Stay-at-Home Travel Writing

by Beth Fowler

Do you want to write travel articles but haven't taken an Alaskan cruise or an African safari lately? No problem. Many authors who never leave their native soil write and publish travel articles.

Remember, every place is some place else to someone else. Bicyclists want to read about the trail through the bird sanctuary near your cottage. Antique enthusiasts want to read about the shops in your town. Parents want to read tips about how to travel with children. Disabled travelers want to read which tourist attractions in your county have facilities for wheelchair-bound or blind tourists. You don't need to leave home to collect materials for articles about how to pack properly, how to avoid common travel illnesses, airport and hotel safety, and the pros and cons of travelers' checks versus cash. This is merely the beginning of a wealth of ideas for you to mine.

Plenty of publications buy travel articles. Writer's Market lists fifty-some magazines under "travel" in the "Consumer Magazines" chapter and lists more under "travel" in the "Trade, Technical and Professional Journals" chapter. That's a fraction of the magazines publishing travel articles. Every international and national airline serving the world's airports publishes inflight magazines. And we haven't even ventured into the world of e-zines.

Magazines and newspapers not mentioned in the travel category also publish travel articles. Women's, photographers' and pet owners' magazines publish travel pieces. Food and drink, art, automotive, motorcycle, hobby, and history magazines buy travel articles. An article about Seattle's Chinatown district written for Eva Air inflight magazine can be revised for Seattle Weekly.

What's the Purpose?
While skimming through magazines and newspapers, you'll notice that travel articles serve different purposes. For instance, articles about traveling with kids, or about hotel laundry service, or my article called "Holiday Photos a Snap!" provide practical tips for travelers regardless of their destinations. Writing these articles required none of the writers to embark on long-haul trips.

Other articles are destination pieces about specific locations and impart an impression of the site by appealing to readers' five senses. Engrossing articles inspire readers to want to visit the location if the author's impression was good, or to avoid it if not. If nothing else, destination pieces make readers feel as if they were there.

A third type of travel article focuses on an object, event or activity. Articles about cats living in Williamsburg's historical homes, or about Ohio's county fairs, or about folk art displayed in trailer courts all feature interesting topics with locations providing distinctive backdrops.

In addition to serving different purposes, travel articles vary in other ways. When studying the market you've targeted for your travel piece, check what kind of traveler the articles are slanted toward -- honeymooners, retirees, gays, hikers, teenagers, young families on tight budgets, or business travelers with generous expense accounts. 

Analyze the travel articles' content in the targeted magazine. Are bus numbers, addresses, telephone numbers and names included or are the articles general? What proportion of the travel articles contain feelings, facts, description, opinions, and quotations? Are well-known destinations or off-the-beaten-trail attractions featured? What point of view is preferred? Who provides photographs? Are sidebars used? 

Although successful travel writers glean facts from encyclopedias, they employ every writerly skill available to create travel articles that don't resemble Encyclopedia Britannica entries. Important but static facts mined from encyclopedias, travel brochures, almanacs, the Internet and other resources are excellent material for sidebars with titles like "The Five Top Gardens in Charleston," or "The Best Restaurants in Boston," or "Twelve Things to Do in Austin."

Writers salt manuscripts with relevant encyclopedic facts, but not to the point of sucking their articles dry of vitality, personality and pace. The best writers wrap facts in imagery or comparisons. Rather than writing the dimensions of an island, try comparing the island to an area familiar to most readers as in, "There simply is not room on an island one-sixth the size of New York City to tuck everything away neatly." 

A Hook to Grasp
A good travel piece, like all good prose, has a beginning, a middle and an end. A travel article's beginning should shimmer, surprise and entice. In other words, the beginning hooks the reader -- and the editor -- to read on.

Relating to readers' known experiences creates a hook for them to grasp as they traverse new territory the author presents. In an article about planning family vacations an author might write, "We all experience those frantic mornings when everyone's racing to school, to work or to daycare. Come evening, everyone is grabbing a bite for dinner, running to piano lessons or doing homework. These are the realities of contemporary family life. A well-planned vacation provides a break from all that."

Encounter, Motive, Motion, Description
Once hooked, readers expect articles to sustain their interest. You can keep readers hooked by incorporating four elements: encounter, motive, motion and description. 

Including an encounter with a fishmonger or a talkative museum curator adds sparkle to travel articles the way well-rounded characters do to stories. Gems of dialogue and sharp descriptions of people interspersed within travel narrative lend additional authority and veracity. 

The motive for traveling is the second element writers can share with readers. Revealing motive or motivations gives readers a reason to read via a type of transference. Your motive becomes theirs. This element can be boiled down to a guideline for all writing: Tell readers the goal. Why did you visit the place (besides to write about it)?

