel, Sayulita Sucker drops this week.

It’s available for pre-order right now. And there will also be a paperback edition. If you don’t like sending money to the Zon because it’s owned and run by an asshole… drop me a line, and we will work something out.