Travel Writing Plots and Structures

Can travel stories and travel memoirs have plots? They certainly can. What is the difference between plot and structure or design? Aristotle insisted that plots have a proper beginning, middle and end. Aristotle also argued that it was impossible for a story not to have a plot, because in every story there has to be some type of action, even if it’s internal. But as E. M. Forster pointed out "The King died and then the Queen died" is not a plot, but "The king died and then the queen died of grief" is a plot. Why? Because a plot is more than a pattern of cause and effect related to a sequence or chronology; it’s a sequence that is integrated with human motivation. 

While many commercial travel articles may not have plots per se, they do have form and structure which controls the information, manipulates the reader, suggests how the writer sees the world. An article about a cruise through the Galapagos islands might take the form of a diary or journal, or even a detective story. Or it might be structured as an island-to-island description, or perhaps focus on one memorable day or event that reveals many aspects of the place, its flora and fauna, climate, tourism, etc.

A first-person account of a tour through the Galapagos might be based on a suspenseful, dramatic or telling episode on the trip, and build a story with a beginning, middle, climax and resolution which draws upon and weaves in impressions, anecdotes, local characters and dialogue. 

The most common plot used in travel stories and memoirs is episodic. A person goes on a journey. One episode follows another (in chronological order, or in another order the writer chooses). And there may be highs and lows throughout, but not necessarily dramatic crises, reversals and climaxes. A good example is the picaresque travel novel, Jack Kerouac’s classic On The Road . (Picaresque comes from the word picaro - a rogue!) 

Satisfying travel stories are well-balanced

Every travel story, to be coherent and satisfying, should have a DESIGN—a Plot, Structure or Form which serves to unite various happenings /events/ impressions / reflections contained within the story/travelogue. If a story is told in straight-forward narrative from beginning to end, then PLOT and STRUCTURE may be virtually identical. But if the story is pieced together through out-of-sequence events, speeches, remembrances, fragments of letters, descriptions of actions, overheard conversations and the like, then the actual arrangement or structure of the story may diverge from the plot.

Satisfying travel stories are also very well balanced. Structure your story to create BALANCE between:

—Close-ups (focusing on a specific) and long shots (summary)  —Outer vs. Inner experiences  —Narration and dialogue  —Description and reflection  —Condensing action and creating scenes 

Prewriting 

Before you sit down to write your travel stories/books it’s helpful to know where you are going. But if you haven’t any clue as to where you want to go, start out by making a MUST INCLUDE jot list for yourself of: 

—Ideas about the place/trip you’d like to express  —Reflections about the place/ trip that you’d like to include  —Memorable characters you don’t want to leave out  —Anecdotes, jokes, remarks, quotations about the place/trip that you feel would enliven the story  —A summary of facts/ statistics (perhaps just listing trigger words like history of, geology of, recipe for, process of) essential to include.