The trip has officially been confirmed to happen May 3, 2025 – May 10, 2025, but a space has opened up! If you’ve been on the fence about signing up, now’s your best opportunity. We’re offering $400 off the deposit amount for anyone who signs up for the trip between now and the end of February.

Why are we so excited about this writing retreat? We planned it with the goal of making it beneficial for as many types of writers as possible by doing the following:

• WD editors right there (and writing there) with you. Have questions about the writing project you’re working on? No matter the category, the WD editorial hosts, Editor-in-Chief Amy Jones and Senior Editor Robert Lee Brewer, will be at the ready to help. After we have the complete roster of retreat attendees, we’ll be able to survey the group about how to tailor this writing time to your specific needs.
• Maybe it’s reading and offering feedback about the first 10–20 pages of your book, or
• doing an AMA session about the publishing industry.
• Perhaps it’s setting up writing exercises or writing sprints, or
• even having an accountability partner on the trip to make sure you’re truly writing.

We’ll be catering to the group who signs up.

[Have a question about this retreat? Join Amy Jones and Robert Lee Brewer for a free informational Zoom Q&A on Tuesday, February 18, 2025, at 12:30 pm (ET). Click here to register!]

• It’s the perfect combination of inspirational sightseeing and dedicated writing time. We’ll spend 3.5 days exploring the Renaissance city of Florence, walking in the footsteps of writers like Dante, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Mary McCarthy, not to mention artists like da Vinci, Michelangelo, Donatello—the list goes on and on. While much of the time will be with the group and our local tour guide, there will be time to sit in the gardens, along the Arno River, or at the hotel’s rooftop bar/ristorante overlooking the skyline and write. Don’t worry, we’ve also built in a bit of free time for things like seeing something on your personal bucket list, grabbing a handmade journal at a local stationery shop, or visiting the English bookshop, Paperback Exchange.

• Plus, there’s exciting news about our itinerary. The Vasari Corridor—the hidden in plain sight passageway connecting the Uffizi Gallery on one side of the river to the Palazzo Pitti on the other—has officially reopened! After closing in 2016 for preservation and renovations and multiple delays in reopening, the corridor built by Giorgio Vasari in 1565 is now open to small tour groups just like ours.

• Finally, we’ll spend 2.5 days at a stunning Tuscan villa where you get to focus entirely on the writing that’s important to you in the way that is most effective for you. If you write better on your own but never would’ve made the time to do so at home or on another sightseeing trip, choose a quiet spot on the villa grounds and let the words flow. On the other hand, maybe you’re the kind of writer who likes to be around other writers—letting the clack of their keyboards or the scratch of their pen inspire you to get more words on your own page.

Join WD on the trip of a lifetime!

[Have a question about this retreat? Join Amy Jones and Robert Lee Brewer for a free informational Zoom Q&A on Tuesday, February 18, 2025, at 12:30 pm (ET). Click here to register!]

Email any questions about the details of this trip to writersdigestretreats@aimmedia.com. 

The post Exciting Update: WD Writing Retreat to Florence & Tuscany 2025! appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(How My Travel Writing Strengthened My Fiction.)

As a baseline, you must love travel so much that you are willing to ruin it for yourself. Or at least the glamorous veneer of it. Being a writer, after all, is a human experience. It requires the full spectrum of rapturous joy and crushing loneliness. The real work is in the tedious, unseen details. The endless flights and bus rides. The food poisonings and tropical fevers. The fast friendships and faster goodbyes. You must love the elastic FOMO that stretches across every story and drives you to keep searching.

Here’s the good news. Travel writing requires all types of experiences and voices. There is no right way to go about it. However, we (myself and co-author Caroline Clements) have identified a few core principles that have served us well.

1. Follow your interests

This is good advice for life but especially people trying to make their way as a writer. You are always going to create the most authentic work when you are genuinely invested in the story that you are telling. As a travel writer this means exploring your own interests and style of travel.

When we pitched our third book, Places We Swim California—a guide to the best rivers, lakes, waterfalls, beaches, gorges, and hot springs—we knew we would be doing this trip regardless of if it ever became a book. We wanted to explore California’s wilderness and we would be hiking and swimming our way across the state. We were doing it to satisfy our own curiosity.

If you love architecture and food, that is your angle. If you love tattoos and video games, that is your angle. The trick is to be honest with yourself about your interests and you will find an audience.

2. Do the most valuable work before you leave

The more you can prepare before going on a trip, the easier the travel will be. You often only get one chance at a travel assignment but have a long time to prepare. We read books and articles. We speak to friends and search for local contacts who share our taste. It’s a process of making lists and then checking those lists against other recommendations. We start with a lot of ideas and then slowly refine them through our research. The final distillation happens on the road.

