This document summarizes a travel writing workshop conducted at Christ University in Bangalore in August 2014. The workshop aimed to teach participants about the field of travel writing and how to establish themselves as travel writers. Topics covered in the workshop included understanding what travel writing entails, how to tell compelling stories about places, interviewing locals and experts, and researching unique stories beyond clichés. Participants engaged in exercises on writing descriptive passages and crafting openings and endings for travel stories. The workshop emphasized showing details rather than just telling, using vivid words economically, and filling stories with illustrative anecdotes.
Travel & lifestyle writing workshop at Christ University
1. Travel & lifestyle writing
workshop
@
Christ University
-Arun Bhat
www.paintedstork.com
22 August 2014
2. This work is licensed under terms of CC BY-ND (Creative Commons -
Attribution-NoDerivs). Visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ for
terms of this license. Please contact using
www.paintedstork.com/contact for any usage outside the above terms.
This workshop was conducted during the Media Meet at Christ
University, Bangalore, in August 2014.
A few minor changes were made to the presentation for the ease of
online viewing
11. Road to Paradise
is full of
POT HOLES
• It is no easy task to be a travel writer.
• These perks come with responsibilities.
12. Let’s Begin With an Exercise!
• Think about the last time you went on a tour…
• Write your story about the visit in SIX OR SEVEN SENTENCES
• The seven sentences must be split into THREE PARAGRAPHS
• The first paragraph must have only TWO SENTANCES or less.
YOU HAVE FIVE MINUTES!
14. In This Workshop…
• Understand what travel writing is all about.
• Telling about places and their stories.
• Understand how to establish ourselves in the field.
• Knocking the doors or publishers.
• Creating a niche for ourselves.
• Chasing incredible stories.
15. What is travel writing
• Story of a place or a part of it (Travel Magazines, Weekend
Newspapers,…)
• Travel Guides (Lonely Planet, Outlook Traveller Guide,…)
• Books - on a journey or a destination (Snow Leopard by Peter
Mathiessen, A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson,…)
• Researched Stories and Books (Video Nights in Kathmandu by Pico
Iyer, City of Djinns by William Dalrymple)
• Online Writing for Web Portals (makemytrip.com, cleartrip.com)
• Memoirs, Collections,
16. Journalism & Travel Writing, a thin line
• Chasing illegal immigrants in Indonesia (The Dream Boat by Luke
Mogelson in New York Times)
• Travelling with North Koreans making an escape to South Korea
through China (Tim O’Neill in National Geographic)
• A story on Reinhold Messner, one of the greatest climbers ever
(Caroline Alexander in National Geographic)
19. Read the best writing out there!
•Pico Iyer
•Eric Newby
•Peter Mathiessen
•Jan Morris
•Bruce Chatwin
•William Dalrymple
•Jon Krakauer
•Paul Theroux
•Bill Bryson
•Ruskin Bond
And many more
20. Read the best writing out there…(magazines)!
…and everything else you can get your hands on
•National Geographic
•Geo
•Outside
•Guardian Travel
•T Magazine
•Outlook Traveller
•Conde Nast Traveller
•Travel + Leisure
•Lonely Planet India
Magazine
21. Read the best writing out there…(web)!
•Solas Best Travel Writing Award
•National Geographic (website)
•Matador Network
•And many more…
30. Ladakh is a land of high mountains. Reaching here takes a journey
over high passes, often climbing well above 15,000 feet.
People of Ladakh practice Mahayana Buddhism. Monasteries, often
located high up a hill overlooking the villages, serve as flag bearers
of the spiritual and religious doctrine.
Subsistence farming was once the primary means of livelihood of
the people of Ladakh. Today, tourism is one of the important
revenue earners for the local economy. The beautiful landscapes,
the interesting religious practices and the village life makes Ladakh
a charming place for visitors.
Let’s apply the definition (Exercise).
31. Things to Remember
•Continuity in the story
•No digressions
•Do not miss any important aspects
•Emphasize on all things small and big
32. Show, don’t tell (Exercise).
Ladakh looks very different
in winters. There is snow
everywhere. It’s cold and
more beautiful than ever.
The whole place looks very
magical although it’s really
freezing during the winter
months.
33. Show, don’t tell
A transition from summer to winter is apparent in
the landscape of Leh. The fields and gardens,
which the people of the town and surrounding
villages lovingly tend to, now stand brown and
unattended. Poplar and willow trees have lost all
their leaves. But the usually barren mountains
come alive with a charming sprinkle of snow on
their slopes.
34. Show, don’t tell (A longer version)
Ladakh wears a white blanket in winter months. Post
October, when the temperatures start dipping below the
freezing point, the brown and barren mountain slopes get
decorated with powdery snow. Mercury dips quickly in
November and December months, often going below -30C.
