Living on the road
Writing about places you see, like and fall in love with in this huge wonderful world is a very interesting experience for any writer. The widespread use of digital cameras offers to anybody, up to the account and interests, the possibility to fix your memory in pictures, easy to download and easy to share - off or online. A picture might talk the language of thousand of words of a potential book. And you do not need too much inspiration for taking them: be in the right place, at the right moment and click. This book is for you: a short non-exhaustive and open to discussion guide about how to better use your words for telling good stories about places you visited.
It might be available for any kind of writing activities, weather is about journalism, literature, poetry, children books or...the subject of our book: travel writing. Our intention is offering you the best guidelines for progress of your writing plans. As a passionate writer myself, I discover the pleasure of travel writing relatively later in my writing career. The considerations included in the following pages are nothing but a short essay in sharing my experience of traveller and writer, activities that are for a very long time part of my daily life. For those interested in sipping the words of highly evaluated professional writers, I prepared an extended list of literature recommendations, going far beyond the classical touristic guides you are buying before going into a trip.
As I wrote, for many years already, travel is part of my daily life. IT is a valuable part of my school-of-life education. I had the wonderful chance to live and travel in very interesting places around the Globe and I am convinced that amazing other places are still waiting for me. Shortly: I love to travel.
The Never Ending Task of Polishing the Words
Writing could be a pleasant activity, but in the same time, as any intellectual activity, it is not effortless. As in the case of running, you need exercise and experience for successfully reaching your goals.
A couple of practical considerations will ease your work, available in general for any kind of writings:
Attitude available for any other kind of professional activities.
- Take your time and try to focus as much as possible on your subject. Planning your Writing
You might be tempted to cover big and generous topics as: Paris, travel. It is a travel magazine, a blog for friends - case in which, for example, mentioning some adventures of people all of you know will add a very familiar note to your writings, a short story for kids etc. Again, if you have to deal with magazines' deadlines, your entire work must be carefully organized to cover all the three stages I mentioned before: documentation, writing, editing. If you are writing for your personal blog, this time pressure is absent and you are more relaxed in meeting your own deadlines.
What prospective plans do you have with your writings - publishing a book or an article.
- How much time could you dedicate exclusively to your writing activities? Even if you are planning to switch soon your career to the full, professional writer's level, be sure that this decision will not affect in a dramatic way your family and your daily life. - Organise for short-, medium or long-term your activities to be able to respect in the stricter sense of the word this schedule.
- Even the temptation to write on many projects in the same time, mostly if you are at the beginning of your writing activities, try to focus on one project at the time. You will avoid sparing lots of time and energy while jumping from an idea to another.
- Before starting writing, try to cover as much as possible the literature dedicated: travel blogs or books, guides, literature books. - Focus on a mixture between descriptions and practical information. The qualities of a fiction writer - as offering through words a description of a place - are completed by a journalistic, up-to-the point style - as for example, describing the ways in which you must arrive to a hotel.
Maybe not all your readers visited the place you are writing about, so they will need, beyond plastic descriptions, also content information to convince them to go to see the place. There are many wonderful places in this world, but each of them could be described through largest five specific key-words.
Local media is a helpful support, but the background obtained by a direct discussion with local people or academic/literature documentation might be more helpful.
- Be as critical as possible with the information you are processing. Any answers?
I will enlist a couple of things that usually I am interested in while reading a text about travel. - Find the key-words - maximum five - describing the place.
- Unbalanced reporting - focusing too much on telegraphic information - as time zones, weather, ways of transportation or too much on plastic descriptions.
Preparing the Trip. Some Technical Details
- What is the cheapest and more convenient way to reach the place? Find as many information as possible about suitable travel agencies, airfares, quality of roads. Being prepare for the good and bad weather will make possible a good planning of our trip. - Do you need a visa? In some cases, if the travel arrangements are made via a travel agency, the visa rules could be included. If we are on our own, we have to be aware of the conditions and rules in due time, for properly preparing the documentation.
- How safe is to travel alone?
This information is available for both male and female travellers. Some countries must be restrictive and not very foreigners' friendly, in some places women are imposed to respect various travel and dress restrictions. Read carefully the hotel descriptions; try to contact them directly people who wrote their impressions.
For an easy access to the local people, a basic Phrases Dictionary must be helpful for a good communication.
- Any other relevant information: as, for example, regarding the dress code for women in certain Muslim countries etc., the possibilities to call abroad - including the availability of some mobile networks, newspapers available, various medical warnings, affordability of some cultural places, restrictions addressed to foreigners etc.
Try to be creative and personal and aware that your story is worthy to be told and listened afterwards. Maps
Tell a story
Use your imagination and your cultural background, but in the same time, unless your work is not a complete work of fiction, respect the truth and the reality. We have a lot of story subjects around us. Why should somebody read a book about travel, instead of a normal touristic guide?
In my case, before preparing for a trip or choosing a certain destination, I always prefer to document myself via various references. Sometimes I am curious to find out more than touristic information, going in-depth with political or social information. Maybe during my trip there will take place elections and I will have the occasion to see not only nice places, but also lots of people on the street and electoral billboards.
