I'll never forget the first time I tried to write an article on a place
I'd been to. After four years of presenting reports for
BBC Radio 4's travel show
Breakaway, I'd decided it was time to
put pen to paper and actually write about my travels. Now I was sitting at a word
processor trying to encapsulate the essence of a particularly magical afternoon
spent on the powder-fine sand of a Venezuelan beach, drinking cold beers and
eating freshly cooked lobster plucked from the ocean moments earlier. The
experience needed to be transcribed from image to word and I was failing dismally.
'The beach where I was
sitting was a great place to be eating lobster.'Delete,
delete, delete. 'Sand formed the table for my bottle of
cold beer which I was drinking on a beautiful beach prior to eating
lobster.' Bin the thing and give up in
despair.
I felt like a schoolboy struggling with his first essay. In desperation, I rang a friend
who was editor of one of the Country Life stable of
magazines.
"I just can't seem to get
it," I confessed.
"Don't think about it too
much," she advised. "Just write down the
first thing that comes into your head. Improve it and change it
later."
It was the single most useful piece of advice I have been given in my writing career.
It's so much easier to edit than to originate. Get something down
on paper, then turn it into quality literature afterwards.
I tried (unsuccessfully) for another hour before calling her back.
"I still can't get it
right," I moaned.
"OK," she said, " describe
the scene."
I described the scene.
"How about: 'The
most energetic thing I had done that day was to decide if I wanted the seafood
sauce with my freshly caught lobster. I pondered the thought as a droplet of
condensation formed on my ice-cold beer bottle and dropped lazily into the
crescent of powdery white sand that stretched before
me'," she suggested off the top
of her head.
I was hooked.
Despite those initial feelings of inadequacy in the face of my inability to string a few
words together in a creative way, travel writing has proved to be a fascinating,
exciting and fulfilling avenue of journalism, and one which has literally taken me all
over the world.
If you can figure out a style and way of writing which appeals to readers and editors
alike, you'll have the opportunity to tap into one of the
world's most desirable professions. Obviously
it's not always as glamorous as it appears, and making it pay the
mortgage is a whole different ball game, but the opportunities it presents are
incredible. Suddenly every situation you find yourself in becomes a potential story.
A humorous account of 24 hours spent in Gatwick airport can be just as
entertaining as a report on a climb of Kilimanjaro. Believe me,
I've written both.
Good travel writing is about capturing the imagination. The reader's
mind is a blank canvas onto which you have the opportunity to paint the most vivid
of pictures. Steven Spielberg and a budget of millions could not create the kind of
intricate pictures you can with a few well-chosen words.
Consider the following:
'The fort stood above the
harbour.''The fort
growled down from above the
harbour.'
A few extra words. A big change in atmosphere. However, such subtleties can be
worked on when you return from your travels. In general, while you are there, you
need to get as much background and local colour as you possibly can. As a
journalist you have to adopt a different approach from that of a holidaymaker. In a
few days, you have to capture the essence of a place.
A few hints and tips that I have found helpful
ˇResearch as much as possible beforehand.
Guidebooks, the internet and published articles will all give a starting point for your
exploration. A working knowledge of the local language will give you an added
advantage and a chance to get under the country's skin.
ˇOnce at your destination, visit places that will provide you with the
most to write about. Eating re-fried beans with the locals at a traditional
café is going to inspire you more than lunch at
McDonald's. An uncomfortable journey by overcrowded bus will
give you far more story ideas than jumping into a taxi.
ˇGather enough information while you are on location. You
don't have to visit exotic destinations to practise this: in fact it is
much more of a challenge to write a compelling travel article on somewhere local
and unglamorous. Bring Runcorn to life and Bali will be a doddle. Try and find what
makes the place special, its unique selling points. Describe and expand on these.
Make notes of everything you see and everything that happens to you.
ˇObserve the finer details. Just as a wide-angle view of a crowded
market scene will have much less impact than a close-up shot of a barrow of
oranges, so a travel article that brings out the details will win out over one that
skims over a scene. Compare, for instance, 'A crowd
of people gathered in the square below me' with
'I watched as a small girl, eyes wide with wonder,
gripped her mother's hand tightly as she was led through the
heaving crowd that had gathered in the square below
me.'
When you are looking at a scene, look for that finer detail. Remember it, write it down
and use it to paint your picture. There are various tools that you can use to help
you. Make photographs or videos. Dictate what you see into a tape recorder. Jot
down key words and images. Make sketches. There are no hard and fast rules
- find what works best for you. But whatever the method you
choose, do make notes. Overall images you will remember, finer details you
won't.
ˇStart your articles with an anecdote, using it to draw the reader into
your work and set the scene for your destination. Factual stuff at the beginning of
an article is a real turn-off. Compare, 'At nearly
10,000 feet, Quito is one of the world's highest capitals. My hotel
was centrally located and well appointed,' with,
'I collapsed against the check-in desk of my hotel, sucking air
into my lungs as if through a cocktail straw. I would normally have skipped up the
short flight of steps from the road, but for the first few days after I arrived in the
Ecuadorian capital, Quito, I felt like I had been puffing on 40 Marlboros a day for
the past 20 years.' Continue including your feelings
and emotions in what you write, and be passionate.
ˇDon't write as if you're compiling
a diary. When it comes to travel reportage, the 'Today we started
with a tour of the cathedral. It was a very grand building with a lot of stained glass
and while we were there we saw an old woman praying at the
front,' approach is about as riveting a read as the back of a
cereal packet. Remember: details, images, passion.
As a test, re-arrange the following words in any order you like:
The; pencil; face; window; the; stained; sunlight; of; woman; glass; of; praying; on;
old; and; ancient; skinned; streamed; a; the; beam; an; through; to; olive; quietly;
in; knave.
If you started with 'The old woman skinned the olive
with a pencil...' maybe it's time to
consider another career.
Travel writing gives you the opportunity to be creative and let your mind explore
avenues of expression without being tied to the realities of, say, news reporting.
Make the most of it.
ˇThe people you meet are a major source of colour.
Chat with as many locals and fellow travellers as you can. Use a tape recorder for
longer conversations, or make detailed notes as soon as you have finished. Fellow
travellers are also an invaluable source of hot leads to the more interesting places
to visit.
ˇFind an unusual angle if you want to sell the story to an editor or
book publisher. An article on the Taj Mahal alone probably won't
get their juices going. But one on the journey there by clapped out Hindustani
Ambassador (a Morris Oxford lookalike), bringing in the characters and
experiences encountered en route, just might.
A detailed description of a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower has been done before.
The same experience seen through the eyes of an excited six-year-old you have
observed may not have been. Read the travel sections of newspapers and
magazines to see how other people do it. You'll soon get a feel
for the difference between a good travel writer and a mediocre one.
ˇOne last piece of advice: talk from the heart. There
are enough guidebooks out there to provide all the facts and figures, times and
dates. It's up to you to paint pictures and fire the imagination.
And you can do it. Book a ticket on the next train to Runcorn or Basingstoke and
give it a try.
