How to write
a travel article…in one weekend!
Extract from How to write travel articles... one weekend by Diana Cambridge
(Canal Street Publishing Ltd £9.99)
Starting off – that’s always the most
difficult part. How to begin your travel
feature? Here’s Diana’s tip – whether you’re
writing about holidays in faraway places or
journeys nearer home, give the start of your
feature a “short story” quality! Capture the
reader’s attention with an introduction that
could just as easily be the opening page of
a piece of fiction.
Zoom in
on one incident, one situation, one event
and give it more detail, more colour, more
feeling. Take one aspect and open it up, as
you would with a short story. Be honest.
Travel, as well as being fun, often frays
tempers! Don’t gloss over setbacks and
irritations.
Here’s how you do it. Write your piece in
the first person. Give your introduction a
“must read on” quality, a promise of
something intriguing to come. Here are three
examples:
-
It was when the ticket
inspector told me my train was actually
going to Edinburgh, not St Albans as I’d
thought, that I realised rail travel can
offer some unexpected opportunities.
-
“Champagne? Welcome!”
The smiling naval officer ushered us up
the gangplank. All we’d been doing was
standing at sunset staring at a Greek
frigate, armed with Cruise missiles,
docked in Halki harbour. But suddenly we
were guests at a party. It pays to dress
up a bit for dinner – even on a Greek
island.
-
When the barman
collapsed on the first day of our
holiday I decided we could be in for
trouble…
With the “must read on” quality of the short
story intro, the rest of the feature becomes
much simpler to write. You don’t have to
actually create a short story – it’s just
the introduction to your article, to tempt
the reader in and set the theme and tone.
But of course, when you have the idea,
there’s no reason why you shouldn’t later on
writer a short story based, too, on that
journey.
Always think of travel writing as offering
you future writing possibilities – a general
feature, an opinion piece, a short story.
Travel is life itself – so there are so many
possibilities! Keep breathing, keep moving,
keep writing…
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