Ever read the travel section of the Sunday paper and think you’d make a good travel writer yourself? Maybe you have a promising idea for a book or article, but getting started seems daunting—or you simply love to travel and want to share your stories in a more creative way.
Whatever your goal, the craft of travel writing can be harder than it seems. Pairing the thrill of exploration with captivating storytelling demands a unique approach, often blending factual reportage with some of the techniques used by fiction writers. Travel writer Andrew Evans helps demystify the genre and offers strategies to become better equipped to write and share the stories of your own adventures.
This all-day workshop covers the essential elements of travel writing, with the exercises, tools, and guidance to help you get started, or to move past any lingering creative block to become a better writer and traveler.
9:30 a.m. Finding Your Story
A single journey offers more travel memories than you can share on the page, so how do you begin? What makes a compelling travel story and how do you get there? Examine the canon of travel writing to learn how to avoid common clichés, establish your voice, and bring something fresh and original to the reader.
11 a.m. Creating a Strong Sense of Place
Good travel writing sweeps the reader into another world, but how can you paint a place with words to evoke the color and emotion of a destination? Transcend mere description by learning how to use the senses, as well as characters, voice, and action to set the stage for your story, wherever it takes place.
12:15 p.m. Lunch (participants provide their own)
1:15 p.m. Structure
Good plot and bold descriptions collapse without a solid foundation. Structure seems to be the most challenging (yet critical) element of a winning narrative. Learn to craft a strong beginning that pulls in readers, how to pace properly, transition among places, moments, and ideas—and to end the story with impact and feeling.
2:45 p.m. The Travel Writing Life
Travel writers do just that—they travel and write—but the job entails much more. What does it really take to be a travel writer? How can you build a lifelong practice? How can writing make you a better traveler? Gain confidence in your craft and learn how to pitch, sell, edit, publish, and get paid in today’s rapidly changing market.
Evans has completed more than 40 assignments for National Geographic— reporting from all seven continents—and is the author of five books. His latest, The Black Penguin (University of Wisconsin Press), is available for signing.
Other Connections
“This is culture, I want to explain, and culture is vital. Culture is not merely cute, or simply fun, or even cool. It is not a dance, or a word, or a song, or souvenir. It is blood, it is sacred, and it is a battle against time and technology. Culture is what each of us holds inside, the memory of past lives carried forward in poetry, recipes, and the quirkiest mannerisms of our family. It is fragile, like a tiny flower blossoming from a crack in the wall, often barely noticed unless we stop and wait and listen.”
Read Andrew Evans’ chronicle of his adventures chaperoning a band of American teens on a remote island in western Ireland in “The Wallflowers of Inisheer.”