Doing the research ahead of time will allow you to prioritize your experience and itinerary once you arrive. You know what can be ruled out and what should be investigated further. Of course, you always leave space for surprises.

Check out Dillon Seitchik-Reardon and Caroline Clements’ Places We Swim California here:

Bookshop | Amazon

(WD uses affiliate links)

3. Don’t schedule every minute

The cost of extensive research is that you often feel like you are missing out on something. It’s easy to get caught up in rushing from destination to destination as you try to check things off a list. However, the best experiences are often the ones that you least expect.

You must build time into your schedule to just be somewhere. You need time to sit and observe. To be unhurried enough that you can have conversations with locals and do so without an agenda. It’s the hardest thing in travel writing, but it is important to let a story evolve organically. The story that you plan for is not always the story that you will write.

4. Trust people and say “yes”

Opportunities constantly present themselves to deviate from your well-planned travels. Sometimes it is a nagging feeling that you missed something, and other times it is a well-meaning person inviting you into their world. We try to say “yes” as much as possible.

Most people are unbelievably kind and curious. If you allow time in your schedule for spontaneity, then you will end up in weird and wonderful places. This is a travel writer’s bread and butter. Trust that invitations are sincere and always have a reason to leave if things get too weird.

5. Keep a journal

This is an obvious one, but something we always come back to. Writers are professional observers. Writing in a journal, especially writing by hand, is a way to ground yourself in a moment or place. 

It’s a practice of observing your internal and external environment. How does it feel to be there? What are your senses telling you? These snapshots, no matter how brief, will trigger your memories later and make the writing process so much easier.

6. Be useful, be a curator

The amount of travel information available to all of us is overwhelming. You can find advice about every place in the world, often expressed as diametrically opposing views. So where does this leave the reader? The abundance of information makes trusted brands and sources more valuable. Most people want advice from a couple of credible sources and know that they are in good hands.

You can be that credible source. Be consistent and clear about your offering. Don’t waste your words on negative reviews. What’s the point? Tell people where to go and why it is great. Celebrate the best of the world. If we don’t like something, we don’t write about it. We write about hiking and swimming as a way to explore beautiful places. These are niche, curated experiences for people who share our love of adventure. 

Our job as writers is to trudge through all the mediocre places so that our readers don’t have to. If you can consistently give useful advice, then you will build a community that trusts you. 

The post 6 Ways to Be a Better Travel Writer appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(How My Travel Writing Strengthened My Fiction.)

As a Senior Travel editor and author of the forthcoming travel memoir Call You When I Land, my career is about capturing the magic of travel in words. In my upcoming book, I detail my journey to becoming a travel editor—candidly sharing the highs and lows of chasing this elusive dream around the globe. In my day-to-day work as an editor, I find myself working with freelance writers, considering pitches, and editing travel stories on a daily basis. From my years of working in the travel media industry, here are a few rules for aspiring travel writers.

Rule 1: Consider What Makes Your Story Unique

With the rise of AI services, such as ChatGPT, it has never been more important to bring a personal touch to the stories we write. While ChatGPT can whip out a subpar guide to visiting South Africa, it cannot tell the story of your unique experience whale-watching in Hermanus or riding the wine tram in Franschhoek.

I believe the future of travel writing will focus on personal narratives that capture a person’s unique experience, strike a balance between their story while offering a larger context to a destination, and weave in local voices. An example of such a story is one that I share in my travel memoir, in which I traveled to Bogota, Colombia (my homeland), to investigate a mysterious murder in my family that had haunted me since childhood. While this story was personal, I expanded my writing to explore the political situation in Colombia at the time to weave in other voices and let those elements add color to my own story.

Rule 2: Keep Track of Everything as You Travel

Being a travel writer is all about observation. As you move through the world, you do your best to capture the sights, sounds, smells, and feel of a destination so that a reader on the other side of the planet can be transported to, say, the streets of Vietnam. When I sought to write my travel memoir, I was lucky enough to have years of journals and diaries that could help transport me back to what it felt like to be lost in the Borneo Jungle, hike alone through Iguazú National Park in Argentina, and have my Jeep break down next to a pride of lions in Kenya.

These journals were essential in fueling my writing, so my best advice is to keep track of everything as you travel. Jot down anything that stands out to you: how it feels to be seeing that historic landmark in Paris, what it smells like to be lost in that food market in Colombia, what it sounds like to be crossing that busy road in Hanoi, and what it looks like in that safari camp in South Africa. These observations—even if just a few sentences—will be very helpful when writing your story.

Check out Nikki Vargas’ Call You When I Land here:

Bookshop | Amazon

(WD uses affiliate links)

Rule 3: Be Cognizant of How You Portray Other Cultures

As travel writers, we have the power to influence how our readers view destinations, how they choose to spend their time and money when traveling, and how people choose to move through a new country. That awesome power comes with a lot of responsibility, so it’s important to wield it wisely and be cognizant of how we speak about and portray traditions, cultures, and other people. Do your due diligence in reporting, layer in official sources, and (much to my next point) layer in local voices.

