Week 5 - Travel Writing 

Paula Schiller (1997) wrote: The Editor of Northwest Orient in-flight magazine called me wanting a story on Fairbanks Alaska for a special issue on the USA’a largest and coldest state. "What kind of story?" I asked.

"Just give us your best travel writing," she replied.

You don’t always get a blank check assignment like that, but if it does happen, you want to be better prepared than I was. I hadn’t done any serious travel writing up to that point, but I’d just had an adventure piece on Arctic survival published by high-prestige magazine so I guessed the editor assumed I knew what I was doing.

"No problems," I bluffed. "Do you want it outdoorsy -- dog sledding, camping or more cultural?"

I was trying to get a handle on what my "best travel writing" might be like.

"Do both," she said. We have room. Do Fairbanks as a destination and then whatever you want about dog sledding."

Do whatever I want? Words I never expected to hear from an editor. Why were they so terrifying?

In the end, I wrote a fairly straight piece titled "The Few and the Proud" on the city of Fairbanks and because I didn’t want the poor airplane passenger to get tired of my style, I wrote piece about dog sledding in a completely different voice and genre. It was called "Notes of a solitary musher: Letter to my lead dogs" in which I reminded the dogs of how well they trained me.

But I had to do a lot of research between getting the assignment and deciding what to write. First, I skimmed all kinds of how-to books on travel writing. At the same time, I read travel pieces in the best magazines. I got a feel for the genre and for what the editor must have meant by "best". And then I copied the format and tone of the articles I liked best but using my own information and impressions of Fairbanks. Since I’d worked as a journalist there, I knew the place better than the average travel writer who might only spend a few days in a city. The "best" travel pieces seemed to be those that captured "first impressions" yet also showed behind-the-scenes knowledge. I also knew that since the editor called me on the basis of my quirky Arctic story that she’d accept something a bit experimental so I took a risk and wrote the "letter" my dogs. The "proofs" of that story came back to me with a note from the publisher thanking me for such a "spirited" piece. So don’t be afraid to skirt the edge.

Two Main Genres of Travel Writing

There are two main genres of travel writing - 1. the travel narrative and 2. the destination piece. The travel narrative is an "evergreen;" it doesn’t drop its value like leaves from a maple tree in fall but stays "fresh" all year. It is well-written and entertaining. It can be read over and over for its own sake. The books of Bill Bryson, Paul Theroux, and Jan Morris have that quality and people still read the travel writing of Samuel Johnson and Charles Dickens.

The value of the destination piece, on the other hand, is that it is up-to-date and contains the very latest information on sights and prices. You find these pieces in newspaper travel sections, travel magazines, and newsletters.

Many writers do both kinds of travel writing at the same time. You can sell the same destination piece to a number of different newspapers (with some changes tailored to readership) and also develop a more substantial piece based on the same trip for a monthly magazine.

At the book fair a few weeks ago, I talked to Craig Lewis, a young travel writer who makes a good living writing adventure travel pieces and guide books based on his 4WD and camping trips. He develops a range of exciting 4WD routes writes detailed guides to the routes and what you might expect to see and do as you go. His partner helps keep the necessary detailed records. They also travel to out-of-the way places and sell stories about their trips to newspapers all over the country. Not a bad way to live, but as any travel writer will confess, having to write often spoils the fun. You have to keep accurate records of everything you see and do, how much things cost, the names of the people you talk to at the places you stay or stop. You should also be taking photographs as well. You need to makes sure names and phone numbers are correct, get opening and closing times right, and include all the facts a traveller might need in order to repeat the trip. You’ll find such pieces in the papers and magazines like Open Road. Airline frequent flyer magazines also use short destination pieces.

The destination piece can be organized by topics (food, entertainment) or as a "tour" in which you take the reader on a textual tour of the area, "stopping" at various sites. I gained 5 pound researching "Pies along the Parks", a guide to the fruit pies on offer at the roadhouses spaced every 250 miles or so along the Parks Highway between Fairbanks to Anchorage. The travel diary technique falls into this category as well.