The weather is unforgiving but the landscape is dressed in
bridal wear. The fields and gardens, which the people of
the town and surrounding villages lovingly tend to, now
stand brown and unattended. Poplar and willow trees
loose all their leaves. But the usually barren mountains
now come alive with a charming sprinkle of snow on their
slopes.
35. Show, don’t tell
Watch your adjectives. Do not use them without justification.
• Beautiful
• Charming
• Interesting
• Incredible
• Magnificent
• Amazing
36. Show, don’t tell
Describe your subjects. Help the readers understand
• Huge Lake – A lake as large as five football fields
• Tall Mountains – The snow-peaks kissed the clouds…
• Fast – As quick as a bullet train
• Bad roads – back breaking journey on a road that may
have seen tarmac a millennium ago
• Sultry – I was sweating so profusely that the only thing I
could think of soon after a shower was another shower
37. Words Are Money (Exercise)
Ladakh wears a white blanket in winter months. Post October,
when the temperatures start dipping below the freezing point,
the brown and barren mountain slopes get decorated with
powdery snow. Mercury dips quickly in November and
December months, often going below -30C. The weather is
unforgiving but the landscapes is dressed in bridal wear. The
fields and gardens, which the people of the town and
surrounding villages lovingly tend to, now stand brown and
unattended. Poplar and willow trees loose all their leaves. But
the usually barren mountains now come alive with a charming
sprinkle of snow on their slopes.
38. Words Are Money
Ladakh wears a white blanket in winter months. Post October,
when the temperatures start falling below the freezing point,
the brown and barren mountain slopes get decorated with
powdery snow. Mercury dips quickly in November and
December months, often going below -30C. The weather is
unforgiving but the earth is covered with snow. The fields and
gardens, which the people of Leh and surrounding villages
lovingly tend to, now stand brown and unattended. Poplar
and willow trees loose all their leaves. But the usually barren
mountains now come alive dressed in bridal wear. Lakes have
frozen and the rivers have a lining of shining-white ice on
either banks.
39. Words Are Money
•The lake was very large, almost as big as ten
football fields put together.
• The lake was as large as ten football fields.
• The pagoda was covered with a film of gold from top
to bottom. The crown of the pagoda is covered with
diamonds.
• The gilded pagdoa has a dazzling crown studded with
diamonds.
40. Take the reader on a journey with you
The pilot aligned the aircraft along the east-west direction of
Indus Valley before he reduced altitude. The aircraft gently zig-
zagged in the sky, tracing the path of the azure river at the
valley floor. With 6000 meter-high mountains rising steeply on
either sides, the only way to descend into Leh was through the
long-running trough of Indus River. From up in the sky, we
followed the path of the river for a few minutes. When we had
descended well below the altitude of the peaks that
dominated the landscape, a steep U-turn at the widest part of
the valley allowed us to make the final descent. We had
arrived in Leh.
41. Take little things into consideration
We taxied out of the runaway as the cabin crew made
the usual announcements. For some reason, they
decided not to mention the outside temperature,
perhaps with a goodwill to let us stay comfortably in
the warmth of the aircraft without worrying about the
harsh weather that awaited us. It must have been
anywhere between five to ten degrees below zero that
morning, a comfortable day by local standards in
winter.
42. And provide sufficient emphasis to big picture
A transition from summer to winter was apparent in
the landscape of Leh. The fields and gardens, which the
people of the town and surrounding villages lovingly
tend to, now stood brown and unattended. Poplar and
willow trees had lost all their leaves. But the usually
barren mountains had now come alive with a charming
sprinkle of snow on their slopes.
It is these snow in these mountains, and much larger
deposits of it in the remote regions that attracted me
to Leh this winter.
43. The opening…
•Must be exciting.
•Must initiate the story in a way that
provokes the reader to probe further.
•Must provide considerable idea about what
is in store.
44. I was on my way to the highlands of
Himachal Pradesh. The weather report
said it was raining heavily in parts of the
state. We exercised some caution and
checked with the bus company, only to
find out that our bus from Delhi was
cancelled. We decided to hire a taxi
instead of waiting for the bus.
The opening… (Exercise)
45. Bridges had fallen and the roads were cut off. A long traffic waited for
many hours hoping for things to get better. Buses were cancelled and
they had no clear answers to when the services will resume. “It
depends on the weather, sir,” was the fence-sitting answer from the
person manning the phone at the bus company, who neither had any
real-time information nor had powers to provide decisive answers.
Himachal Pradesh was seeing heavy rains in the past few days. As it
happens every year, landslides had crippled the road infrastructure and
there was a cloud of uncertainty over what happens next.
