Travel writing can feel intimidating. Not the travel part maybe. But
the sitting down and figuring out what belongs on the page and in what
order.
The good news, though, is that one of the best ways to break into the
business is with short, tidy articles about just one thing.
Below, Jen Stevens dissects a model article and shows you how you can
easily and quickly write one like it.
-- Lori
Lori Allen
Director, AWAI Travel Division
P.S. The article Jen talks about focuses on Casco Viejo, a
neighborhood in Panama City that you can see for yourself when you
join us there in early December for our Fund Your Travels Workshop.
We'll be based an easy cab ride away. And, when you reserve your spot
today, we'll treat you to a free overnight stay in the San Blas
Islands. They're just off the coast, but will seem a world away. Join
me (and Jen too) as we head out to meet the Kuna Indians. Details here
about how you can be one of the 18 folks who come for free:
http://www.thetravelwriterslife.com/tpi/panama
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September 20, 2008
The Right Way to Travel
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SHORT, EASY, AND SALABLE: AN IDEAL ARTICLE TO MODEL
By Jennifer Stevens in Colorado Springs, CO
Remember three things when you set out to sell an article to an
editor. Editors like:
** 1) Short pieces they can use to fill a small space (they help break
up a dense page and are life-savers when a story gets pulled at the
last minute)
** 2) Articles that have one big idea
** 3) Practical recommendations infused with specifics
If you keep those three things in mind as you're writing, you're
putting yourself on the path to success.
And that's not the only bit of good news, either: Articles that do
those three things well aren't hard to write.
Let me show you.
Let's look at an article from last Sunday's NY Times:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/travel/14surfacing.html?em
The piece is called "Panana City: A Cultural Cornerstone," by Danielle
Pergament. (She's a well-published travel writer whose articles have
appeared not only in the Times, but also National Geographic Traveler,
Allure, Departures, and many others.)
This is a great article to use as a model for your own. Here's why:
At 502 words, it's short-and-sweet. (If you're typing in 12 point,
double spacing your text, that's just two pages in Word.) You can do
that.
This article does not try to be all things to all people. It is not a
guidebook entry on Panama City.
Instead, it stakes out one clear opinion about one small part of the
city and backs it up. In other words, it's a topic that fits the
limited space the writer has.
This piece reads like the answer to a question a friend might have
asked casually over coffee: "So tell me what you thought of that
neighborhood you mentioned you liked in Panama City..."
That's a great way to think about finding your own "one" idea about a
place you'd like to write about. Just ask yourself, "Why would I
recommend this to a friend? How would I describe it to him?"
In this case, the response is the author's "thesis" for this piece.
It's where the past meets the future in Panama City. A neighborhood
"poised to become a kind of South Beach-style hotbed of cafes, hotels
and nightclubs."
And then the writer goes about the business of proving why that's
true.
She describes it with lots of great specifics like, "...for every
narrow alley, there is a skeleton of a once-glorious building, with
the light of the blue Pacific pouring through the hollow windows and
trees growing out of the roofless shell and crumbling chimney."
Those specifics do a good job of "showing" you what this place looks
like.
And then the writer explains how, specifically, you can experience it
for yourself. She recommends a hotel, a gallery, two clubs, an outdoor
bar, and a real estate agent.
(Notice that all these recommendations are in-keeping with the theme
of the article. The writer does not recommend you visit the gorgeous
church that's in the neighborhood. She doesn't recommend you eat at a
certain taco stand. Her article is about how this place is becoming
hip and happening... and her recommendations reflect that, bolstering
her argument.)
To each recommendation she devotes only one sentence.
Each is a sentence infused with specifics that help capture that place
in the reader's mind.
For example, Canal House is a "tiny boutique hotel with an old-world
wraparound veranda, exposed brick walls, sleek hardwood floors, plush
beds, and palm plants gracing every corner."
Platea is a "dimly lit space where people drink mojitos and sway to
the sound of live jazz."
And with those few, well-chosen details, this author delivers the
flavor of each place she recommends.
And that's it. Story done.
Step back and look at the structure of this article, and you'll see
that it's very straightforward.
It's something you could easily mimic by slotting in the same sorts of
details about any destination you choose to write about.
Paragraphs 1-2: Introduce theme. Give background/set stage.
Paragraph 3: State main idea in one clear sentence.
Paragraphs 4-5: Description of the place. Transition to
recommendations.
Paragraph 6-11: Recommendations for what to do (all related to theme).
Follow that outline, and you can write this same kind of short,
well-crafted article. And I assure you: It'll be easy to sell.
[Editor's Note: Jen Stevens is author of AWAI's Ultimate Travel
Writer's Program and architect of our live events, among them our
Breaking into Food Writing Workshop. One of the things that program
teaches you to do is write the same sort of one-sentence descriptions
that Jen highlights in the Panama article she talks about today. For
more specifics about how you decide what to say... and how exactly you
say it... go here for a great 30-day preview of our new Breaking into
Food Writing Program: http://www.thetravelwriterslife.com/eat/fr/295 ]
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