Laurie's Top 10 Travel Tips
On these pages I hope to create a forum for travelers and writers to discuss our passions (wow, that sounds perverted. What I mean is, our passions for travel and writing, and how we can combine these two pursuits.) This will be a work in progress. For now, all I can offer are some tips on travel writing and travel itself.
Using clichés.
Overdoing adjectives and adverbs and using words you'd never say in real life: charming, fabled, wondrous.
Stating the obvious. Most people know that the sun rises in the east and that waves roll up onto beaches.
Referring to what the guidebook told you (although I'm sure I've done this myself.)
Using the word 'beautiful' as much as possible. It's hard to avoid sometimes, but try telling what makes the places beautiful instead. (It's actually much easier to describe ugly places than beautiful ones.)For workshops on creating writing, and for my talk: World Travels and Travel Writing, Turning One Obsession Into Another, click here for Services.
Focus on what's interesting and different about the spot and find details that are significant in some way. Look for something that makes the place special. Usually this will be a combination of the place and the people. Look around for someone or something that catches your eye and use this as the focus for your piece.
Give concrete details. Remember, not 'fruit' but 'rotting pomegranates'.
Write from your own perspective and stay true to who you are, even if you're not an expert on what you're writing about. The main thing to remember when writing is to trust your thoughts and feelings. You have a unique perspective because you are unique. Let your readers learn with you as you travel and explore.
Keep all your senses open for the small things that evoke atmosphere-aromas of food cooking, oil burning lamps, pungent fruit, perfumed plants, seaside smells (briny salt air, seaweed, fish), newly cut timber, bird calls, cricket chirps, fog horns, ambulance sirens, babies wailing. Atmosphere is all around you; you just have to learn how to recognize it.
Bring people into your writing whenever you can. How human beings are acting on this planet never fails to enliven a story.
Try to find the good in a place or a situation-even if it's just a little-even is everything is completely lousy.
Incorporate interesting information about the history of the place if it's relevant and accurate. Check your facts and make it obvious why you've referred to past events.
Read your work aloud to yourself; this enables you to check for any clumsy constructions, repetition, etc.
What was your overall impression/feeling about the place? Did it change from your first impression? Make sure you take in as much of a place as you can and this happens more easily when you know you're going to be writing about it. You start noticing every little detail. Taking in a new place is like taking in a new person: you have to listen to that person, to every word they say.
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Trust your instincts. |
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Travel light because you have to lug it all with you. |
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Some people are rude if you have a backpack. Ignore them. |
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Record your impressions in a diary, even if you just take a few minutes a day to jot down some details. |
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If you find yourself a tourist on a male planet, i.e. almost any Third World country, give the royal glaze as you walk down the street (look everywhere except into people's eyes.) |
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If you're feeling aimless wandering around from country to country, don't fret, because that's part of the experience. |
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Read about where you're going before you go. It's so much easier to have a plan and a map. |
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Don't think you can travel to escape your life. You take your life with you. Travel to explore. It's one of the best things you can do while you're here on this earth. |
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Don't panic. Nothing is ever as bad as it seems at the time. Remember "This too shall pass." |
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And if it is really bad, know that at least it will make a great story. |
