Travel Writing: 7 Tips To Captivate Your Readers

Photo by Jonas Verstuyft on Unsplash

Ok, I know I’ve lost your trust with several of my previous listicles. You thought you were gonna get real tips on how to be a freelance writer and you got, well, sarcasm and belligerence.

I’ve Shyamalan’ed myself into a corner here with my bait-an’-switches. But I promise you this one’s for realsies. I genuinely want to impart some knowledge. And, at a time when “travel blogging” can often mean “taking a picture of your legs on the beach and posting it to Instagram”, these tips will not only help you to write deeper travel stories, they’ll help you travel with more purpose in the first place. Perhaps they’ll even teach you how to live.

And that’s the greatest bait-an’-switch of all.

1. Find the Conflict.

I don’t want to knock listicles (you’re reading one right now) or one-shot review articles because those can take a ton of research and they’re often a travel writer’s best source of income. They’ve always been necessary and will continue to be as long as people are searching “Best stuff to do in Dublin if you don’t drink alcohol”. But when I see a travel writer/blogger exclusively writing snapshots instead of stories, I want to tackle them to the ground and yell this quote from Oriah Mountain Dreamer-

“It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for — and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing. It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool — for love — for your dreams — for the adventure of being alive.”

…And then I’ll kiss them on their little noses and ask them which gardens I should check out in Marrakech if I only have a couple of days there.

The conflict can be:

• Person vs. Self (I can’t climb this mountain because I’m terrified of heights.)

• Person vs. Person (I can’t climb this mountain because this angry hermit says I’m not worthy.)

• Person vs. Fate/God (I can’t climb this mountain because a prophecy given at my birth said that I would fail.)

• Person vs. Nature (I can’t climb this mountain because this angry raccoon says I’m not worthy and that I’m gonna fail.)

• Person vs. Society (I can’t climb this mountain because the hermit went and got a bunch of protesters together to form a human wall. Nice that he’s socializing, I guess. The raccoon’s just sitting there all smug now ’cause he’s an asshole.)

• Person vs. Unknown/Extraterrestrial (I can’t climb this mountain because I’m currently being beamed up along with a very confused raccoon.)

• Person vs. Technology/Machinery (I can’t climb this mountain because the mountain doesn’t actually exist, we’re all in the Matrix.)

Even the most experienced travel writers still have to pitch their “angles” before a publication will send them anywhere. Anytime I travel, I ask myself before-hand— Why am I doing this? What am I hoping to learn? What hidden parts of myself am I hoping to face here? What challenges might I face?

The story often goes in an entirely different direction, but it’s always worth prepping myself to keep my eyes and ears open for something deeper than the kind of “material travel” Dawn Teh talks about in her recent article, Why ‘Buy Experiences, Not Things’ Is Bad Advice.

2. Start With Your Best Stuff and Then Outdo Yourself.

People want to be instantly swept off their feet and taken to another world. Nobody’s got time for: “The plane ride was good, the food sucked, the hotel was pretty nice”, etc.

Think of it like a movie. We’re all sick and tired of the scene where the alarm clock goes off, the protagonist stares blankly at themselves in the mirror while they brush their teeth, blah blah, establishing normalcy, waiting for something enticing to happen.

Don’t you dare build up to the good stuff. Stick us right in the middle of the action like any good action movie would. If you’ve got a scene with a hermit and protesters and a raccoon and aliens, plop us down right in the middle of it and explain later.

I just realized we’re writing the next Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

3. Light Up Bright Characters.

If that character is you, show us your most exaggerated self. Find a flaw or a strength in your character and show us how that aspect uniquely influenced the course of the story.

Maybe you have crippling social anxiety. Or maybe you’re one of those Forrest Gump types that always ends up at the right place at the right time. These two types of characters make very different choices, so how did those choices influence the outcome of the story? How do they influence your narration of it?

If the brightest character is someone else, stick a metaphorical spotlight on them. Give us everything we need to picture them clearly in our mind’s eye. Make sure we know what their objective is and how they might uniquely go after it.

For an example of this, check out how I spotlighted my long-suffering tour guide, Emil, in this story about statues in Ancient Egypt.

I find that it’s helpful to remember the basic archetypes when highlighting characters.

Zita Fontaine just wrote a very helpful article, in fact, about using archetypes to brand yourself as a writer, and I think her descriptions might come in handy for this as well.

