by Don George
The personal essay
The rock garden at Ryoanji Temple is one of Kyoto’s most famous and sacred sites. On your second morning you went there to see what all the fuss was about. Inexplicably, unexpectedly, you felt a deep connection with the place. You returned at noon on the third day and in the late afternoon on the fifth day. Your fourth piece would be a personal essay describing the history and appearance of the rock garden, and then evoking and reflecting on the hold the place exerted on you – and the lessons in attentiveness, impermanence and wholeness that it bestowed. You sell this to a literary travel website.
Multimedia repurposing
You can also create content in multiple media from one trip. To take the subject examples above, you could keep a blog describing your homestay, augmented with a video of the family’s children showing you how to put on a kimono; you could do a video or a photo portfolio recording your quest to find the ukiyo-e store and the discoveries you made on the way; you could produce a video on how to take a traditional Japanese bath; and you could post a photo gallery accompanied by a podcast reading of your reflections on the rock garden at Ryoanji.
The key to this kind of multimedia repurposing is to think imaginatively about the different ways of evoking a subject and the lessons of that subject, and the medium that is most appropriate to the particular qualities of the place or experience that you want to evoke. For centuries the writer’s traditional tools were words, then some travel writers added images to their repertoire. Travel writers today can produce content across all different types of media, but their core skills – creating a story and making it come to life – remain the same.
A writer’s view: Rolf Potts
Rolf Potts is the author of Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel, and Marco Polo Didn’t Go There: Stories and Revelations From One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer. Based in the USA, he has written for National Geographic Traveler, The New Yorker and The Atlantic, as well as public radio and the Travel Channel. Find him at www.rolfpotts.com.
My career started, as most do, with failure. Right after university, I saved up my money and spent eight months travelling around North America. When I got back, I decided I was going to write a book about the experience, and that this book would be the biggest thing since Kerouac’s On the Road. The problem, of course, is that I hadn’t considered my audience. What was interesting to me was not always interesting to the people who read these travel tales.
Travel a lot. Write a lot. Read a lot. Don’t do it for the money, because there are better ways to make money. Don’t even do it for the travel, because there are better ways to fund and facilitate travel. Do it because you love to write, and to write about travel. Do it because it’s your passion and obsession. Don’t do it because you think it will make you seem cool or sexy, because it will never match your expectations.
I think the most important thing as a writer is to read well. Be familiar with good writing (not just travel writing, but creative non-fiction, novels and poetry), and try to recognize what makes it work. Also, don’t be afraid to fail, so long as you learn from your mistakes and always work at getting better. The best training in the world is the school of hard knocks.
The best way to get your name out there is to write in a very distinctive way. Some people do this by writing stories that are funny. Other writers are good at evoking the human essence of the travel experience. Others become experts on certain countries, or on travel planning, or on certain types of travel, like adventure travel. If you can combine a talent for more than one of these elements, of course, you will do well.
Travel writing should never be fictional, but it should emulate the best techniques of fiction, such as character, action, plot, foreshadowing, dialogue and pay-off. Character and dialogue are especially important, since they bring the story to life. So be an extrovert as you travel, and color your story with the people you meet. Provide action and dialogue, setup and pay-off. Draw the reader into the story with these elements.
Travel writing doesn’t pay well, if at all, and is often a solitary pursuit that your friends and families don’t understand. I have personally come to terms with all of this; I’m just mentioning these factors for those who think there’s a way around the bad pay, frequent solitude, and lack of life consistency. There isn’t. But I love it just the same.
I’ve found that the easiest way to keep things simple and save money is to live overseas, preferably in a less expensive region, like Asia or Latin America. Not only does this save me money on day-to-day living, but it also increases my chances of getting work writing about those regions for newspapers and magazines.
It has been said that travel literature was crucial to the evolution of the modern novel, that Victorian Romanticism emerged from a 19th-century travel boom that created a fascination with faraway places. I’d like to think that travel literature in coming decades will champion a kind of Postmodern Realism – a measured-yet-optimistic sensibility that cuts through the fantasies of tourism and the alarmist hue of international news reporting to leave us with something that is essentially human and true about the rest of the world.
Tools of the trade
In the past, serious travel journalists carried three items with them wherever they went: their journal or notebook, an audio recorder and a camera. More recently, a video camera may have been added to the list too.
Today, of course, most of these tasks are happily served by one device. A good cell phone will record audio and take photos and video of sufficient quality for note-taking purposes (and more, depending on what your need is – if you’re taking short videos to share on your Instagram account, phone quality is good enough). It’s a currency converter, calculator, address book, personal organizer, map of everywhere in the world, GPS, mini-computer, and many other things besides, with only more to come. Get the best phone you can afford and pay extra for more memory. If you’re not already making the most of your smartphone, start now – as a travel tool, it’s unbeatable.
