Tips For Travel Writing
Travels are made up of great stories. These stories not only satisfy your storytelling itch but also improve your writing skills. Travel stories are made up of drama, cultural aspects, uncertainty, joy, and transcendence. Travel writing refines your powers of observation and your ability to reflect meaningful experiences. A travel article can be anything from nature writing to world-building.
7 Effective Travel Writing Tips For Indian Writers
Do you love travelling and also have a knack for writing? Do you enjoy sharing your travelling experiences with others? But not confident enough to pen down? If yes, then here we have a few easy tips for chasing your dream of becoming a great travel blogger.
Have A Clear Storyline In Your Mind
There are two types of travel writers- commercial and personal. Commercial travel writing requires you to create a story with an intrinsic part of your knowledge. Personal travel writing is more of a memoir. In both cases, the story of the trip stands out to be the main aspect of travel writing. A trip merely is not a story in itself. It is just a series of events. Some of which might be interesting and some might not. So as a writer, your first job is to decide how you will curate and tell the story and the events that are adding up to it. Secondly, decide which events would be interesting and resourceful to the readers. Finally, ensure whatever is in your mind has clarity and reflects in your writing.
Read Other Write-Ups
It is not always possible that the article you are writing about a certain place has been visited by you or seen that in person. As a professional writer, it is most important that you read travel blogs thoroughly. As a writer, absorb it and let it sink into your soul. After you finish reading, start writing. Highest quality writing is only achieved after you have absorbed good content, have read it and filtered through it.
Write It For Love
Do something you truly love; that is when you will truly get accomplished. Don’t do it just for the sake of doing it. Don’t do it just for money. Don’t just gravitate towards the travel writing or blogging niche because you will get free trips and hotel rooms. Strive to create your content with such a passion that the publications you wanted to associate with cannot ignore you any more.
Edit Your Experience
Edit your experience to fit into your story. Every story is composed of characters, dialogues, plot, suspense and drama. These elements need shaping and organizing. Only a well-organized write-up is capable of attracting the reader’s attention. Most travel articles are 1,000 to 2,000 words long which makes it around 10 to 20 paragraphs. You need to cut out every detail point, which will not draw the reader’s attention.
Learn To Self-Edit
Becoming a good editor needs time and practice, but it is worth it. It improves the writing style and structure. It makes it easier for you to communicate more clearly and eliminate all your grammatical errors. Content which you publish should be clear, accurate and educational. Your writing provides insight into your values.
Include Dialogues
Dialogues add life to a scene, add personality to the people in your story, and convey any information more sharply and efficiently. “Look! There! The peacock is dancing on the hilltop”, whispered Joe or “We saw the peacocks dancing on the hilltop.” Which one sounds more interesting? It has to be the second one. When you are travelling, you ought to observe more and more. Learn how people converse there. Spend time with the locals to understand the essence of conversations. That way, you can include dialogues in your writing to make them far more interesting.
Aim To Entertain Your Readers
Your aim should be to entertain your writers and not impress them. Packing your content with complicated phrases and flowery language is not a good way to draw readers to your content. Remember, your purpose is not to show your literary powers. Try to put down your experiences in the simplest way possible. It doesn’t mean that you are forbidden to experiment with your writing style or language. But not at the expense of readers.
Follow these tips to write up a good-quality travel blog. Consider that only you and no one else has ever visited the place, and your objective is to vividly provide your readers with a picturesque view of the place in a concise manner through your writing.
Debadrita Sengupta
Image Credits – Splitshire, Jay Mantri
