SiteTraveling as a Travel Writer
A couple of weeks ago, in a comment on my post about finding travel writing inspiration from your vacation, Chris asked a very good question about travel writing. (Chris, I can’t tell from your name whether you’re male or female, but I’ll roll the dice and assume you’re female!) She and her fiance love to travel, and after describing a scenic drive through Oklahoma and Arkansas, Chris says:
My biggest thing is just how to come home and write it all up into something cohesive and usable. And what kinds of notes to take, brochures to pick up, people to talk to, etc. along the way.
Chris, you’ve framed your question perfectly. In travel writing, your stories can only be as good as the notes you take and the information you gather in the field.
Preparation really is the name of the game. How to best prepare? Although we all want to write accurate nonfiction, the most productive trips start with an act of imagination: what kind of stories do you hope you’ll find on your road trip? What sort of material will you need to write such stories, and how do you put yourself in a position to make finding that information more likely?
Thinking through these questions will make your trip more directed, and combined with good note-taking habits, will put you in a good position once you’re back home at your desk.
At which time, your work has just begun! It’s something I struggle against mightily, in fact, every time I return from a trip, I am always tempted to believe that I have the story in my notes– that it’s a simply a matter of moving things around and prettying up some language and hey presto, I’ve got a story! Well, I usually do have the beginnings of story in my notes, but there’s a lot of thinking still to do. Readers aren’t well-served by stories that are mere information dumps, and editors won’t buy them anyway. Our job as travel writers is to put the information we’ve gathered into some kind of context, and to create meaning. As the writer Vivian Gornick says: “What happens to the writer isn’t what matters, what matters is the larger sense the writer is able to make of what happened.”
Anyone can travel and gather raw info, but a good travel writer will apply her brain power to turn it into a story that stands on its own. In my upcoming travel writing workshop, we spend a great deal of time on preparation for travel, effective note taking on the road, and finding meaning in the information you’ve gathered once you get home. –[Alison Stein Wellner]
3 Responses to “Traveling as a Travel Writer”
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Tiffany
Said this on May 12th, 2008 at 11:09am:Hi Alison–
Here’s a question for you. Are travel writers also supposed to take the photos for a story? I’m a photography novice, with only a point-and-shoot digital camera, and no training at all. Sometimes my pics are decent, but more often than not they’re only OK. (And sometimes just terrible!) Do I need to worry about this while I’m on vacation? My husband and I are going to Budapest, and I decided I would take good notes and write to explore ideas while I’m there and then sort it out when I get back, but do I also have to take photos? Thanks for any insight!
Alison Stein Wellner
Said this on May 12th, 2008 at 3:11pm:Hi Tiffany,
There’s no hard and fast rule. Some travel writers are also photographers, and there’s no doubt that they can provide a more complete package to editors. (They also often sell their photographs for more than they sell their stories.) Middle to lower tier publications will often ask you to supply art for your story, although they are often satisfied with images that come from convention and visitors bureaus, tourist boards, and so on. On the other hand, the highest end magazines have art departments that assign their own photographers. Editors there want writers who can concentrate on the writing, and photographers who can focus (sorry! bad pun) on the shooting.
As far as your set-up goes, you *can* take pretty good pics with a point and shoot camera,just be sure to set your camera to take pictures on the highest resolution. You may not take award winning photographs but you might find you’ve got a few good ones, especially if you’re writing for an online publication. I’d definitely wait to upgrade your equipment until you know how much you like travel writing, and how much you like photography.
But it will definitely help you to head to the bookstore and check out a basic book on photography -pay attention especially to the chapters on composition. And a digital camera is a great note-taking device, even if you never sell a photograph!
Rachel
Said this on May 12th, 2008 at 8:31pm:Great post, Alison! Yet again, the Renegade Writer Blog answers my questions before I have a chance to ask them.