5 Travel Writing Tips for Beginners
The pandemic has certainly put a dampener on travel plans of people around the world. While some countries have started opening their doors to tourists, it is still not the best idea to go travelling just for the sake of getting out of the house.
We understand that being cooped up in the house is not everyone’s idea of luxury and nothing can replace the pure joy of travelling and exploring new places. But since it can’t happen at the moment, why not try your hand at travel writing?
If travelling is your passion, writing about your experiences when you visited certain places and putting it on paper (a digital document, in this case) can certainly put you out of your stay-at-home misery. While virtual travel is always an option, travel writing or blogging also has a way of transporting the reader to new places.
If well-written, your stories can even inspire others to explore and experience new things and gain an appreciation of different cultures. That’s not all - writing about your experiences and perspectives on a certain place can also inspire you to explore more places.
However, it can be challenging to figure out where to start. After all, a place is so many things – its people, its food, the sights and sounds, the architecture, etc. Whether you’re a novice or seasoned writer searching for something new, there are multiple avenues from which to turn an aspiration into a part-time gig or full-time career.
With this in mind, we have compiled a list of 5 tips that you can use in case you’re struggling with your wanderlust write-ups.
The first thing you need to do before you begin is understand why you want to tell that story to your readers and what you want to get out of it. This way, you have something to work towards and make a good starting point. Your approach will depend on what you value the most, which can other people to value travel as much as you do.
Your trip is not a story in itself, but a series of events – what makes an event interesting depends on the story you want to tell. Therefore, as a writer your job is to decide on the particular story you want to tell and the events that make up that story. Read what you write to yourself and ensure that all those events you’ve written about are useful and interesting to your reader.
The opening lines to your blog/article determine the amount of views your post will garner. You can start a travel article any way you like, as long as it grabs the reader’s attention. You can start with drama, humour, dialogue or incorporate all three, but it should be the kinds that immediately grips the reader. Many travel write-ups begin in the thick of the story and then backtrack to explain how they happened to be in that situation. You can give this a try if you aren’t sure. Put yourself in the readers’ shoes and ask yourself if you would read your article.
Many times, travel bloggers make the mistake of packing their write-ups with complicated phrases. Fortunately, it isn’t necessary since the point of the article is to entertain and inform the reader, not show off your literary prowess. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t be playful and experimental. Just don’t do it at the readers’ expense.
In the words of Maya Angelou, ‘You can only become truly accomplished at something you love.’ Don’t get into travel writing just for the sake of money – that would be extremely unrealistic. Do it because you love it. Telling stories and reaching out to people, inspiring them is one of the best feelings in the world if you’re a writer. If you’re passionate about travelling, write for that passion so that it shows in your write-ups.
Travel writing is a great way to express yourself if travelling is what you love. These tips will further help you become more creative when it comes to writing about the places you’ve explored and generate more ideas. Meanwhile, you can also go in for virtual travel, which can help you gain more insights into places you’ve already travelled and even new ones that you might want to explore in the future!