Rule 4: Better Yet, Include Local Voices

One of the pitfalls of travel writing is how frequently destinations are filtered through the lens of non-locals. I’ve received many pitches for definitive guides to a city that the writer has spent only a few days exploring. When writing from a place of authority about a destination you do not live in or have not spent ample time visiting, it’s crucial to weave in the expertise of local voices. Not only can those local voices share invaluable advice on how to authentically visit a destination mindfully, but it’s important to allow those local voices to be a part of a story about their home.

Rule 5: Avoid Descriptive Clichés

Too often, the same phrases are peppered throughout travel articles to describe certain scenes. Phrases like: lush greenery, charming towns, crystal clear seas, and sun-kissed beaches. These phrases are popular to use because they do such a good job of invoking an image of a certain place, but the thing is, they are used so often that they’ve lost their luster.

Instead, I encourage travel writers to try and describe a destination in a way that is unique to their experience. It’s harder, yes, but a unique description leaves a lasting impression on your reader. This is something that I continue to remind myself of and work on myself!

Rule 6: Consider the Publication You’re Writing For

As a travel writer, it’s important to remember the publication you’re writing for or hoping to write for. Each publication has its own voice, tone, style, and focus. One of the things I look for in pitches is whether the writer has taken the time to familiarize themselves with the publication, ensure the story they’re pitching hasn’t already been published, and put thought into how their story idea fits our audience.

Rule 7: Travel Writing Can Go Beyond Travel

Travel writing can be much more than a destination guide. Some of the best travel writing stories I’ve read are articles and books that not only transport a reader to a destination, but offer a layered look at a place. Don’t be afraid to go beyond tourist activities or travel tips in your writing to explore the nuances of a destination, whether that means diving into its politics or examining its culture. Just make sure to weave in local sources!

The post The 7 Rules of Travel Writing appeared first on Writer's Digest.

They comment on the way I describe the city of Stockholm, the background against which the lives of my Black protagonists play out. They say they can smell the cinnamon right off the page, taste the Swedish foods through my words or envision the cultural traditions in detail.

(4 Tips for Writing Food in Fiction.)

Their curiosity about me as the author drives them towards my career as a travel writer and photographer spanning close to 15 years. Before becoming a published novelist, I’d already built a career within the travel industry as a visual storyteller and published several nonfiction books. I explore cultural connection through food, tradition, and lifestyles, and this beat is reflected in my work.

But travel writing wasn’t my first love. Writing fiction was.

Growing up in Nigeria, I started writing short stories when I was 10 years old and continued through my teenage years. I filled pages upon pages of notebooks with short stories and novellas. I traveled through my fictional characters. I knew I wanted to be a storyteller, but I just didn’t know travel writing was going to be my route; I always thought fiction was going to be my medium of expression.

When I moved to the US to start college, I studied information systems and would go on to work as a programmer and system architect for 12 years. But creative writing always tugged at my heart. It was while volunteering with an expedition race in Fiji—I was responsible for writing daily dispatches about the contestants, the places they were navigating, and Fijian culture, landscapes, and seascapes—that I realized travel writing was a passion and potential career.

Fast forward 20 years and I currently do work as a professional travel writer, but I never forgot my first love: fiction.

So, in 2010, I first tried rewriting some of those short stories and novellas from my teenage years. I struggled, though, because I had been writing them from my closed box of inexperience. What did I know of life as a 10-year-old? Since then, my work as a travel writer has taken me to over 80 countries, reporting on myriad cultures and subcultures, getting beneath traditions, partaking in festivals and rituals, and meeting some of the most engaging, enthralling, and entertaining people everywhere from Mongolia to the Faroe Islands.

Meanwhile, I had also finally settled in my new home, Stockholm. I’ve integrated and I speak the language. I had even written about the city and Sweden for several high-profile publications. So, when I started the process of writing fiction again, my years of travel writing spilled onto the page, but this time they were about my new home country.

Check out Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström’s Everything Is Not Enough here:

Bookshop | Amazon

(WD uses affiliate links)

Travel writing at its core is about showing the essence of a place using all your senses. What are you seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting, touching? Weaving words that denote the character, energy, and feeling of a place requires you to “show, not tell” through your words. As a travel writer, I can’t simply say “Stockholm is a stunning city.” I need to show its elegant, cream-colored buildings that look like cake icing piped along the waterfront. I need to show it shimmering under the sun’s setting rays and its golden reflection bouncing off still waters.

