Hiking in the Cotswolds (Photo ©2016 Allyson Latta)
In “10 Tips for Writing Travel Articles,” Dan Linstead, travel editor of Wanderlust travel magazine, offers some of the best advice I’ve seen. Many of my creative writing students want to write travel memoirs but have trouble finding the “story” in their trip, or identifying and pursuing a goal that the reader will want to see them achieve. Here’s Linstead on creating a goal:
“Some trips have a physical objective (reaching the top of Kilimanjaro, crossing Costa Rica, seeing a tiger) that gives your article direction and purpose. The reader (hopefully) sticks with you because they want to know if you’ll achieve your goal.
“But many trips don’t have an obvious goal; they are more about discovering a place, unpicking its history or meeting its people. In this case, create a personal goal to give your reader a sense of where you’re taking them. Sentences like ‘I wanted to discover…’ or ‘I was keen to understand…’ give readers an idea of what’s to come, instead of you simply plunging them into the unknown.”
Read the full article here: 10 Tips for Writing Travel Articles (Wanderlust, Nov. 2015)
Also browse the following:
– The Telegraph‘s The 20 Best Travel Books of All Time (Dec. 2016). Number 2 is Laurie Lee’s As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning. See my recent post about Lee: “Warm life preserved by the pen”
– Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards Unpack 2016 Shortlists. Interestingly, the Fiction category for these international awards includes books with a strong sense of place by Canada’s Yann Martel (The High Mountains of Portugal) and Madeleine Thien (Do Not Say We Have Nothing).