The Romance of Travel Writing

Pont-des-ArtsThe romance of travel writing is easy to understand. Who wouldn’t like to go on an all-expense paid trip to a Hawaiian resort? How about traveling the Whiskey Trail through the American South, visiting the best micro distilleries? Or what about a food and wine tour of Argentina? These are all trips I have turned down recently, mostly from lack of time. Would you like to go in my place? Read on and you’ll learn how to get invited on these trips.

In the next few weeks, I’ll be revealing here some of the techniques of the successful travel writer, some of the things I teach in my travel writing classes. Read on and let me know what you think!

Beyond all the freebies, travel writing is one of the most exciting genres of writing, calling on all of the skills of a creation nonfiction writer—dramatic scenes, character sketches, concrete detail, point of view, scene by scene construction—to bring a place to life. This course will introduce you to all the essential techniques of travel writing as well as giving you expert, insider advice about how to submit and publish finished stories.

But perhaps the biggest appeal of travel writing is that it gives direction to your journeys. If you love to travel like I do, it makes the trip that much better. I revel in the difference of foreign countries. The whiff of an early morning Gauloise cigarette in the Luxembourg gardens of Paris. The roar of an avalanche in the Canadian Rockies. The taste of a glass of Bordeaux’s Chateau Latour. But after a while I would get bored of it all if I didn’t have a reason for being there.

My winter class, Follow the Story, will discuss travel writing, among other techniques of narrative writing. For more: www.thewritersworkshop.net.