WRITING Editor of GoNOMAD since 2002. Published thousands of travel articles by hundreds of authors since. The site became his full-time job in 2005 and GoNOMAD has been widely recognized for its top quality writing and photography. He’s blogged regularly since 2004. Max has spoken at TBEX four times and presented at the NY Times Travel Show and the Public relations Society of America many times. He understands the essence of travel writing and is a frequent guest on travel radio shows. He is an expert on publishing, content creating social media and how to work with editors to get published.

1. Travel Blogging:
The Writing Still Matters
Max Hartshorne, Editor, GoNOMAD Travel

2. Where Have You Been?
Unusual Destinations and new perspectives are Key

3. The skylarks sing as they swoop and swerve in the predawn sky around date
palm trees. More than two hundred miles away from the clamor of Saudi
Arabia’s capital city, Riyadh, my friend Yunus and I hit the main road and race
the rising sun towards the carts and bids and boxes and auctions of the
Unaizah Date Festival, the second-largest date extravaganza in the entire
world.

4. Find a Hook
Set an exciting scene. Don’t ramble. Tell us where you are!

5. Annapolis, Maryland is an iconic, charming, thought-provoking destination, and
with good reason—awesomeness tempts you from every angle.
The Naval Academy (you don’t get it until you take the tour), America’s oldest
state capitol in continuous legislative use (intimate, gorgeous, screams history),
and the epic leisure-boat port vibe are just part of the appeal in America’s Sailing
Capital.

6. Get Right to the Point
Where are you taking us?

7. It's after 9 p.m. and one of those nights when my feet are soaked, but my
spirits aren't. How can they be, when I'm in Burlington, Vermont, for the
Discover Jazz Festival.
The raspy wail of an electric guitar floats out from under the awning of a
tucked-away bar on Church Street. I push open the door and the full brunt of
sad notes invade my emotions. It's like ‘90s grunge met smooth jazz and
produced an offspring.
Or maybe John Bonham from Led Zeppelin reincarnated as a jazz drummer.

8. The Hardest Part:
The Story Arc
Something has to happen, & change.

9. Use the Senses
Don’t forget about taste, smell and touch!

10. Hunting for Truffles in the Piedmonte
Two steps later, the lid is off, the sweet white truffle smell of soil and
mushroom, corn husk and asphalt gift-wraps itself bowless over the back of my
head, grabs my ears like a schoolyard bully.
I am thrown face first into this silver platter’s playground dirt.
This is not fair.
I’m telling on you. I want my mom.

11. Best Advice? Use Dialogue
Descriptions and quotes from locals are more useful than yours,
since they live there.

12. character and authenticity better than letting the characters do it themselves.

13. Even while you’re climbing a mountain. Don’t try to remember dialogue at the
end of the day, it will all end up sounding like you, and will be inaccurate.
So that’s what I always did, on an eco-pirate ship in storm, on a trail, I
scribbled everything down as I heard it. Nothing can evoke a sense of
character and authenticity better than letting the characters do it themselves.

14. Stick to One Tense
Don’t confuse your reader.

15. Use Simple Language
Write conversationally.

16. Narrow Your Focus
Be specific and don’t try to cover everything.

17. Be a Reporter
Details, details DETAILS. Don’t forget the facts!

18. Strive to tell the new. Surprise the reader. There is
no more desperate feeling than returning from a travel assignment and
realizing you hadn't made enough entries in your notebook, you hadn't
asked the right questions, you weren't curious enough. No amount of
dazzling writing can overcome weak content. That's the hard part
gathering the material. Work on that. The writing will follow.

19. Take a Fresh Perspective
Write about familiar subjects in an unfamiliar way.

20. Take Great Notes
Use your camera to shoot signs and plaques, record when needed
to give you more details

21. Write Ironically
Be unusual. Surprise readers with topics they don’t expect.

22. Use a Narrative
It’s easier to follow a story than a guidebook.

23. Include Emotion
Show how the experience affected you.

24. You ask the youth of society, they don’t know anything about it. We’ve
collectively forgotten. That’s a tourist town. All these people here? They’re not
local people. The locals are gone.”
We stand silently in the gloom. A mist floats across distant hills. Black clouds
now suffocate the sky. Rain comes watering the graves, a cistern poured from
inky blackness. I ask what I can do. “Best thing you can do is come back here
tomorrow. Bring someone, sit down here,” he says, pointing to a bench. Then
he leaves, just like that; walks away hitting the black stones with a strand of
barley.
“I’ll write about,” I call after him.

25. Avoid Cliches
like the plague
Think harder for the right word -- as you would say it

26. “Go to the overused word or phrase. Close your eyes, think about how
something actually looked and sounded and smelled. To you. Write that.”
Peter Heller

28. Everyone is a Local
You don’t need to travel to be a good travel writer.

29. Read Other Travel Writers
Such as Bill Bryson, Rachel Friedman and Paul Theroux.

30. Keep Up with Your Blog
It’s your identity. Don’t worry about money. Post more often

31. It’s About Their Trip
What’s in it for the reader? Make it about that

32. Make Your Pitch
Be a salesman for yourself.

33. Here’s a link to 37 paying travel markets to get started
http://travelbloggeracademy.com/paid-travel-writing/

34. Surprise an Editor
By slipping a photo in with your query email

35. Find these notes online at our website GoNOMAD.com
http://bit.ly/2jVn1ay