4. Tell Me Something I Don’t Know.

People complain when a food blogger tries to tell a story before they get to the recipe itself. This is because the reader has already turned on the stove to cook and they’re hangry.

Similarly, people never, ever read travel stories just to hear a good story. They’re in it to expand their awareness of the world. They’re hangry for you to arm them with something they can regurgitate at a party, something that’ll make them seem cultured or quirky or at least semi-socially adept.

Author and podcaster Malcolm Gladwell calls this “candy”.

“It’s important to balance the intellectually rigorous or complex parts of your story with “candy,” which are digressions or diversions that give the reader a break from the “meal” of your story. [Candy is] the parts of your story that are easiest to talk about casually and remember. The meal is the stuff they dwell on and take home with them to process.”

In travel writing, the candy should be something that a person wouldn’t think to google. Something we, as travelers, could only have learned by going there. So, whenever you’re abroad, keep an ear perked for “candy”.

5. Find the Symbolism.

I just finished reading Alice in Wonderland for the first time. That book is packed with symbols and archetypes that exist in our collective unconscious (traveling across a chessboard, antsy rabbits, clocks, kings, queens, falling down a dark tunnel, etc). Symbols have power because you can use them to anchor your story to specific themes while simultaneously allowing your readers’ own interpretation and personal history with those symbols to give them a unique experience of the story.

If you happen to run across a specific artifact or symbol that you feel is the key to your whole theme, feel free to give us a moment to really examine this object. Get descriptive. Readers like a breather from the story itself. It’s similar to putting a photo in the middle of an online article. It breaks up the text and helps the reader’s eye move along smoothly.

6. Take Notes While Traveling.

This is simultaneously the most important thing you can do and …not that big of a deal. What I mean by that is, if you’ve already traveled somewhere and you didn’t take notes — don’t freak out. You can and should still write about your experience. Whatever you remember about it.

I’m actually not the note-taking type. Not when it comes to remembering facts and names and dates, at least (ideas are always worth writing down, I do that on my notes app). But it’s nearly impossible to take notes while I’m in the middle of an experience and sometimes I’m too exhausted to do any writing afterward. I’ll get back to the hotel, close my eyes for a second …and it’s the next day.

My solution is to bring a voice recorder.

If you don’t have a voice recorder, a phone with a recording app and a ton of memory works just as well. Sound quality is only important if you want the option to make a podcast or submit your recordings to a sound archive. Otherwise, it just needs to be decent enough to serve as a second, more accurate memory.

I’ve captured some incredible moments that I was grateful for the chance to re-experience, as well as some facts that I otherwise would have forgotten. I also never have to go hunting for the names of any of the people I meet when I finally sit down to write about them, which is always a relief.

It was scary, at first, to start recording in unfamiliar places. It took me a while to figure out the etiquette:

• Always ask for permission.

• Always ask a person to repeat their name and where you are.

• It’s ok to interrupt for these things. Like a wedding photographer asking the couple to kiss one more time before heading back down the aisle, it’s a quick interruption and everybody gets it, just be polite.

A voice recorder isn’t nearly as intrusive as a camera. You’ll find that people quickly forget it’s even there and, afterward, you’ll be happy you went the extra mile. I’ve found inspiration hidden in moments I don’t even remember capturing.

7. Don’t Be a Travel Snob.

There’s a big difference between someone who is an intelligent traveler and someone who is afraid to show their travel weaknesses. I personally find myself drawn to stories where someone’s been tossed into the deep end and has to learn how to swim.

You don’t have to pretend to speak a language perfectly or know exactly where all the best restaurants are, and you definitely don’t have to be an expert at not pissing anybody off with your obnoxious “other”-ness.

You just need to be genuine, curious, kind, and respectful. We’re happy to learn how to conduct ourselves right along with you. Anyone who already knows what you don’t will be fascinated with your new perspective and they’ll enjoy watching you figure it out. That’s why The 6th Sense still holds up after multiple viewings.

Hey, look at that. I Shyamalan’ed this thing after all.

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Here's what people are saying about this article over on Medium:

"Such a brilliant article. So thoughtfully written and really clear. I’m a travel writer and author and this really reminded me of things I’ve probably let slide. Thank you so much!" -Kitiara Pascoe

"That was a good listing!

I made some notes and I am grateful for taking the time to read it.

Thank you, Katlyn!" -Sotiris Savvas

(This article was originally published in Initiate Abroad.)