My job is to make the reader want to come experience a place. To make them walk side-by-side with me and absorb the culture, traditions, and environment through my eyes. And this is why, despite the heavy topics I tackle in my novels, they still draw readers to the lure of Stockholm.

Beyond the descriptions which make the city feel like a character in its own right, my readers also comment on the intensity and energy of the pacing of my novel. “It just never lets up emotionally,” one reader told me. I immediately understood their sentiment.

Most travel writers get only 800-1,200 words to tell fully fleshed out stories about a place or experience for a publication. We’re working with limited space to condense our rich narratives. This means we need to start with gripping beginnings that instantly hook the reader with a promise, fill the middle of our stories with lots of texture to keep them reading, and leave them with an ending that makes them eager to book the same experience.

Except we don’t have the luxury of 90,000 words to pull that off! I’ve been conditioned to write in an enticing and succinct way for over 14 years, so it makes sense that both my novels are written like a series of 800-1,200-word articles stitched together. This sustains the intensity of the story—with no natural breaks—and gives my work that “page turner” feeling.

My career background also helps me cover heavy topics like racism, tokenism, class conflict, or trauma in a way that doesn’t feel forced. Because with travel writing, I can’t tell you to go to Italy. That’s heavy-handed. I have to show you why you should go to Italy.

It would seem my career as a travel writer was preparing me all along for that long-awaited reunion with my first love…fiction.

The post How My Travel Writing Strengthened My Fiction appeared first on Writer's Digest.

Well, it turns out that lessons learned from one job can sometimes apply to another. The more I worked on my memoir manuscript, the more I realized that while I certainly needed to adjust my mindset, my experience as a travel writer could help make my new book better.

Regardless of the type of work you do, you’ve probably already learned important skills that can apply to memoir writing, too—whether it’s how to connect with people, how to share a compelling story, or simply how to manage time and expectations. Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way.

(Marcia DeSanctis: On a Decade of Traveling Through Essays)

1. Write an opening that truly hooks the reader.

When I’m traveling on assignment, the first paragraph sometimes pops into my head before I even start typing my report. Other times, I struggle to find the best way to begin my story. Either way, a strong opening is crucial for grabbing readers’ attention.

For my memoir, I began with a powerful visual—namely, the dramatic arrival of my mother in New York City, her face bruised and her arm in a sling. I figured that would pique readers’ curiosity and set the stage for the main storyline, which highlights how we dealt with her physical decline as we revisited our lives together. I thought I was all set.

But I wasn’t. After reviewing the chapter with a trusted friend, I decided that while this was certainly an appropriate way to begin the story, I was throwing readers too quickly into a rather bleak situation. The chapter opening failed to hint at the humor and quirky flashbacks that are also an integral part of the book. To remedy that, I wrote a prologue that was set several decades earlier, describing a lighter moment from my childhood (specifically, how I neglected my seventh-grade homework because I was too focused on creating my own imaginary airline. I was a weird kid). This brief prologue gives readers a preview of the funnier moments that appear in later pages.

In addition, I worked with my wonderful editor and publisher at Vine Leaves Press to come up with a title that’s also designed to lure readers: Prepare for Departure: Notes on a Single Mother, a Misfit Son, Inevitable Mortality and the Enduring Allure of Frequent Flyer Miles.

2. Read other people’s work.

My travel writing gets better when I read the work of other journalists. The same goes for memoirs—especially when I focus on authors with a voice or story that’s similar to mine.

I’ve also learned to be realistic as a memoirist—namely, to be aware that I’m not famous and very few people will immediately care about my story. Sure, we can all find inspiration in bestselling celebrity memoirs, but unless you’re a big name too, your memoir really falls into a different category of work. So when you set out to tell the story of your own life, keep in mind you’ve got a bigger hill to climb than the sparkly folks in Hollywood or Washington, D.C.

You can certainly learn from mainstream celebrity memoirists, but you can learn just as much from lesser-known authors who know how to tell a good story. It’s those writers, in fact, who’ve taught me the most about how to craft a compelling memoir.

3. Engage the senses.

Travel is a multisensory experience, and effective travel writing should be, too. When I’m crafting a travel story, I not only describe what destinations look like, but also how they smell, taste, sound, and feel. Successful memoir writing is similar. To connect with readers, you’ve got to take them on a journey that engages all the senses.

This can be challenging at times, especially when you’re writing scenes that took place decades ago. I’ve found it easiest when I’m seated by myself in a quiet place. I sometimes close my eyes and “look around” the scene that I’m about to write, imagining the sensory details. Whether it’s the slick vinyl seats of the giant Ford my mother drove as she scolded me for sticking my foot into a cake, or the aroma of jet fuel that ignited my wanderlust at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, multisensory descriptions go a long way toward making scenes more realistic.

