Essential tips and strategies for telling travel stories, with Andrew McCarthy

Deviate with Rolf Potts

“We ‘massage’ the truth to make it fit the narrative we need it to fit in our lives.” –Andrew McCarthy

In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Andrew talk about how Andrew got started in travel writing, and how writing himself on the page helped him see himself in the world (2:30); when he does and doesn’t conflate certain details in the interest of a good story, and how he balances the “micro” and the “macro” elements of a travel story (12:30); how he decides who to write about, among the many people he meets on the road, which details do and don’t drive the narrative forward, and what it’s like to meet travelers who recognize him from his acting days (23:30); how Andrew structures his travel stories, and what travel storytelling in common with his work as a TV director (31:00); how he balances his writing and non-writing work in life, and how he mixes personal details with place details in his travel writing (38:00); and how memory can be fallible, and how to best write about family members (47:00).

Andrew McCarthy (@AndrewTMcCarthy) is an actor, television director and writer of such books as The Longest Way Home and Brat. His newest book is Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain.

Notable Links:

• Paris Writing Workshops (Rolf’s travel memoir classes)
• Andrew McCarthy on travel (Deviate episode)
• Andrew McCarthy Proust questionnaire (Deviate episode)
• Paul Theroux (travel writer and novelist)
• “Chasing the Black Pearl,” by Andrew McCarthy (Tahiti article)
• Gustav Mahler (classical composer)
• Don George (travel writer and editor)
• The Snow Leopard, by Peter Matthiessen (book)
• “A Slice of Paradise,” by Andrew McCarthy (Hawaii article)
• “A Slice of Ireland,” by Andrew McCarthy (Ireland article)
• “Steeped in Darjeeling,” by Andrew McCarthy (India article)
• Osprey (species of bird)
• Finisterre (peninsula in Spain)
• Communitas (unstructured community of equals)
• A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson (book)
• Less than Zero (1987 film starring Andrew McCarthy)
• Nut graph (journalism term)
• Joan Didion (American writer)
• Marco Polo Didn’t Go There, by Rolf Potts (book)
• Claude Chabrol (French film director)
• Henry Miller (American novelist)
• Alison Steele (New York DJ known as “The Nightbird”)
• Vin Scelsa (broadcaster)
• Oliver Sacks (British neurologist and writer)
• Rob Lowe (American “Brat Pack” actor)
• “Courting Vienna,” by Andrew McCarthy (Austria article)

The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber.

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