Travel Writing Tips

Being an prolific and effective travel writer can be overwhelming, so I’ve put together this series of A-Z Travel Writing Tips.

Each article provides a concise list of prompts from A to Z, which provides your travel writing the TLC it needs. We cycle through all letters in the alphabet in turn, and provide links to additional resources and examples of how to implements each tip.

See the grid at the bottom of this post to view other letters in the series.

In this edition of our A-Z travel writing tips we’re looking at Descriptive Phrases, Dialogue and Detail.

is for Descriptive Phrases

Adding short descriptive phrases transforms your travel writing from “meh!” to “wow!”. Here’s a list of different elements you can use to create your descriptive phrases. Use them sparingly. For example, don’t stuff one sentence with a simile, metaphor, and an analogy. Pick one of these comparison techniques and it will be more effective.

• Use Contrast to identify and/or highlight differences between two subjects, places, people, objects or ideas to emphasize their differences. (e.g. This corner of Cambodia was as busy as London’s Picadilly Circus)
• Use Emotive Language to create an emotional reaction in your reader. (e.g the shadowy trail led to a small guest house, nestled beneath the darkness of an old oak tree – shadowy and darkness are the emotive words used to add a sense of foreboding)
• Use Hyerboil to exaggerate your ideas for emphasis. (e.g. It had been so long since my last meal that I could eat a horse)
• Use Imagery to represent actions, ideas, or objects, to appeal to one of the five senses. (e.g. the squeal of tires on the tarmac road made me spin on my heels in panic)
• Use a Simile as a comparison of two unlike things using ‘like’ or ‘as’. (e.g. the dirty brown river ran slowly like melting chocolate).
• Use an Analogy to compare two different things that are similar in some way (e.g. Her hair was as dark as the night)
• Use a Metaphor to compare two unlike items. (e.g. It’s raining cats and dogs)
• Use Onomatopoeia, a word which imitates the natural sound of a thing. (e.g. the crunch of gravel)
• Use Personification to give human qualities to non-human things or animals. (e.g. the ocean heaved a huge sigh of relief as it rolled towards the sand)
• Use Repetition of a word or phrase for emphasis. (If you think you can do it, you can do it.)
• Use a Rhetorical question (one that does not require a response)to place an idea in your reader’s mind. (e.g. Is there anything more stunning that a blood red sunset?)

• Additional Resources: Descriptive adjectives for brochures and leaflets.

is for Dialogue

Always try to add a dash of dialogue into your travel story. It not only breaks up the monotony of paragraph after paragraph of descriptive text, it also adds a humanizing element to your writing.

Dialogue is a useful tool for conveying information. Rather than going into details about culture, history, or other elements required to add depth to your story, you can use dialogue to convey the same information more succinctly and effectively.

If you recorded a conversation with the person you met on your travels, you can quote them verbatim, but only include all of the conversation if it’s relevant. It could be more effective to paraphrase the conversation to get your point across instead. The goal is to make the conversation easy to digest, so if will be in your reader’s best interest for your to tighten up the grammar to make it easier to read.

Your dialogue should move your story forward. Avoid recounting banal pleasantries unless it’s pivotal to setting the tone or scene more effectively.

Lengthy dialogue can be exhausting for the reader, so pair your dialogue down to the minimum exchange your characters need in order to be transported into the scene you’re setting.

“He said, she said” tags get boring and repetitive after a while, and although you may be tempted to replace “said” with other words like “whispered” or “enthused”, these can become just as annoying for your reader. One way of combating this repetition is to use a descriptive follow up, e.g. “The guest house is in that direction” the bus driver nodded, before turning away.

One of the best ways to test your dialogue is to read it out loud. It should flow, and if you’re stumbling over a specific turn of phrase, the you should edit it to make it more natural.

Additional Resources:

• 9 Easily Preventable Mistakes Writers Make with Dialogue
• The Terrible & Terrific Truth About Using Dialogue in Nonfiction
• Writing dialogue: 7 examples of dialogues that work
• 9 Rules For Writing Dialogue Like a Pro
• How To Format Dialogue

is for Detail

When you visit a destination, how could you describe it to your readers so that they’re drawn into the scene? By adding small details into your travel writing, your readers will be looking over your shoulder to see what you see. This will entice them to commit to your story and keep reading it to the end.

The details you include about a destination can set the mood. It’s not just talking about avenues of trees, it about describing what type of trees are lining the streets. You can add additional details about the trees that help you to convey the weather or season more effectively. e.g. Walking towards the Eiffel Tower, I following the row of cypress trees that hung their bare branches above my head to drip early morning dew down my collar.

When you are looking for inspiration about the type of detail to choose, a good fall-back is to consider each of your senses, to help you show and don’t tell. Don’t just look at a destination with your eyes, also take note of what the air tastes like, what smells are swirling around your nostrils, and what sounds you can hear. These additional layers of observation are ideal for adding additional detail to your travel writing.

Discover an alphabet’s worth of Travel Writing Tips

Read the Article Listen to the Podcast	Read the Article Listen to the Podcast	Read the Article Listen to the Podcast	Read the Article Listen to the Podcast	Read the Article Listen to the Podcast
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