The third element, motion, can literally mean mode of transportation: bicycle, hiking boots, donkey, camper van, canal boat, train or car, like in this excerpt from one of my articles: "We passed citrus groves of trees sagging with softball-sized lemons and bright oranges. Sweet orange blossoms perfumed our car." A sense of motion can also be imparted with the passage of time. 

The fourth element, description, is the main ingredient in most travel writing. Use words the way a cinematographer uses a video camera: pan in on a scene, then focus on detail. Travel writers' opinions and personal preferences seep through when they write descriptions. That's OK because readers want feelings as well as facts; otherwise, they'd stick with encyclopedias. Notice how subjectivity warms this description of my hometown. "York is a very relaxing place. It has historical buildings and shopping outlets. It's a great spot for a weekend break with photogenic cityscapes plus the glorious countryside just five minutes away."

By depicting encounter, motive, motion and description, travel writers uphold the oft-stated, all-important scribbler's maxim: Show, don't tell.

Write Satisfying Endings
Some travel articles end with a sputter. In contrast, travel articles with well-crafted endings provide a more satisfying read. An article called "Traveling in Style" could echo the key word "style" in the final sentence: "If all else fails, remember that a pair of sunglasses always adds instant style to all but the grungiest of sweat suits." 

Reiterating an idea or image in the last paragraph that was mentioned in the first paragraph also concludes articles in a balanced manner. An article about Cape May might begin with an anecdote of a woman's difficulty finding a hotel with a vacancy, continue with descriptions of popular seaside attractions and close with: "But as the woman in Cape May learned, nothing is more frustrating than being told, 'Sorry, no vacancies.'" Summarizing the main point of a travel article is another way to bow out gracefully. 

Thou Shalt Not
Whether you are delving into travel writing for the first time or your travel articles are already widely published, you'll want to avoid certain clichés and pitfalls that erode credibility and are the signs of dull travel writing.

If I never have to read one more article describing such-and-such as a place "of contrasts," I'll hike the Appalachian Trail barefoot. (Ditto for the words beckon and quaint.) Rather than telling readers the city is full of contrasts, authors can punch up their writing by showing readers dissimilar aspects of a place and letting readers draw their own conclusions. Allowing readers to form their own judgments invites them to engage in the article, become involved, participate. Possessing talent to engage readers separates competent writers from exceptional writers. 

Many publications reject journal-style travel articles. Avoid writing in a style akin to, "My three sons and I woke up in our Poconos B&B at seven AM to a cool, misty morning. We heard the hostess cooking our country breakfast in the kitchen. Soon we were ready to hit the trail now that our stomachs were full . . . " Blah, blah, blah. This style works for well-known authors who insert humor or drama into everyday activities and weed out inconsequential (boring) bits. Readers want to know what to expect if they visit the Poconos, not intimate details about the writer's experience.

Twice I've almost committed the travel writer's sin: Relying on Hearsay. In one instance, I was going to tack on a sentence recommending an art gallery housed in a man's private residence. Fortunately, I tried to visit the gallery to decide if I wanted to include it in my piece. Gee! I'm glad I didn't take the guidebook's word for it. The elderly man had become blind. His gallery was no more. The second instance was similar, except this time the museum described in the guidebook still existed . . . in a city 70 miles away. People age. Museums close. Admission prices rise. Castles crumble. Thou shalt verify, verify, verify. 

Travel writers are guests and should mind their manners when visiting There and when writing about There. Poking fun, peering down our noses, airing our prejudices teeters into the realm of questionable ethics. At worst, writers risk exposing themselves to legal retaliation if, for instance, they publish inaccurate, damaging statements about a named restaurant's food. At best, grousing and arrogance put readers off. One travel writer recommends writing as if we're telling a friend about our experiences. That recommendation spawned Fowler's Canon: Write as if we're telling the people in our travel article about our experiences. 

Don't swing too far in the opposite direction, though, by writing cheery, sunny articles when skies loomed gray, or your readers will post nasty objections to the editor. Accuracy needn't be jettisoned in the name of courtesy. I jotted that a hotel's food "clogs the arteries" in my journal, but my manuscript states, "The hotel serves large portions of potatoes fried in lard." Relegate hyperbolic, sarcastic vitriol to your private journal. 

Editors don't care if your passport's visa stamps don't represent United Nations member countries. Editors don't care if you have a passport. Editors do care about and purchase travel pieces that address readers' life-style interests, answer readers' questions, contain accurate information, hook readers, and avoid travel writing clichés and gaffes. 

   -- BF
   ©1999 Beth Fowler