—Identifying various types of travel articles and books from service-oriented, commercially driven pieces, to literary armchair traveller’s tales  —Fiction and journalistic techniques —Creating a powerful and convincing sense of place  —Devising compelling beginnings, leads and narrative hooks  —Structuring and plotting your travel stories and books  —Creating BALANCE: between close-ups & long shots; outer vs. inner experiences; narrative & dialogue; description & reflection and showing vs. telling  —Humor in travel writing  —Travel Writing Do's and Don'ts 

Research: 

—Interviews and informal information-gathering chats —Literary references  —Museum tours and visits —Beyond the brochures  —Virtual travel via the Internet 

Writing: 

—Structuring and plotting your travel stories and books; setting clear boundaries for the scope of your story 

—Point of view: What are your choices? Which works best?  —Finding your voice  —Tone and approach  —Embedding information in intriguing, subtle ways  —Creating smooth and effective transitions, flashbacks and flash-forwards  —Pacing  —Using dialogue and local jargon to enliven your stories  —Creating composite characters  —Portraying local characters; using them to speak for the writer and to the reader —Showing vs. telling; scene vs. narrative - what works best? —Revising and rewriting - fun and essential!

Re-Writing

Revision is the tension between what you’ve written and what you really want to express. Like any good trip, getting there can be full of unexpected twists and turns, frustrating halts. Savor every moment of your journey! 

Marketing Travel Stories 

—Researching appropriate markets for your stories - a constant effort —Using titles as magical writing keys and sales tools  —Writing effective query letters and proposals  —Getting savvy about "copyright-grabbing" contracts 

Thoughts on Travel Writing  

Form vs. content

Don't be obsessed with the form of your story before you've even determined the content. Some writers are extremely clever with form, get million dollar book advances, but haven’t much to say. Don't get hung up on the word literary either. There are many valid forms of travel writing. A piece of writing can sound literary with clever descriptions, poetic renderings, but not reveal much or even tell a story.

Style and Voice

Each of you has your own voice and style which wants to come out. Your style evolves from your perceptions, personality, values, and experience, and emerges as you gain confidence in letting yourself go. Your own style may vary with the subjects and places you are writing about. (i.e. You probably wouldn’t write about Latvia and Disneyland the same way!)

 Jonathan Swift defined style as the right words in the right places. It is also the right words, at the right time, in the right circumstances. Good writers manipulate style to match their narrative and descriptive purposes, and employ the level of diction which is the most effective and appropriate for the story. 

Formal diction consists of standard and often elegant words (frequently polysyllabic), the use of correct word order, and the absence of contractions. (It is I, rather than It's me) Neutral diction is ordinary, everyday, standard vocabulary, avoiding longer words but using contractions when necessary. (It's me - neutral). Informal diction ranges from colloquial to slang and jargon. 

Variety 

Variety is the spice of travel writing. If you are a supple writer, able to describe and portray your places from many different viewpoints or perceptions, then you can make the choice to do or not do it. It's like a musician practicing the scales: the more flexible the musician is with the scales, the easier it is to play in different keys. You decide what tone, approach is right for your story, and you orchestrate the piece. You can bend the notes to get the effects you want. Every place has its major and minor, its dark and light. Working with variety can add contour and depth to your story. 

Writing is an Endless Journey! 

Learning to write is a lifetime process. Once you've mastered, or feel comfortable with one aspect of it—great descriptions, creating scenes, writing good dialogue, structuring/plotting, great storytelling, making seamless transitions—you're driven to experiment and master another, and another, and another. It never ends! Whenever I'm stuck or blocked I read good writing and I also read really bad writing. It jostles me, gets my juices going. I can see what doesn't work, and in figuring out why it doesn't, I understand what not to do. 

Sometimes writing comes easy; sometimes it comes hard. That's why the writer’s life is often a humbling life. Like an athlete, musician, photographer, there are times when you're on a roll. You're so into it you lose track of time, eating, sleeping, time and space, and your body. You're in an altered state. But how long that state can last....?

I think these states of inspiration and drive can be sustained easier and for longer periods when one is stimulated, challenged, encouraged and informed by the work of other writers—not only the lauded “superstars” of the writing world, but by writers-in-progress, working on works-in-progress and learning to solve both tactical and literary writing problems to attain their own personal heights. Together let’s go for it!