4. Know your audience.

As a travel writer, I visit places that appeal to different kinds of travelers with diverse interests and budgets. My job isn’t to berate a hotel or restaurant because it doesn’t fit my own personal taste. My job is to understand the interests of the audience I’m writing for and to serve their needs. I must match what I’m writing about with the readers who would appreciate it the most.

A memoir, on the other hand, may seem to be all about you since it is, well, all about you. But if you’re truly looking to get published, you must think beyond the fact that this is your own personal story. Step back and ask yourself: Who are you writing for? What will readers get from this book? Why should people who don’t know you care about your story? Is it funny, educational, emotionally moving?

Comparing your work to other memoirs can help you to identify your audience. In my case, for example, I think readers who enjoy the work of David Sedaris, Samantha Irby, Augusten Burroughs, and Jenny Lawson might like my memoir, since it’s a quirky story that deals with serious topics with a healthy dose of dark humor.

IndieBound | Bookshop | Amazon

5. Cast a wide net when looking for publishers.

I admit it. I dreamed of hooking up with a big-name publishing house for my first memoir. But if I’d held out for that, I still wouldn’t have a published book on my shelf today.

I began my career as a travel writer by thinking small. I volunteered to write a monthly travel column—with no pay—for a tiny free newspaper in New York City. Was it glamorous? No. Did it make me famous? No. But it got my name out there, proved that I could write, and gave me clips that I could show to other publishers that did pay. From there, I worked my way up.

I’ve taken a similar approach to memoirs. Sure, you can still pitch to the most legendary literary agents and big-name publishing houses (I certainly did). But unless you’re an established writer or a celebrity, you may not attract much interest. Don’t get discouraged. Keep moving. Submit to indie publishers, too (and you can do it without an agent, like I did). If you’re truly passionate about sharing your story with the world, you’ll find a way to do so.

6. Never give up.

As a travel writer, I’ve pitched countless articles to dozens of editors over the years. And I’ve weathered countless rejections—as well as “nonresponses” where the editor never even acknowledged my pitch. I’ve learned to not take it personally. I’ve worked as an editor, too, so I know they’re busy people.

My extensive experience with rejection helped me immensely as I turned my focus to memoir writing. While some of the students in my writing class were upset about negative responses they received from agents and editors, I was barely fazed. I just kept submitting. Rejections should not be taken as a judgment of your work. They’re just a determination of whether your story is a good fit for a particular agent or publisher, at a particular time.

To bolster my self-confidence as the rejections piled in, I submitted essays from my manuscript to several literary journals. Having my work published there assured me that I was on the right track with my book; there was indeed an audience for it.

Whether you’re a memoirist or a travel writer, the most important lesson of all is to not give up until you reach your destination—whatever that might be.

Click to continue.

The post 6 Things My Career as a Travel Writer Taught Me About Writing a Memoir appeared first on Writer's Digest.

She has won five Lowell Thomas Awards for excellence in travel journalism, including one for Travel Journalist of the Year, as well as the Grand Prize Solas Award in 2021 for Travel Story of the Year. She holds a degree from Princeton University in Slavic Languages and Literature and a master’s in Foreign Policy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She lived and worked for several years in Paris and resides in northwest Connecticut. Find her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

In this post, Marcia discusses the process of combing through a decade’s worth of travel essays for her new travel memoir, A Hard Place to Leave, and more!

Name: Marcia DeSanctis
Book title: A Hard Place to Leave: Stories from a Restless Life
Publisher: Travelers’ Tales/Solas House
Release date: May 2, 2022
Genre/category: Memoir, travel
Previous titles: 100 Places in France Every Woman Should Go
Elevator pitch for the book: A collection of stories about the lure of travel and the pull of home, and how these urges constantly collide.

IndieBound | Bookshop | Amazon
[WD uses affiliate links.]

What prompted you to write this book?

I had just finished writing a memoir when the pandemic began. With all the uncertainty, and while I was preoccupied with sterilizing groceries and mail, I had no ability to concentrate on editing it. The task seemed insurmountable. I did not know where or how to start.

I needed to regroup. I had long thought of combing through my body of work—140 or so stories—and was struck with the idea that this was the right time to put together a collection. I would turn 60 at the end of 2020, and as I was first published when I was about to turn 50, so I thought a decade of essays would be a worthy construct. I was not expecting to choose mostly essays about travel, but that’s what it turned out to be.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

It took two years, almost exactly, from the book proposal until the publication in May 2022.

