Travel writing

Custom Search

Travel writing is your way to introduce people to a new land.  People will read
your article or book and get to experience the atmosphere through your words.
The good thing is that no matter what your age you can target a specific target
audience.



Adventure travel for the young would target with a headline that would
capture their attention like - "The top ten x-treme sport holiday destinations"
- through to the more mature market who can't get that physical but want to
 experience more - "Seeing the sights of historic and cultural Ireland."  If I
am reading about travel especially if it is somewhere exotic like Mauritius,
Bora Bora, Hong Kong, or even Cape Town.

When reading travel writing, I want to experience the place I am reading
about with my five senses.  What do you - see (the rolling hills of the
 Eastern Transkei),  hear (the barking of new born seal pups lying in the
 sun), smell (the exotic aromatic spices on a street market), touch (the
 texture of sea sand squishing through your toes), taste (there was an
 explosion of flavour on my tongue when I put it in my mouth)

So if you are walking down the street in downtown New York or riding a camel
in the desert of Egypt or lying on a deserted beach - What does it look like? Is
it beautiful? Is it relaxing? Is it a place to go for a honeymoon?  What are the
smells of the land -  I am nosey! 



I want to know everything about the place. If it is looks exciting I will want
to visit  and experience what you have on my next holiday Travel writing
is often associated with tourism, however travel writing has also been
produced by unknown travelers, like missionaries, explorers and scientists.

 

How to break into travel writing

This may seem obvious but to be a travel writer you need to travel, you need to enhance your writing skills and you need to get your writing published. It is your travel experience people want to read about sometimes.  You need to think about who you want to read your article. It might be workers who read your article or book and want to escape from the normal everyday life they are living and experience an exotic location.  If you write the article particularly well the reader might visit there to experience it for themselves. It might be a golf weekend at a seaside resort, maybe a fishing weekend or a hiking trail.  There are endless possibilities you could write about, however the skill is in writing about something a travel magazine editor will think as newsworthy for their readers.

Becoming a travel writer is not easy.  There are many people that want to do it so when you approach an editor for an article what makes yours so special and that has not been written before.  This can be fun as looking at new an interesting angles about a place that is boring can be quite exciting. When you first approach editors they will want to see what experience you have with writing. If you don’t have any this can be a problem however now days you could start a travel blog and use that as experience to show a travel editor.

Once you get used to the writing and travelling you might get used to certain types of travel or holidays.  You may even prefer certain holidays like family getaways, sea cruises or sporting holidays or even EXTREME ADVENTURES. I don’t know maybe you want to climb Mount Everest!  You could write your article and submit it online to one of the article submission websites.

Approach your nearest local paper. Sometimes your local paper can’t afford to have a dedicated travel writer like the larger newspapers so if you approach the editor with an idea they might be very open to receiving your article.  I have noticed in the past that if you take a copy of the paper with you and take a picture reading it in another country that is guaranteed coverage.

It is important that you read some travel magazines and newspaper articles.  What do they write about?  Did the article make you laugh or did you get excited and wish you were there?  It is good to read the travel section in the Sunday papers as you can keep up to date with what kind of stories the travel editors are seeking.