This month at the RolfPotts.com Travel Writers page I interview Gary Lee, who writes for the Washington Post travel section. Here are some of the highlights from our Q&A:

• “When I arrive at a destination, I like to have a plan for what I want to focus on: music in Salvador Bahia, Brazil, art galleries in Dallas and Fort Worth, dive bars in LA, and so on. But I always grapple with how much I should stick with the plan and how much to riff, be serendipitous and follow the natural path that unwinds through every place. This is surely more of a problem for those writing for newspaper travel sections, where the space is pretty limited, the length of time one has to stay in a place is limited and the articles are often theme driven. Usually, I can sense whether the events or conversations I am witnessing or taking part in fit into a narrative. If so, I go with it. If not, I go back to my script. Travel writing is like going on one blind date after another. Note taking also poses a challenge. So much happens so quickly that it’s not always easy to whip out a notebook and scribble. I am sometimes reluctant to start taking notes when I engage someone in conversation. I have learned to compensate by keeping a thorough journal. I write in it every night while I’m on the road, recording all the things that occurred over the course of a day.”
• “Everything I write — even if it’s a couple of paragraphs long — seems to require thought. I devote much of that cerebral process to working on ways to avoid formulaic styles and clichés. I try to make the writing, fresh, crisp, stimulating. But the most constant grapple is in trying to shape trips that are rambling and disjointed into a coherent narrative, a story that has a beginning a middle and an end. To help me do this, I always read my notes several times over and peruse pictures looking for themes or leitmotifs begin to emerge. Once that happens, I just start to write, to let it all out in one marathon sitting. The result is usually something that is far too long to be published in a newspaper or magazine. Then I start to whittle it down, refine anecdotes, check quotes, and so on.”
• “Being employed as a full time travel writer for a newspaper is a blessing and a curse. It has allowed me to explore and write about 66 foreign countries and 45 U.S. states, all on the payroll of the Washington Post. Not having to shop a story around is a rare blessing for a travel writer. At the same time, it leaves me little time for spreading my wings wide enough to write more extensive articles or books. At this stage, after more than two decades on the staff of a major daily newspaper, the grass on the independent writers’ side of the road is looking green.”
• “Learn a foreign language or two. The study of an idiom other than your mother tongue will help you gain insight into how another culture ticks. Eventually the language will also offer an entrance into another country, a different world. Even if you harbor no ambition to write about foreign destinations, the perspective of exploring a different world and thought process will enhance your writing.”

Full Gary Lee interview online here.