The idea changed greatly! At first, I wanted to group the essays by category (my first idea was to group them under the five elements: air, wind, earth, water, space). But as I sifted through these stories, I realized that many of them were thematically similar. The common idea is how we long for home, and long to be away, how we often wish to be wherever we are not, and how memories of places linger and add to that sense of longing. So, I decided to make it more of a longitudinal book and reading experience, rather than a fractured one.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

Not so many surprises, but I had a constant awareness of my state of mind throughout this process. Publishing a book is an arduous and emotional experience. With all the nuts and bolts, nitty and gritty, it can be hard to remember that this work came from inside my head, and those words were all that needed to concern me. No matter what technical thing needed to be addressed, I tried to remember that writing was my area of expertise, but book publishing was not. Sometimes I may have worried about things I did not need to worry about, and my publishers were ever so gentle in reminding me of that.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

Oh yes. I realized that, as many stories as I had written and published, I discovered that, if I wanted to stick to this theme that was emerging, there were many narrative blanks and gaps. So, I wrote several new essays. The book contains 37 stories, and 11 of them are new.

Also, I was very surprised to discover that essays are never done! I had an unbelievable amount of editing and adaptation to do on the existing ones, all of which had been published before. Many edits and changes, big and small, to make sure that these stories all had that common narrative thread.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

A couple of things. First, I hope people will be inspired to look upon their travels differently, to take notes, to be observant, and to realize that a trip is never just a trip. It can be a chance to better know yourself and those you love, and to identify the many filaments that connect us to home and family.

Second, I hope people might seek to create their own travel stories when they venture from home. Adventure is everywhere, you don’t need to get on a plane for five hours. One of my essays is about a city that is 15 miles from my house.

Last, I hope they might look back on their journals and diaries, if they have them, and are moved to write their own stories about people and places they have not forgotten.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

There is so much advice for writers out there, and it can be hard to tune it out and remember that there is literally no right way to be a writer, no prescribed way to do this job. Sometimes when I read these well-meaning tips, I convince myself I am doing everything wrong.

Find what process (or lack thereof) works for you. Sometimes my most productive writing days are ones when I have not written a single word.

Click to continue.

The post Marcia DeSanctis: On a Decade of Traveling Through Essays appeared first on Writer's Digest.

Travel writing is an excellent way to see the world while also getting paid for it. But to be a travel writer you need to be focused and attentive at all times. Your goal is to give insight and deliver an angle about a destination that’s never been captured before. Your writing needs to entice the audience of the periodical or magazine that has hired your freelancing services.

There are travel writing courses that will give you an in-depth look at how to generate ideas, execute professional articles, sell them to markets who are always on the lookout for great travel writing and more. But you don’t need a course to teach you the basic rules that every great travel writer adheres to.

In this free Writer’s Digest download, Writing the Travel Essay, you’ll get top-notch advice on the essential keys to writing great travel essays. You’ll also receive 10 great ideas on how to brainstorm and get you’re creative juices in the right frame of mind when looking for details to include in your travel writing. Let this free advice boost your travel writing career, download your free guide today.

Enter your email to join the Writer’s Digest newsletter and get your free download!

Sneak Peek – Three Tips for Travel Writers

Here’s a little snippet of what you’ll get in the download, which offers up three important tips you always need to remember before taking your trip.

Best Travel Writing Tips: Research

Read as much as you can about your destination before you arrive, and don’t just read the guidebooks. Read up on the region’s history and economy, explore the cooking and agriculture, and try to understand religious observances. This way, if you see something unfamiliar or peculiar, you’ll have a better chance of understanding the reasoning behind the custom.

Best Travel Writing Tips: Think Outside the Box

Newspaper travel sections often reduce travel writing to a list of hotels and tourist-friendly restaurants. These articles can be useful, certainly, to first-time travelers, but as an essayist, remember that you are digging for deeper treasure, looking for meaning in an experience, not just bargains.

Best Travel Writing Tips: Be A Writer

There is a difference between travel writers and tourists. A tourist is on vacation; a travel writer is on a pursuit.

Learn How to Write Travel Essays with this Free Download

One of our favorite travel writing articles, this simple yet effective list of tips and prompts will help put your travel writing on the road to success. When carving your path to becoming a freelance travel writer, be sure to heed this advice. There are perks to travel writing—getting to visit different places, meeting new people, writing off travel as business expenses, trying things you never would have tried on your own, etc.—but if you want to become a travel writer that editors can count on, remember to be professional and fine-tune your craft to come up with the most captivating feature you can. Download your free travel writing tips and prompts today.

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But don’t let your education stop here. Start with this free download, but you should also consider more in-depth travel writing courses. This excellent resource on travel writing covers all the ins and outs that you need to know when it comes to become a successful travel writer. Learn all the different types of travel articles you can write, how to find and verify information and more. You will also get tips on being your own photographer.

The post Writing Travel Essays: How To Actually Get Paid To Travel and Write appeared first on Writer's Digest.

In this post, Peter discusses his quest to find hope in his new book, A Thing of Beauty, how COVID altered his process, and more!

