Last Updated: 10/15/20 | October 15th, 2020
To me, the crux of all online endeavors is good writing. With so many blogs out there, if you can’t write engaging stories, you’ll never get anywhere! So today, I want to introduce one of my favorite travel writers, David Farley, who is going to share his writing tips for fellow bloggers and writers out there!
I always thought that once I started writing for glossy travel magazines, I could relax a bit because I’d “made it.”
Nei!
Then I thought that once I began penning pieces for the new York Times, I could say I was successful.
Ikke. På. Alle.
OK, maybe when I had a book out, published by a major publishing house, things would get a bit easier for me. Jeg ønsker!
Writers, in some ways, are a sorry lot. rarely do they ever look at something and say “perfect!” maybe for a moment — but give a writer a day and he or she will come back to that same article and find dozens of mistakes. writing is a craft you never perfect.
We’re always striving to be better. Creatives tend to be perfectionists. writing requires you to keep learning and improving.
But that’s good because that drive makes writers improve their work. and only through practice and effort do we end up with the Hemingways, Brysons, Gilberts, and Kings of the world.
If you’re a travel blogger, you probably started off not as a writer with a journalism background but as a traveler looking to share your experience. You probably didn’t have any formal training or someone to peer over your shoulder and give you advice.
So today I wanted to share some tips to help you improve your travel writing or blogging. because the world always needs good writers — and good writing helps get your story heard more!
These tips, if followed, will better your writing and make a huge difference in the reach of your writing!
1. Read
This is number one. because whenever a budding writer asks me how they can improve, it’s my first piece of advice. read good writing. absorb it. let it sink into your soul. When I was first starting out, I was sick one weekend, so I spent three days lying in bed reading every page of that year’s best American travel writing anthology. After I finished, I opened up my laptop and started writing for the first time in days. What came out surprised me: it was the highest-quality writing I’d done to date. and it was all because I was absorbed in good writing and it filtered through me back onto the page in my own writing.
(Matt says: Here’s a collection of some of my favorite travel books that can inspire you. I also have a monthly book club you can join!)
2. Do it for love
Maya Angelou wrote, “You can only become truly accomplished at something you love.” Don’t get into travel writing for the money — after all, that would be totally unrealistic. and please don’t gravitate to the genre because you want free trips and hotel rooms. “Instead,” Ms. Angelou added, “do [it] so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.” Or, in other words, strive to become such a good writer that the editors of all the publications you have been dreaming to write for can’t ignore you anymore.
3. Don’t be attached to linear writing
You need not compose a piece from beginning to middle to end. sometimes that’s not the ideal structure of the story. Sure, maybe you’ve already figured that out. but if not, it’s ok to just get a few scenes and paragraphs of exposition down “on paper.” then you can step back and take a look at the bigger picture and rearrange what you have, figuring out the best way to tell the story.
4. tap into your own sense of motivation and drive
The students of mine at new York university who have been most successful were not always the most talented in the class. but they were the most driven. They’d read enough quality writing and thought about it — understanding what made it so wonderful — that there was just something about writing that they got. They weren’t born with that understanding, but ambition drove them to seek out better writing and then to think about it, to analyze what made it good (or not so good).
Drive also inspires future successful writers to go out on a limb, to render themselves vulnerable, by reaching out to more accomplished writers to ask for advice, or by introducing themselves to editors at events or conferences. Don’t be shy! Standing in the corner quietly won’t get you as far as putting your hand out to introduce yourself will.
5. try to figure out what gets your mind and writing flowing
Let me explain: I can sit down at my laptop and stare at a blank Word document for hours, not sure how to start a story or what to write about. then I’ll respond to an email from a friend who wants to know about the trip I’m trying to write about. I’ll write a long email with cool and interesting anecdotes about my experience and include some analysis of the place and culture. and then I’ll realize: I can just cuT og lim inn dette rett i det tomme ordet jeg har stirret på de siste tre timene!
Flere av de publiserte artiklene mine har blokker med tekster som opprinnelig ble skrevet som deler av e -post til venner. “E-posttrikset” fungerer kanskje ikke for alle, men det er uunngåelig noe triks for resten av dere-det være seg å snakke med en venn eller frie tilknytning i journalen din.