Today, the usual traveller is more exposed to various kind of information and references that at the very beginning of touristic travelling. Documentation
Of course, the travel is mostly aimed to divert and offer various leisure opportunities. And, a good writer will enjoy these offers as well, while keeping his mind and eyes open to discover the world around. From my direct experience, I must confess that I never felt as a burden the need - or the professional obligation - to write about the places I was. Writing is so much part of my life that I took this task as natural as possible, being fully aware that my experiences could be an interesting story for my readers.
Carefully plan your day - What are the aims of your trip: you want to see a famous museum, a must see place, a garden, or you want to melt into the daily atmosphere of a flea market? Or maybe you are interested to enter in touch with the fancy places, as discos or shopping malls? Try to get from the ground as much information as possible - description of places, people, the hour when you've been there. Write the possible questions about certain customs or places, to be answered later, by supplementary documentation.
This planning depends on a great extent of the time you have at your disposal. In my case, the short and intense trips offered me several "hooks" for my articles, more than in the cases when I had one week to spend in one place. Possible sources
- Official touristic websites and local leaflets
- Literary and cultural sources
- Previous articles published in the media - local or international
- Discussion groups on Google, Yahoo, Twitter or Facebook
- People from the street that we meet accidentally - in a market, at a shop, people we are asking about a specific place
- Local blogs
- Cooking books
Never trust one single source, trying to confirm or deny your information after consultation of at least three sources.
Financial Information
The practical information must have a specific place in your reporting. - If you intend to cover more than one country, setting a couple of comparative lines will be useful
- Try to find some information useful for families travelling with children - as prices of tickets in some museums, special meals or playgrounds in some places.
How to Communicate Your Stories
- Open a blog, with a detailed plan of posts, updated permanently - at least twice the week. Network your articles and contributions, as well as fresh impressions about your trips.
- Create a Facebook page
- Post your short movies on YouTube, with or without background comments.
We hope it was worthy to spend some time together and I offered you a couple of interesting suggestions and insights about this wonderful hobby, pleasure and/or job: that of a writer.
Never forget that the first people who discovered the world were people lacking most part of the mental comfort we benefit today. We have thousand more opportunities to see in a life places discovered and identified in centuries. Let's open the window and start our travel!
Do you know the difference between a dream and a fantasy? Yeah, you're right--dreams include nightmares, as well as our deepest fears. As a psychologist, social worker, and professor there is one thing that I have observed about people is that most people select careers, marriages, friends and the decision to become parents based on fantasies.
Teacher
Fantasy
You love children and enjoy the idea dealing with adults in a very limited manner. You love history, math, science, art, English, etc... You can't wait to share your knowledge and expertise in your chosen field. You love the idea of having summers off. Dream
You realize that many children will come to school tired, hungry, or uninterested in the subject matter but you have the patience, and enthusiasm to help them learn anyway. You realize that many children come from broken homes but you are willingly to go the extra mile to help them with behavioral problems and obtain needed resources. You are willing to work with children with a variety of learning styles and academic abilities by using a variety of learning activities to reach each child. You understand that many parents may be tired, frustrated and angry during parent teacher conferences; this is not a problem for you because you have strong people skills and you know how to make people of various social, racial, and economic backgrounds feel good about themselves and their child. You feel comfortable simplifying complex information for most people to understand it. You are willing to take a teaching position where ever jobs are available because you are willing to work hard including writing grants. Doctor / Pediatrician
Fantasy
You love children. All of your life you knew that you wanted to help children. You look forward to giving children stickers and lollipops after each well-child check up visit at the doctor's office. Wow! You earn well over 6 digits, you drive a nice car, and where ever you go people and envy and respect you as a role model. What a life!
Dream
You know that sick children will have runny noses and eyes, but you look forward to wiping them. Business Owner
Fantasy
All you need is a great idea and bank loan.
Dream
When you worked for an employer you had one boss, now you realize that each customer is a boss and that you must meet their needs if you want your business to survive. You understand the challenges of paying for health insurance, paying and finding reliable employees, taxes, social-security and retirement funds. Psychologist / Psychiatrist / Social Worker / Therapist / Counselor
Fantasy
You love helping people. You love listening to juicy gossip and telling people what to do. What a life!
Dream
You realize that the nature of your job is to listen to people complain, cry, whine and vent, but you want to be there to help them find their way through the fog in the most difficult times of their life. You feel comfortable with helping them channel their anger, pain, shame and disappointment into healthy productive behavior. Singer / Actor / Celebrity
Fantasy
You love the thought of people absolutely adoring you.
Dream
All of your life you have wanted to be in show business. You are aware that if you ever become extremely famous that you could lose your privacy. How will I know that it is time to wake up from a dream?
Your original dream will lead you in the right arena, but sometimes our true destiny is not to be a baseball star, but own a baseball team, or be a baseball coach or write a book about baseball. Pay close attention to where your dream leads you.
If your life is filled with happiness and joy, you are definitely, without doubt on the right track.
When you make your own dreams come true, you also make other people's dream come true. Some beautiful woman who is 4ft tall would dream of modeling in your fashion show or writing for your magazine.
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