Unpredictable as the weather here is, things might magically settle
back to normal the next morning. Or things could very well turn worse
if another line of dark clouds made their way towards the mountains.
Make the reader wonder what is in store…
46. A quick insight to the unfolding story…
In October 2013, I fell down from a pagoda in Bagan,
Myanmar, and dislocated a wrist bone in the right
hand. The problem could not be diagnosed in Nyang
U (Bagan) and I had to fly back home for a surgery. It
took me a three-hop journey on three different
airlines to get home. Subsequently, recuperating
from a surgery and permitted by my doctor to travel,
I took eight more flights in a span of two months
when my hand was still in a sling or wrapped in a
splint. (continued)
47. A quick insight to the unfolding story…
With a total of eleven hops using six different
airlines, I had a chance to see how different
airlines care for passengers with special needs. I
was surprised at the sea difference in their
treatment, sometimes even among the staff of
same airline in different airports.
48. A Chronological Beginning
My bus from Mapusa rattled and crawled
northwards slowly, stopping at every turn on the
way to pick up or drop passengers. The window
view kept changing from plush Goan Villas and
betelnut orchards on flat terrains to green vistas
across rolling hills. Once in a while, the road
skirted close to empty sandy stretches at the edge
of blue expanse of water, indicating what is in
store ahead. I reached Arambol Beach an hour
later, or Harmal as the locals prefer to call it.
49. A Provocative Beginning
Magod Falls, Unchalli Falls and Satoddi
Falls. Have you heard of these waterfalls?
The answer is likely to depend on how far
you live from these places, how active a
traveller are you and how intrepid are
your journeys.
51. A Descriptive Beginning
One would not expect to find a 900-year old
temple in a non-descript village with a tongue
twister name like Doddagaddavalli. Driving past
gently undulating vistas sparingly dotted with
stout trees and small irrigation ponds—they
added a dash of beauty to the widespread
vegetable fields—I suddenly encountered a
colourful sign by the road that announced the
presence of an ancient temple. (continued)
52. A Descriptive Beginning
Turning off the main road and going past a small village
with its usual share of chickens and cows that blocked
my way, I found the road gliding from the top of a
mound, down an easy slope. At the base of the valley
was a small black structure of stone, a temple with
shrines rising up from all its corners, a saffron flag
fluttering over one of those projections. Its location
could not have been better, situated at the edge of the
village overlooking a lake and visible from every crest of
the wavy landscape that surrounded it.
53. The ending…
•Ensure that the ending justifies
the story.
•Avoid clichés and disconnected
ending.
54. I bought some sun-dried apricots later in the day at
Leh’s now quiet main-market. They tasted good, but
were no match to the juicy apricots that you can simply
pluck from a tree and relish during the summer days.
There are many such pleasures that you can’t find in
the winter months in Ladakh. Visitors have to endure
the cold and live without the luxuries of summer. But
the landscapes–snow-covered slopes, half-frozen rivers,
fully frozen lakes, earth that looks like ice fields–are a
splendid work of nature that can only be witnessed in
this season.
Ending
56. Rewrite Your First Story
• Think about the last time you went on a
tour…
• Write your story about the visit in SEVEN
SENTENCES
• The seven sentences must be split into
THREE PARAGRAPHS
• The first paragraph must have only TWO
SENTANCES or less.
YOU NOW HAVE TEN MINUTES!
REMEMBER…
•Definition of a Story
•Good opening
•Continuity in your story
•Show, don’t tell
57. Anecdotes - Fill your story with anecdotes
I arrived in Leh at midnight, with just Rs.50 in the
pocket. A taxi driver demanded Rs.150 to drop me
to the guesthouse I had booked for the night. Take
me through an ATM, I told him. The first ATM I
visited was not working, and so was the second. In
those days, they were the only two ATMs in town. I
couldn’t pay the driver, but he dropped me anyway
and agreed to collect his dues next afternoon. Yes,
thankfully one of the ATMs started working next
morning or I would not know what to do.
58. Anecdotes - Fill your story with anecdotes
After six days of walking in Zanskar, I meet a big
challenge: a swiftly flowing, icy stream that I don’t
want to cross. The water is muddy, so I don’t even
know how deep it is, and if I can risk it. My
horseman cum guide—Brij Lal—urges me to go
forward. But I wait for him to show the way. Let
me cross behind him, I decide. He lets the horses
go first; the beasts have absolutely no trouble.
(continued)
59. Anecdotes - Fill your story with anecdotes
As the last of the horses is about to leave,
something unexpected happens. Brij Lal jumps
over the animal, not really sitting on it but
hanging behind and holding to the ropes tied on
its back. Before I know what is happening, he has
crossed to the other side safe and dry. I am left
wondering what to do!
