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Three Tips Every Writing Adventurer Needs to Buy The Damn Hat by Guest Poster Tina Overbury

Last updated on December 7th, 2024 at 07:27 pm

How Do You Know You’re a Writing Adventurer? 

You are drawn to lush landscapes that you swear are whispering your name.

To make room for more books, you roll your t-shirts and the one pair of jeans you packed rather than fold them.

The stories you might miss if you don’t go are already swirling through your head, and you haven’t even booked your flight yet.

The smell of city, forest, farm and pub grub takes you to all the places and unwritten scenes you’ve collected from around the world.

I just came back from a story-pilgrimage to Ireland, and I have a few tools to offer you from my journey. 

What’s a Pilgrimage?

“A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life.”  – so says Wiki.

That definition just sounds like a regular writing day. To me, the act of communication is more akin to a sacred practice. If you want to be a writing adventurer, throw in some travel to mythically rich places and hell, you might even call it church.

That brings me to TIP #1.

Tip #1: When you Travel, Don’t just Write, Myth-dive

As soon as you step off the plane and place your feet on new soil, you become a writing adventurer! You are entering a multilayered invitation to discover what you don’t know… not what you do know.

Arriving in Ireland

Everyone said to me, ‘Ireland is waiting for you… you will feel you are home… she is magical.’ And on the one hand, they were all totally right. She is undeniably magical.

But on the other, nope – she didn’t feel like home to me at all…not yet, anyway. She felt like a landscape of a zillion mysteries that I hadn’t earned the invitation to hear – yet. 

Full disclosure, I work in myth and I have a passion for land-based stories, so for me being a writing adventurer means I spend a lot of time listening, waiting, and following impulses rather than making a list of destinations to check off as a ‘been there, done that.’

Ask Yourself: What’s This Country’s Origin Story?

So truly, and from my heart… the next time you land somewhere new, I invite you to myth-dive. As a writing adventurer, ask:

• What is this country’s origin story?
• What story does the land hold?
• What are its symbols and emblems?
• What are its stories?

Because believe me, the stories OF a place want to be heard, seen and known – just as much as you do. 

It’s basic attachment theory, really. 😉 

Going off the Beaten Track

The writing adventurer isn’t afraid to veer away from the usual tourist sites to find stories.

In our search of Ireland’s origin story, we were all set to visit Newgrange, a Neolithic monument from Boyne Valley, County Meath constructed 5,200 years ago (3,200 BC). It’s older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Giza.

But the idea of lining up, buying tickets, listening to experts and not being ‘free to roam’ didn’t jive with my adventurer’s heart, never mind my writing adventurer’s heart! 

So instead, we went to Grianán of Aileach on the upper reaches of Lough Swilly and Lough Foyle. 

Our visit to Grianán of Aileach

As we approached the monument at dusk, with nothing but our voices echoing back to us from the center, it’s like I could hear those whispers of Ireland’s story, and I cried.

The summit of the Grianán looks over the neighbouring counties of Londonderry, Donegal and Tyrone. While this is a restored site from the original which records its destruction in 1101, a tumulus (ancient burial mound) at the Grianán may date back to the Neolithic age, as evidenced by a covered well that was found near the cashel in the early nineteenth century.

While I’d still like to visit Newgrange one of these days, I’m glad I followed my storyheart to Grianán of Aileach. You don’t hear the secrets of a place through the mouth of a tour guide. You hear it from the land. 

TIP #2: Go to the Places that Haunt You

My trip to Ireland was a story-pilgrimage because I was trying to make sense of a story I had come across about the Bon Secour Mother and Baby Homes in Tuam, County Galway. The remains of 796 children were discovered buried in an abandoned septic tank under the ground where the home had stood.

I caught the news story that featured the public apology offered by the Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin and it shook me hard enough to write about it. As I watched his statement, I was haunted by one question: Why is it so hard to say I’m sorry?

That question inspired me to write and film an entire performance piece called OMYGOD during the height of the pandemic.

And then something unplanned happened. On the evening prior to the global screening of OMYGOD, the remains of 215 Indigenous children were found outside the Kamloops Residential School in British Columbia, Canada, only a few hundred kilometers from where I live.  The story had come very close to home.

Visit to the Children’s Burial Ground Memorial in Tuam, County Galway

When you write about what haunts you, you’ll find far more meaning beyond the words that actually hit the page. 

We found the site, but it wasn’t easy. Google actually has a ‘pin’ dropped where it thinks it is but it’s not in exactly the right spot, and took us to a rather large cemetery. We walked for a while and couldn’t find what we assumed would be a large monument to the 796 children. But no. It wasn’t going to be that easy. Finally, we asked someone and she pointed us in an entirely different direction.

“Outside the graveyard. Down two blocks. Between two rows of houses. Within a blocked-off courtyard and taped-off playground. You’ll find it there.” 

And we did.

Tip #3 – Buy The Damn Hat 

Okay, so this is a silly one, but it’s legit. Buy the damn hat. It’s the one you think you can’t afford, but you want it just the same. That was me. 

I picked up the hat and then put it down. 

I walked away from the hat and then I walked back. 

The little voice in my head told me it was ‘too much’ for my budget.

But then I saw myself heading back home on the plane without the hat…. And well, this is me and the hat guy at Beflast’s St. George’s Market.

Do it. Just buy the damn hat!

What Else Should a Writing Adventurer Do?

Well, after you buy the damn hat, here are some more tips!

Bonus Tip #1: Stay in the weird places you have to look for to find. Our favorite AirBNB stay was in County Roscommon with Fiona.

Bonus Tip #2: Wear the shoes that let you keep walking until you don’t feel lost anymore. 

Bonus Tip #3: Choose to talk to ALL the people, like, all of them (even the Irish Traveller who has just been released from prison and grew up in the circus – not even kidding a little bit). 

Bonus Tip #4: Eat the caramel, shortbread crust, custardy gooey dessert thing made by the guy’s mom who owns the coffee stand, and then eat it again because it’s that damn good. (FiFi’s coffee in Donegal is da bomb!). 

Bonus Tip #5: Don’t settle for places that feel boring to you. Wait until you find that dark doorway that you can’t pass by – and then go in. It might be the ghosts of three Irish writers calling you in for a spot of whiskey (Go to Garavan’s Whiskey Bar and order the Irish Writer’s Tasting Platter). 

And I could go on and on… but all I’m really trying to say is:

The impulse that made you want to go on a trip is trying to tell you something, and you can’t hear it if you’re not listening. 

So go.

Do the things.

Listen to the story of a place.

Follow the wild impulses you can’t ignore.

And buy the damn hat. 

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Read about Tina Overbury on the Artsy Traveler Guest Posters page. Here are some other contributions from guest posters to help you get the most of your artsy traveling.

• The Joys of Exploring the World with Small Group Tours by Julie Ferguson
• Top Tips for Walking the Camino of Santiago by Elizabeth Petrie
• Take a Cooking Class in Paris by Liz Reding