6. Forstå alle aspekter ved historiefortelling
Det er to typer reiseskriving: kommersiell og personlig essay (eller memoar). I kommersiell reiseskriving bør du gjøre de forskjellige delene av historien til et iboende aspekt av kunnskapen din: fra måter å skrive en lede til nøttegrafen, scenene, utstillingen og konklusjonene. For memoarer og personlige essays, vet du hvilken fortellingsbue som betyr som baksiden av skrivehendene dine. Det hjelper å få en intuitiv forståelse av disse tingene ved å ta hensyn til skriving – å lese som en forfatter – mens du leser sakprosa (og reise) artikler.
Rask merknad: Hvis du ønsker å forbedre skrivingen din, opprettet David og jeg et detaljert reiseskrivingskurs. Gjennom videoforelesninger og dekonstruerte historier, får du kurset David undervist på NYU og Columbia – men uten prisen. Det kommer med månedlige samtaler samt redigeringer og tilbakemelding på skrivingen din! Hvis du er interessert, klikk her for å lære mer.
7. Ikke stress om ditt første utkast er dritt
Ernest Hemingway sa: “Det første utkastet til noe er dritt.” Og han tullet ikke. Jeg synes dette er sant når jeg skriver et personlig essay eller reisememoar. Jeg skriver og skriver og skriver, og jeg er ikke helt sikker på hva jeg legger ned på papir.
Hva er poenget med dette? Jeg spør meg selv.
Hvorfor gjør jeg til og med dette?
Men her er tålmodigheten inn: Etter hvert skinner skyene en del, den ordspråklige solstråken fra himmelen ned på datamaskinmonitorene våre, og vi ser poenget med det hele: Vi finner endelig ut hva det er vi skriver og hvordan vi skal Best fortell den historien. Det skjer bare som magi noen ganger.
Og ikke alt på en gang: noen ganger er det litt for litt, som å sette sammen et puslespill. Men som jeg nevnte, er tålmodighet nøkkelen, fordi vi aldri vet når den guddommelige magien kommer til å bli aktivert. Men sitte lenge nok, og det vil skje, jeg lover deg. (Bare vær forsiktig når du tar Hemingways andre skriveråd: “Skriv full, rediger edru.”)
8. Skriv det du vet
“Begynn å fortelle historiene som bare du kan fortelle,” sa forfatter Neil Gaiman, “fordi det alltid vil være bedre forfattere enn deg, og det vil alltid være smartere forfattere enn deg. Det vil alltid være mennesker som er mye flinkere til å gjøre dette eller gjøre det – men du er den eneste deg. ”
9. Når du er ferdig med et utkast, kan du lese det høyt
Skriv den ut og les den høyt. Dette vil tillate deg bedre å høre hvordan stykket høres ut, og uakseptable segmeer og klumpete setninger eller svinger med setninger vil hoppe ut på deg på en mer åpenbar måte.
For lengre historier eller bøker kan det også være bra å skrive ut historien din og redigere den på gammeldags måte. På denne måten ser du historien på papir og som en leser. Du kan hente mange flere feil og feil når du gjør dette.
10. Få alltid et nytt sett med øyne på skrivingen din
Mens alle forfattere gjør feil, er det vanskeligere å få øye på dem uten redaktør. Redaktører er veldig viktige, men de trenger ikke nødvendigvis å være noen med formell trening. Selv om det å ansette en kopiering er alltid bra, kan det være like bra å få en venn til å lese bloggen din eller historien. Du ser ikke alltid skogen gjennom trærne og å ha et annet sett med øyne er ultra viktige for skriveprosessen.
Matt sier: Jeg liker å ha noen som ikke vet om reiser, les utkastene mine. Jeg har en venn som ikke reiser mye som leser blogginnleggene mine fordi hun hjelper meg å sørge for at jeg inkluderer de viktige detaljene jeg kanskje har hoppet over. Når du er en ekspert på noe, fyller du ofte ut emnene i tankene dine. Du går automatisk fra A til C; Trinn B blir underbevissthet. Å få noen som ikke vet trinnene, vil bidra til at du inkluderer å forklare alt i innlegget ditt og ikke la leserne gå, “ikke sant?”