60. Researching the Story
•Go beyond the cliché.
•Work on unique stories.
•Read up.
•Meet locals; unearth new places and
stories.
•Interview the experts.
61. Hire Guides; Interview the Experts; Get quotes
How did the Hoysala architects manage to bring in
elaborateness in stone that was achieved by none else,
not even by their contemporary neighbours? It is Uma
[my guide] who unfolded the mystery to me. “The
temples here are built using soap stone,” she told me,
“this type of stone is soft like butter when it is taken
out from the earth. It hardens over continuous
exposure to the atmosphere.” With its butter-like
characteristic, the stones could be carved to greater
details, a task impossible with any harder form of
stone.
63. Hire Guides; Interview the Experts; Get quotes
Paintings of Krishna are ubiquitous on the walls of
Shekhawati’s havelis, but some have gone
contemporary and beyond Indian mythology. Pointing
at an image of railway coaches in one of the Havelis, my
guide tells me that the artists were taken all the way to
Mumbai to see the steam engine that was a novelty in
those days.
65. Hire Guides, Interview the Experts, Get quotes
“It is so beautiful that you will find it difficult to come
back,” said our cab driver Mangal Singh as we drove
towards Lahual and Spiti region in the highlands of
Indian Himalayas. I looked up and saw his beaming face
and wondered if it was just a marketing pitch or a
genuine remark. His brightly lit eyes expressed
confidence that we would have a good time, and his
warm smile and friendly gesture melted my doubts
away.
66. Hire Guides, Interview the Experts, Get quotes
‘Life was much difficult before,’ he explained and spoke
in length, ‘it was not easy to procure food and other
daily needs, but now the government helps us.
Procuring fuel and wood was a big problem, since there
are no trees here. Things are much better these days;
we are well connected and well provided. There is a
problem of good teachers though, Tibetan preachers
don’t get visa easily and we will have to manage with
local ones.’ (continued)
67. Hire Guides, Interview the Experts, Get quotes
I barraged him with many question. ‘Why is your
monastery located in such remote place? Why are you
so far away from civilization? Why do monasteries tend
to be in some far away mountain or top of a hill?’ There
were simply too many questions I wanted answers for.
The rain of questions was probably hard on him, but he
was patient. He took some time to think over it and
said, ‘it is to escape from the everyday world.’ I waited
for him to continue but he did not seem to have more
to say on it.
68. Unique Stories
•Some examples (some award-winning works)
•Searching the origin of tea in my cup (Not a
story of sightseeing in Darjeeling)
•Living in French countryside (Not a story of
Eiffel Tower and French Cuisine)
69. Unique Stories
•Some examples (renowned books)
•Searching on the cultural impacts of
modernisation across Asia (Video Nights in
Kathmadnu by Pico Iyer)
•Researching the history of two millenniums of
Delhi (City of Djinns by William Dalrymple)
71. The Good News
•Everyone can get
published
(provided you
write well
engough).
•You do not need a
long track record.
The Bad News
•It is not easy (you
need to be very
persistent).
•Publishers across
the world are
loosing money.
72. The Approach - Newspapers
•Start With Newspapers.
•Read at least TEN weekend editions
available in you area.
•Read at least TEN weekend editions from
anywhere in the world.
•Work on stories that fit the publication.
•Send them off!
73. The Approach - Magazines
•Pick at least TEN travel/lifestyle magazines
and read them.
•Pick at least TEN other magazines and read
them.
•Work on a story idea (NOT THE ENTIRE
STORY)
•Send a pitch. Not the story.
74. It’s a long road to getting published
•Your first fifty pitches may not even yield
one response!
•Your first ten response from the editors may
still not result in a published story.
•The first published work is no gateway to
success.
•Rejection is a way of life.
75. It’s a long way to getting published
•Continue to pitch, send unique story ideas.
•Connect with editors, network, meet them
personally.
•Deliver, once you promise. You have only
one chance to prove yourself.
76. Getting your work found
•Maintain a blog. Showcase your published
works.
•Maintain an online & social media
presence.
78. Photos Play a Key Role
•Photos have an important role in getting
published.
•Editors need images. It makes their life easy
if you can source them.
•Photos mean more ₹₹₹
79. Photos Play a Key Role
•Get yourself a good camera
•Learn the basics of photography
80. To Summarize
•Read Up
•Perfect your language
•Weave Stories
•Take Photographs.
•Connect with people who matter. Market
yourself. Be persistent.
82. Further Reading
•Travel Writing – See the world. Sell the story.
• By L. PEAT O’NEIL
•Travel Writer’s Guide
• By Gordon Burgett
•Lonely Planet’s Guide to Travel Writing
• By Don George