The Secrets of Good Travel Writing

by Michael Goldstein

"After been swept away by the boom during a sudden jibe, I found myself holding tightly to the mainsheet of a Sunfish sailboat, while being dragged upwind past the floating bar of our Caribbean hotel. My wife, relaxed and happy on the foredeck, didn't even realize I was no longer aboard. What's more, everyone at the bar had heard me brag earlier, about my extensive experience in sailing small boats!"

Getting Started
Look at the first line in this article. Did it catch your interest? I hope so, because it was carefully crafted to capture the attention of all wannabe travel writers. If it really sums up what you burn to achieve, then I've accomplished my purpose. The first line(s) of a travel article should make some aspect of a journey sound so fascinating, that all prospective travellers want more information. Indeed, if you've done the job properly, you might convert some readers, who previously had no travel plans whatsoever, into prospective voyagers. How can you do this? Well, you first have to list all the aspects of your trip that make interesting reading. Many will be common to all trips. Then, use the funniest, most terrifying, or most interesting occasion as the "lead" of your article.

For example, let's look at the chance to use a 'destination-specific' restaurant experience:
"When my lunch arrived, I took a large forkful of what appeared to be guacamole. It was my first encounter with New Mexican green chili, and it took three frozen margaritas to put out my fires!"

"At Perkins Cove in Ogunquit, Maine, they brought in the lobster, an intimidating fellow with toothed claws and heavily armoured carapace. My waiter handed me a cheap nutcracker and two plastic picks, wished me godspeed, and departed. I knew I had only one faint hope, one slight chance of victory: My opponent was dead."

How about some regional experience?
"Boommmm. A heavy thud, like distant cannon fire, wakes me from a sound sleep, just after dawn.  We are staying at a marvellous B&B, just outside Marblehead, Massachusetts. The tide is beating against a forty-foot seawall just outside our window, making the whole house shake."

"The sun emerges from its lair in California, and the rocks grow red against a blue sky, while the saguaro cacti turn a fluorescent green. Emerging as well, from a hollow on the hill, are three coyotes."

"We are standing on the ramparts of the Castillo de San Marcos, a fortress made of seashells that overlooks Matanzas Bay on Florida's east coast. These fortifications rival the Spanish Quarter as the city of St. Augustine's main attraction. Never defeated or abandoned, it has seen more than three hundred years of continuous service."

Well, you get the picture. Anybody who can resist reading beyond your opening lines really just wants to visit Milwaukee. Notice that you can use those opening lines to specifically locate your reader in the destination of your article (just in case you have an affinity for whimsical titles, as I do).

Keep up the Momentum
Your reader has now committed to reading your article. Your job is to not disappoint, by making the rest of the piece merely an 'inventory,' or a dry list of "where to go, what to see." Of course, you have to include all this information, but you can produce it gradually, as part of a unfolding presentation.

A good idea is to make the article flow from your opening lines. Expand the information you presented therein, and move on. Using the example of the fiery lunch in New Mexico, where we were in Albuquerque at the time:

"After lunch, we drove up to Sandia Crest, then spent several hours in the New Mexico Museum of Natural History, finishing up by having dinner at the High Noon Saloon in Old Town."

An entire article, based in Albuquerque, could be written just on this one day alone, working in details on each of the areas visited, and ending with a description of a restaurant and a good meal.

I like to write in the present tense, where possible. It puts my readers right there in Albuquerque's Old Town with me, drinking margaritas and browsing the shops, marvelling at the red chili peppers hanging on the adobe walls. It must be a good idea, as National Geographic Traveler (my bible) does it all the time. Remember, however, that you can go forward and backward in time. After the opening lines on the chili, you can firmly place your reader in the present:

"...Allison and I are visiting Albuquerque..." and list a few attractions, and some history, perhaps including the great weather that drew you there in the first place. See, you've just snuck in your first statistics!

Now, some recent history: "...we had flown in from Toronto the previous evening on a United flight..." (United will give you a free flight for this, on your next trip!), and checked into our comfortable room at the Airport Best Western (ditto for a free room). "The next morning found us exploring Old Town...", and that take you up to lunching on chili. At the end of the article, you could add (future tense, here): "...next time we come, we'll check out the Petroglyphs National Monument, and see the Enchanted Mesa...". Just be sure to keep track of your tenses!

Make It Human
A good travel article, like a great slide show, needs lots of "people pictures." Find some folks doing interesting things, and talk to them. The Cuban gent rolling cigars would love to give you a lesson. The Maine fisherman loading lobster traps will explain the technology. The boatman on the Venetian gondola will teach you how to steer (don't fall in the Grand Canal!). These are the memories that make any trip wonderful, for you and for your readers. Don't forget to get all the names straight. People can often provide you with wonderful quotes, that make an article come alive. Write them down at once. On our first day of sailing the Victory Chimes (an historic gaff-rigged schooner based at Rockland, Maine), the first mate, Jon Finger, announced: "I want two teams of healthy, happy, halyard haulers!"

We walked into the Stagecoach Books and Gifts store in Albuquerque, in time to hear Jim Hoffsis, the owner, exclaim to a customer "I'd rather be in jail, in Albuquerque, then free and on the loose in almost any other place I can name!" Pure gold. In the Visitor Centre at Algonquin Park, in Ontario, Canada, we found a t-shirt that maintained, "Anyone who has been to Algonquin Park will be disappointed when they get to heaven!" The quote was attributed to somebody named Ralph Bice, who certainly summed it all up correctly.