Of course, there are downsides to consider. If you’re going way off the beaten path, you may not always have phone coverage. You’ll need regular access to electricity – make sure you have a power bank and that it’s always charged.
If you want to expand your skill set into photography – and there are lots of good reasons to become a proficient photographer if you want a career in travel writing – a good camera is a vital piece of gear. Read more about using photography to enhance your travel writing profile, how to choose the right camera, and some tips for taking great photos, on pages 196–213.
Journal
Don’t go anywhere without your journal – even if you usually prefer to tap notes into your phone, you can be sure your journal is always fully charged. It’s where you record your first-hand experiences, impressions and reflections. Sometimes you will just need to jot down a word or phrase that will help you remember an experience; at other times it will be whole paragraphs of description. This is also where you’ll feverishly copy down all the practical information you’ll need for your travel pieces, such as restaurant or museum opening and closing times, costs and transport timetables. It’s best to write down everything you want to remember while you’re right there. You may think that you won’t forget, but you will, and your notes will be especially important if you want to draw out a memory at a much later date.
Laptop computer
To laptop or not to laptop? In most cases you’ll want to take your laptop with you when you travel. Travel writers generally do, but there are pros and cons. Whatever you decide, for whichever trip, bear in mind the sometimes life-saving ubiquity of internet cafes. If you decide to keep your laptop safe at home, you can still do some writing on the road and email it to yourself or to your editor.
If you do take your laptop, guard it with your life. Be aware that carrying it around can make you a target – be discreet. Always back up to the cloud (or save to a file-sharing site like Dropbox, o
r email yourself the latest draft – whatever method works for you) to ensure that even if the worst happens, at least you don’t lose several weeks’ worth of work.
The advantages
If your laptop is like your right arm in your normal life, you’ll want to take it with you when you hit the road – unless you’re doing some really tough travel (and even then you might find a way to make it work). If you’re maintaining a blog while you travel, it’s a no-brainer – your laptop is your most important tool.
The biggest advantage is the most obvious: you can write while you’re traveling. This may sound pretty basic, but there’s nothing like writing your article while you’re in situ, or working on chapters of your guidebook while you’re actually staying in the particular city you’re updating. If you submit your article while you’re on the road, you can answer any questions that may arise or gaps that may appear in your research right on the spot – plus it’s a wonderful feeling to walk in your front door at the end of a trip knowing that your story is already done.
It’s easier to email and keep up with your social networks on a laptop than on your phone. You can type more quickly into a laptop than on your phone, and than you can write longhand or even shorthand in a notebook, and for many writers, even their early drafts will be on their laptop. If you’re snapping photos for note-taking purposes on a camera or phone, you can download them to your laptop as you go and free up memory on your phone or camera, and if you’re taking more serious photos you can process them as you travel.
The disadvantages
A laptop can be a significant impediment, depending on the kind of traveling you plan to do. Hard travel, difficult environments and long periods away from electricity supplies are problematic. In this sense, a general rule of thumb is that laptops make good companions when you’re on urban excursions but are probably best left at home if you’re going on an adventure trip. Even though laptops are meant to be portable, the reality is that only a few are robust enough to survive life on the road. A well-traveled laptop will probably need to be replaced every year or two, depending, of course, on how you treat it.
Travel journalists are always searching for places to recharge their laptops, whether it be in hotel rooms, at restaurants or in airport lounges. You need to carry suitable plugs or adapters with you at all times, and keep track of how much time your battery has left so you don’t lose any priceless prose if your laptop suddenly shuts down.
Even under favorable conditions, laptops can be a literal pain in the neck to lug around. Even the most lightweight model doesn’t feel so light after you’ve been carrying it around on your shoulder all day. Invest in a good daypack or courier-style bag that holds your laptop and everything you need to keep it running.
Audio recorder
For many years travel journalists relied on microcassette recorders as an indispensable tool of their trade; these recorders are now often replaced by smartphones that have audio-recording applications built in. If, for whatever reason, you decide to use a separate, dedicated audio recorder, it’s critical that it’s hardy, portable and practical; easy to slip in a pocket; and simple to use in virtually any kind of situation. Size, weight, sound quality and ease of use are all important considerations. You might want to try a few different kinds to see which one works best for you.
If you decide to use your phone, it’s a good idea to try it out before you hit the road to make sure it’s going to do what you need it to. Audio files are big – does your phone have enough memory to record an hour-long interview? If you’re planning on doing lots of audio recording on your phone, your laptop becomes a must-have, so you can download the files off your phone as you go.