Name: Peter Fiennes
Literary agent: Rebecca Winfield, David Luxton Associates
Book title: A Thing of Beauty: Travels in Mythical and Modern Greece
Publisher: Oneworld Publications
Expected release date: 30 November 2021
Genre/category: Travel Writing/Greek Mythology
Previous titles: To War With God: The Army Chaplain Who Lost His Faith; Oak and Ash and Thorn: The Ancient Woods and New Forests of Britain; Footnotes: A Journey Round Britain in the Company of Great Writers
Elevator pitch for the book: A journey around Greece in search of beauty and hope, visiting the sites of some of the most resonant Greek myths, inspired by exquisite beaches, mountains, forests, and archaeological wonders, while trying to shake off a feeling of ecological doom.

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What prompted you to write this book?

I wanted to write a book about the human relationship to nature—our strange idea that we are somehow not part of nature, but are above or outside it. I wanted to write about our impact on the world, but in a way that would not terrify or depress people (myself included!), because although (of course) we are part of nature, our influence is now beyond all imaginings: There is nothing on this earth or in the wide sky that has not been affected by us, most often for the worse, from the convulsing climate to mass extinctions. There are traces of plastic in every newborn baby.

So, cheery stuff! And that is why I went to Greece, looking for beauty and above all, HOPE. Surely the ancient Greeks, who seemed to know so much about everything, would have an answer for this impending ecological doom (or at least suggest ways to be more philosophical about it). I dug deep into the myths, looking for resonances and relevance … and I asked: Is there anything in the myths that can help us?

If the ancient Greeks had possessed our tools and technologies, was there anything—any belief or code—that would have held them back from taking and using and killing anything they wanted?

It seemed like an urgent question.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

I have loved the Greek myths ever since I read Roger Lancelyn Green’s Tales of the Greek Heroes and The Tale of Troy as a child. And then I discovered the mythic/historical fiction of Mary Renault in my teens.

So, I have been keen to write about the myths for a while, especially any that might have an environmental element. Myths about trees and nymphs!

In the first place, the book took about a year to plan and do the bulk of the desk-bound research. It then took another six months to travel, expand the research, and write. Then there was three months of editing, and off it went to the printers. Unfortunately, COVID arrived when I was on the brink of traveling to Greece for the first time, and my trip was delayed (and delayed again), so the book inevitably underwent a process of metamorphosis! I traveled less, read more, and visited fewer places. It’s possible that it is better for that, because I spent so much time trapped at home, tumbling down rabbit holes, planning and setting up more interviews and meetings than I would normally. This is my first travel book that features Zoom interviews …

The other thing that happened is that I became preoccupied by the myth of Pandora and her Jar. As the fires raged in California, Siberia, and Greece, it seemed more and more urgent that I could find some hope to write about. Or indeed “Hope,” the spirit that was trapped in Pandora’s Jar when all the evils in the world were released. Or so some say.

I even consulted the Oracle at Delphi. “Where can I find Pandora’s Hope?” I asked—and I got my answer. In fact, I asked everyone I met where I could find Hope, from taxi drivers to Arcadian shepherds to activists. Their answers are in A Thing of Beauty.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

I learned that I cannot draw …

I was hoping to include my picture of Pandora’s Jar (with Hope trapped inside) and my editor very tactfully explained that I was “very good at describing things with words so my book did not need illustrations.” And then he commissioned some beautiful drawings by a truly talented artist, so everyone was happy in the end.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

I really enjoyed retelling some of the myths, and I wasn’t expecting that.

I discovered Epirus, in northwest Greece, which is a wondrously beautiful place, now threatened with oil and gas exploitation. I met the Dancing Women of Vrisoules, who are campaigning to stop this from happening.

I found that the beaches of Greece are more beautiful than I ever remembered or imagined. And I discovered I have an unquenchable appetite for Greek salad, despite dining on it every day for a month.

And I learned that you can still consult the Oracle at Delphi, if you do your research on the wilder shores of the internet.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

Hope! I went looking for Hope and Beauty, and found them both.

And perhaps an introduction to (or a rekindled interest in) the Greek Myths. They are the most amazing, ever-evolving stories, and some of them are still so relevant to our lives.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

You have to know when to stop researching and start writing.

And (sorry, this is two): be open to anything.

Click to continue.

The post Peter Fiennes: On Finding Hope in the Writing Process appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(Plot Twist Story Prompts: Take a Trip.)

It was the last weekend of the fall season, when the park had hardly any visitors. The only downside was the unpredictable weather.

I drove to Yellowstone from Jackson Lake Lodge and got to my campsite late the first night in the bitter cold. The freezing air penetrated my thin nylon tent, my ears rang, and I barely slept.

Not being a morning person, I found it challenging to get up at five am. But I had no choice if I was to get to the best location to see sunrise over the peaks of the Grand Tetons. A thermos filled with hot tea was most helpful.