Hard Information
Many travel destinations are historically significant, have local industries that merit some attention, or feature geological formations that can be interesting to visitors. Almost every trip can be augmented by advance knowledge of weather, public transportation, primary attractions, and so forth. This is hard information, often boring to read in large chunks, but quite necessary for a complete article. Be sure not to begin with a long list. Instead, lull your reader with something fascinating at first, like an initial experience with green chili. Then, when he is relaxed and chuckling, slip in some local history, and a comment on weather patterns. While driving around the mountains, describe the geology. A visit to the nearest Indian pow-wow occasions comment on culture, music, dress, customs, and integration into modern society. Every few paragraphs, add a bit more of this hard data, so the reader never feels he is being educated.

Here is a test. Pick up any National Geographic Traveler magazine, and choose any major article. Now, while reading, underline every specific detail with which you are supplied. Amazing, isn't it, how much information such an article contains? It's laid out in such a cunning fashion, however, that you hardly realize how much real information you're taking in. Where did all that information come from? The writer collected it during the trip, making constant notes, picking up all the free brochures, buying the occasion guidebook, and stealing menus from restaurants. If it's an article on restaurants, you can bet the author also collected some recipes, chatted up the chef, talked to the owners, and photographed a waiter with a platter of food in the garden. Names of streets, people, buildings, and eateries are carefully noted.

All that detail that fleshes out your article must be painstakingly gathered, and it's easier to do it while you are there. Keep track of what you ate, any local dishes that were exceptional, which birds you saw, and the flowers that were different from the ones back home. The process never stops, and if you do your own photography, you just double the work. Don't forget to buy the Roadside Geology of New Mexico, or its equivalent, wherever you travel. The Internet has become a wonderful resource for research, so don't neglect it, and mention the relevant websites in your article. By the way, it's very handy to come home with the e-mail addresses of any locals you might have befriended along the way. They can be enlisted to check on facts you may have missed, without investing in expensive long-distance telephone calls.

Writing notes is tedious, and if you're interviewing somebody, you cannot maintain a flow of conversation while you're scribbling. Instead, use a small dictation tape recorder, and be sure to transcribe your notes each night, just in case your tape breaks.

The Price of Price
I rarely include prices in my articles. Prices change, and they date your articles. Often, I will sell an article I wrote five years ago, and I don't want to have to go back and check all those specific details. You can safely indicate which is expensive, moderate, or el cheapo, or show the price range for meals and hotels.

It is a good idea to check your basic facts, if you're going to sell a piece that was written years ago. It's frightening how you can be caught. I recently sold an article on a dude ranch in Arizona, some years after we were there. I dutifully checked on the Internet for some clue that they still existed, and found their website. The business name and address was the same, and the description sounded very familiar. The father had most likely passed on the business to the son by now, but I had allowed for that. When the piece was published, I sent the ranch a copy, only to learn in their reply that the ranch was under new management, and the new owners had been in place for three years!

Pitfalls
Write about what you know. Don't comment on downhill skiing if you've never risked your neck or your knees. Don't write about horseback riding until you've collected some backside blisters. Haul a few halyards before you produce sailing articles.

You don't have to be an expert. In fact, trying something for the first time (like green chili) will generate lots of funny situations, which will greatly augment your writing. Don't neglect the humorous aspect of writing...humour sells! You can admit to the most ridiculous mistakes, the silliest pratfalls, and your readers will find you all the more human, and eminently more enjoyable to read.

"Having been swept away by the boom during a sudden jibe, I found myself holding tightly to the mainsheet of a Sunfish sailboat, being dragged upwind past the floating bar of our Caribbean hotel. My wife, relaxed and happy on the foredeck, didn't even realize I was no longer aboard. What's more, everyone at the bar had heard me brag earlier, about my extensive experience in sailing small boats."

Makes great copy, doesn't it? Bare your soul to your readers, and they will remember your name.

The usual rules of good writing apply. In some course or other that I once took, somebody claimed "There are no good writers, only good editors!" Avoid use of the same word, or phrase, six times in the same paragraph. Check for those spelling and grammatical errors. Be sure to read your own work out loud to yourself, watching for awkward sentences, or obscure references. If your reader stops reading even once, to puzzle over something you've not made clear or debate the correct spelling of a word, you've lost him. They even make these mistakes, on occasion, in National Geographic, so be careful.

Use short, snappy, sentences. Don't require your reader to pause for mental breath, before working his way to the period. Break up longer sentences with those strategic commas, so your phrase reads as it should.

Have a friend, colleague, or even your spouse/partner (who is often all three) read the finished product, and listen carefully to their reactions. If they reach for their passports, you're a travel writer!

-- MG
© 1999 Mike Goldstein

Mike Goldstein is a freelance travel writer, internationally published, based in Toronto. His work has consistently appeared in travel publications (primarily the Canadian market) for the past ten years. His wife Allison, who has taught art professionally for the past 25 years, specializes in water colour, and holds degrees from Mount Allison University. Mike and Allison prefer to travel together, and often collaborate on both writing and imaging.