11. Lær å selvredigere
Det er her mange mennesker går galt. They write, they read it over, they post. and then feel embarrassed as they say, “Oh, man, I can’t believe I missed that typo.” You don’t need to be a master editor, but if you follow a few principles, it will go a long way: First, write something and let it sit for a few days before editing.
After your first round of edits, repeat the process. get another set of eyes on it. print out a checklist of grammar rules to go through as you edit.
As you review your work, say to yourself, “Did I do this? Did I do that?” If you follow a cheat sheet, you’ll catch most of your mistakes and end up with a much better final product!
12. improve your endings
The two most important parts of any article or blog post are the beginning and the end. Endings matter more than you think. They are the last thing people remember about your story. This is where you can really hit home your point and leave the reader captivated. An average story can be saved by a solid ending. spend some time working on a conclusion that connects the dots and leads to some sort of resolution.
All stories need an ending. think of your favorite stories – and your least favorite ones. The ones with the great endings are probably the ones you remember the most.
13. aim for progress, not perfection
All too often, I hear from students that they don’t want to hit publish on a post or submit a piece because it’s not perfect. They want to keep tinkering, keep editing. While you definitely want to make sure your work is the best it can be, at the end of the day, perfection is the enemy of progress. If you keep waiting for every single word to be perfect you’ll be editing forever.
When it comes to blog posts, learn to accept good enough. hit publish when it’s good enough.
Don’t wait for perfection because it rarely comes. accept your best, and move on. Otherwise, you’ll be tinkering and editing until the cows come home and you’ll never get anywhere.
Writing is a craft. Det tar tid. It takes practice. aim for progress, not perfection.
***
Writing is an art form. It takes a lot of practice. When you’re a blogger out on your own, it can be harder to improve your work, because you don’t have an experienced voice giving you tips and advice and pushing you to be better. If you don’t take it upon yourself to be better, you never will be. However, even if you aren’t blessed to work under an editor, these 13 tips can help you improve your writing today and become a much better blogger, writing stories people want to read!
David Farley has been writing about travel, food, and culture for over twenty years. His work has appeared in AFAR magazine, the new York Times, the Washington Post, Condé Nast Traveler, among other publications. He has lived in Prague, Paris, Rome, and now new York City. He is the author of An Irreverent Curiosity and was a host for national Geographic.
HEI DER! If you’re looking for even more, David and I created a detailed travel writing course to help take your writing to the next level. through video lectures and examples of edited and deconstructed stories, you’ll learn how to improve your writing as well as get:
Monthly calls with David
Edits and feedback on your writing
Sample pitch templates
Sample book proposals
A private Facebook group where we share job opportunities.
Hvis du er interessert, klikk her for å lære mer.
Bestill turen: Logistiske tips og triks
Bestill flyet ditt
Finn en billig flytur ved å bruke Skyscanner. Det er min favoritt søkemotor fordi den søker på nettsteder og flyselskaper over hele kloden, slik at du alltid vet at ingen stein er igjen.
Bestill innkvarteringen din
Du kan bestille vandrerhjemmet ditt med Hostelworld. Hvis du vil bo et annet sted enn et herberge, kan du bruke booking.com, da de konsekvent returnerer de billigste prisene for gjestehus og hotell.
Ikke glem reiseforsikring
Reiseforsikring vil beskytte deg mot sykdom, skade, tyveri og kanselleringer. Det er omfattende beskyttelse i tilfelle noe går galt. Jeg drar aldri på tur uten det, da jeg har måttet bruke den mange ganger i fortiden. Mine favorittbedrifter som tilbyr den beste servicen og verdien er:
Safetywing (best for alle)
Forsikre turen min (for de over 70)
MedJet (for ytterligere evakueringsdekning)
Klar til å bestille turen?
Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel. Jeg lister opp alle de jeg bruker når jeg reiser. De er de beste i klassen, og du kan ikke gå galt ved å bruke dem på turen.
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