The downside to recording audio, of course, is that you have to play back everything you’ve recorded and transcribe all the notes you’ll need for your article. This is a major pain, requiring you to stop and start the recorder over and over and over again. (If this is something you’d be prepared to pay to outsource, you can find people willing to do this kind of task for very low rates on ‘micro job’ sites like Fiverr).
Being able to record audio is vital when carrying out interviews, whether informal or with officials such as museum curators or hoteliers. You might also want to record short vox pops about what locals or fellow travelers think of a certain situation, be it their reaction to a new restaurant or a new travel advisory. It’s good practice to get the names of the people you interview on tape, together with any tricky spellings; you may not end up using the person’s name even if you do quote them – depending on the context, it may be fine to write simply, ‘A tourist from London told me that…’ – but it’s good to have the name in case you do need it. Recorded interviews are very helpful when you’re writing up your story, and indispensable when publications ask to fact-check quotes; see the section on interviewing techniques here.
It’s also useful to start recording in situations in which someone is dispensing valuable information too quickly for you to take notes. This can be especially handy in a museum, for example, where a guide is talking about the history and technique of a particular painting or sculpture.
Another situation in which it’s beneficial to record audio is on the guided city walks that many tourist offices or private individuals run. Using a recorder will help you capture important details that you might need later on when you’re writing up – there is nothing worse than coming to a crucial spot in your writing and realizing that you’ve missed a particular piece of information.
It can be useful way to record thoughts in a situation where taking notes is impractical – such as bumping through the African bush on a safari, for example, when your written notes are likely to start looking like the profile of Mt Kilimanjaro. You can orally jot down words or phrases just as you normally would in your notebook – ‘vast golden savannah’, ‘elephants running, ears flapping’, ‘gurgling roar of lion’ – and they’ll help recreate the scene when you’re back in front of your computer.
You may also want to use on-the-spot sounds to augment a podcast or video you’re planning. It’s a good idea to record evocative background noise, if appropriate.
My journal: Don George
I’ve been using the same particular style of journal since I discovered it in Tokyo in the late 1970s. It measures about 10 inches by 7 inches and has a durable but soft cover so that I can roll it up and stuff it in a pocket when I need to. At the same time, it’s stitched so that the pages don’t fall out and there’s no awkward metal spine. Many travel writers use a standard reporter’s notebook, roughly 5 inches by 3 inches, but their rigid cardboard covers aren’t as adaptable as my soft-cover version, although it is a handy, stuff-in-your-pocket size.
Notebook entries are very powerful portals that transport you back to a place and to your experience there. Try to make time at least every other day to sit in a cafe or other suitable place and write about the world around you for an hour. The peripatetic Pico Iyer has told me that when he is traveling, he sets aside time every night before going to bed to record the most important experiences and impressions of the day. There is absolutely no substitute for words written on the day, in the place, as close to the experience as possible, so the details and your reactions and thoughts are fresh.
Use your journal as a friend and confidant, sounding board and aide-memoire, all in one. Number your notebooks and, whatever you do, make sure you don’t lose them. I always write a big note on the first page of each notebook: ‘If found, please return to: …’, and then my name and address. When I finish a notebook, I note the dates of the first and last entries, and put it in storage with all my other notebooks.
Career maintenance
Whatever stage you’re at in your writing journey, it’s always helpful to refine your art, re-evaluate your craft, and restoke your passion. Writing courses, workshops and conferences, author readings and lectures, and literary festivals are all excellent ways to meet fellow writer-travelers, swap tales, make connectio
ns and broaden your perspectives.
Networking
The world of travel is small, and knowing the right people is key to establishing yourself as a travel writer. A contact at a tourist board or PR company can be invaluable in helping you get the information or the interview you require. You also need to meet the travel editors or the publishers who might run your articles or be interested in your book.
A feast of launches, parties, dinners and lunches are held regularly by tourist boards, airlines, bookstores, publishers, travel fairs, hotel chains, travel agents and tour operators to promote anything from countries to new airline routes. It’s the aim of these companies to invite as many travel editors and travel journalists along to their event as possible in order to generate coverage. To begin with, you should try to attend as many of these functions as you can, since they all offer opportunities for networking. As you become better known, you’ll become more discriminating and probably only attend one a month or fewer. You can receive invitations to these events by joining a company’s press mailing list or by ringing up the marketing department or PR agency handling the event. Networking can be exhausting, and there’s a real skill to working a room, but making the right contacts, putting a face to a name and establishing a good relationship with a wide range of travel professionals is central to building a successful travel writing career.