Here’s a bit from the 1933 classic, The Road to Oxiana, by Robert Byron:

"The day’s journey had a wild exhilaration. Up and down the mountains, over the endless flats, we bumped and swooped. The sun flayed us. Great spirals of dust, dancing like demons over the desert, stopped our dashing Chevrolet and choked us. Suddenly, from afar across a valley, came the flash of a turquoise jar, bobbing along on a donkey. Its owner walked beside it, clad in a duller blue. And seeing the two lost in that gigantic stony waste, I understood why blue is the Persian colour, and why the Persian word for it means water as well." (51).

Adventure and eco-travel is just one specialty. Women’s travel and solo-travel are also popular. When I wasn’t dog sledding, I used to make a specialty of writing up bed and breakfast places in the midwest region of the US. For that you need a semi-technical vocabulary for describing architecture, furniture, and food. Finding a specialty related to your own interests is probably the best way into this highly competitive market. You need to individualize your approach because the Taj Mahal, Pyramids, and Sydney Opera House have been done to death. It’s hard to come up with something new to say about the SOH, especially to the readers of the Sydney Morning Herald. But you might be able to sell an article about the SOH to a US newspapers or magazine so don’t overlook overseas markets.

Here’s Jan Morris on the white wonder:

With its nine flying roofs of off-white tiling, its varying planes and mingled textures, Sydney Opera House is the hardest building I have ever tried to draw, and it has not been universaly admired. Beverly Nichols the English journalist thought it was like something that had crawled out of the sea and was up to no good. The writer Blanche d’Alpuget likened it to ‘an albino tropical plant root-bound from too small a pot.’ I myself find it unattractive seen head-on from the harbor side, when its big teeth-like windows, framed by their hoods, have a distinctly rapacious look, likened by a Brisbane wit to that of Sydney’s heroine Joan Sutherland in the mad scene from Lucia di Lammeremoor.

It is an immensely suggestive building. When I walk down is wide shallow steps, with those soaring roofs above me, I feel remarkably like one of the minute stereotypical figures to be seen in architects’ drawings of visionary cities -- figures almost irrelevant to the scene, and impelled only by the momentum of the future all around them. But there is also something unguent about the Sydney Opera House, something enveloping, so that when I have got over feeling like an extra in an architects’ scenario, I feel rather like an insect in an ice cream. -- Sydney , pp 45-46

The trick is to pack in a mixture of objective and subjective information. Morris counted the "sails", collected quotes, and confessed her own misgivings about a building so many find extravagantly beautiful. Morris’s slightly perverse take on the SOH is a refreshing antidote to the purple prose churned out by the tourist bureaus.

Besides quoting, another way to supply objectivity to your description is to research a bit of history. History-based travel articles are often "evergreen" and salable to a number of markets. A Reasoned Writing student wrote a short travel piece about a stone stock-watering trough left over from horse and buggy days. The piece could find its way into the local newspaper or tourist guide. I’ve done stories on patches of historic roads (Military Ridge Rd, Manassas Rd.) comparing then and now, the "now" including shops, restaurants, remaining historic sites.

The two things you need to practice in travel writing are accuracy of facts and sensory perception -- back to the skills of description and sensory impression. Practice describing landscapes. Record snatches of overheard conversation or quotes from locals. Capture first impressions.

Wanderlust on the Web

There are many web sites that will connect you to travel information and markets. You can submit informal travel tips or full-fledged articles.

Have a look at http://www.statravel.com.au/escape/current/es_cont.htm which is taking submissions at the moment, or http://www.statravel.com.au/escape/97-2/es_cont.htm

TNT Travel a backpacking magazine - http://www.tntmag.com.au/

Try http://www.ppsa.com/magazine/online2.html for an American slant or 

21st Century Adventure at http://www.21stCenturyAdventures.com/

 

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Exercise for next week

The Australian Geographic magazine has a regular feature called "My Favourite Place" in which readers submit short articles (and photographs) of a favourite spot. My outdoors list would include Bondi Beach and the view of the Megalong Valley from the Hydro Majestic. While touristy, both of these are also open to "edgy" treatments. Your favourite place does not have to be famous (or outdoors), but it must be public and accessible to your readers. You should locate it well enough so we can find it. Pick a favourite or interesting or weird, accessible place. Go there, if at all possible. Write a piece conveying its attraction or mystique. Think about including any additional information that might add to our experience of the place - getting there or being there. Be 'edgy', be creative, but aim to produce a publishable piece (or start of a piece).