While watching the morning sun bathe the cold, granite peaks in pink light, the unlikely high-pitched bugling of elk in rut echoed throughout the flats. The call of the wild rose with the mist above the frosted land and quelled any internal complaints over the early hour.

A male moose slowly emerged from his bed, hidden within the tall grass. When he entered the willow flats and saw a challenging bull, he bleated and mooed at the intruder and urgently corralled his harem. A lot of energy is spent by males during the mating season to prevent their females from getting stolen.

(Caitlin O’Connell: Finding Connection and Community in Animal Rituals.)

The two males prepared for combat. Each holding his head down as he lunged, threateningly, toward the other. They carried their big rack of antlers at clashing level, rocking them back and forth, before lurching forward and coming to blows.

*****

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*****

Later in the morning, I drove through the Lamar Valley hoping to experience my first wolf encounter. The landscape lay open before me, immense and empty, with the red-orange walls of the valley rolling out in all directions, from the horizon to the sun. The scenery was so stunning that I almost didn’t care whether I saw a wolf or not. Just being in the valley of the wolf was enough.

Then toward the bottom of the valley, I turned a corner and saw an old male wolf standing near the road. There was no sign of his pack. In awe, I slowed, stopped the car, and shut off the engine.

I knew this moment would be fleeting. He was mottled silver and steel gray on top, with mostly white legs and belly. His eyes met mine for a few moments, his body completely still. I didn’t dare look away to grab my camera.

The wolf took one last look with his head held low, sniffing toward me, then he turned and ran across the valley floor. As I watched him disappear into the forest in the distance, I imagined, for an instant, following him on his wild itinerary.

(Anthropomorphize That!)

As in the Zambezi in Namibia, the Yellowstone region is largely an open system with its own tensions related to the animal-human interface. Here, the conflicts aren’t between corn farmers and elephants but between ranchers and wolves, the region’s top predator. Many do not wish to have wolves as neighbors.

Wolves have helped regulate the elk population, and reduced elk have allowed willow and aspen to increase—after being overgrazed by elk—and that has fostered the recovery of many other species, including the return of beavers and increased songbird populations.

Later, on my way to my next campsite, I spotted a small group of bison grazing in the distance. I stopped at a turn out and walked up the trail to watch the herd cross the plain. I was aware of being in grizzly country, so I didn’t stray far. Grizzly bear behavior is foreign to me, and they are notoriously more prone to aggression leading up to hibernation. I can’t interpret them as well as I can read lions and elephants in Africa.

I arrived at Cascade Creek Falls just after sunset. The falls lie at the farthest reach of Mammoth Hot Springs, in the northern corner of Yellowstone National Park. A hydrothermal natural wonder, this strange phenomenon is a remnant of a volcanic eruption some six hundred thousand years ago.

As darkness fell, mist rose off the tiers of eerie green, travertine pools. Heat-loving bacteria looked like rust streaks running down a limestone layer cake. The cascading, white blankets of calcium carbonate were many thousands of years in the making.

The layered terraces of steaming ponds enveloped the bases of the surrounding fir trees. Sulfurous plumes crept along the surface of the pools, as if nature was brewing secret demons within these bubbling cauldrons.

(How to Write Vivid Descriptions.)

I blew on my hands to warm them as a snowshoe hare hopped across my path along the wooden boardwalk, his ears half-cocked. He was not yet in his winter coat. It was now so cold that the warmth of the scalding, hot springs seemed particularly inviting. Unfortunately, I was too exhausted to make a side trip to the only spring safe for a hot soak. Perhaps next time.

My short trip to Yellowstone, despite its occasional discomforts, worked its magic. I felt revived and renewed. I am not the only one to experience this, of course. Ten thousand years or so of a more sedentary, agrarian, and now suburban and urban lifestyle haven’t fundamentally changed habits formed over millennia. We like to be outside and on the move.

The anticipation of travel is a stress release, and people who take regular vacations are less likely to have heart disease or heart attacks. These benefits happen both during the trip and later when reminiscing. Most importantly as a writer, they provide us with a fresh perspective and inspired prose.

The experiences of travel stimulate the brain to develop new neurons, which contributes to more creative thinking and novel ideas. But these studies only confirm what we discover directly when we leave the house, journey somewhere new, meet new people, and immerse ourselves in our stunning natural world. A must do for any writer, whether travel, nature, sports or political—fresh air and a fresh perspective are the key to keeping your mind sharp and your words insightful.

*****

This post was an adapted excerpt from Chapter 10: Travel and Migration Rituals of Wild Rituals by Caitlin O’Connell. Find the book today!

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The post For the Travel and Nature Writer: Keeping Your Mind Sharp and Words Insightful appeared first on Writer's Digest.

This guest post is by Jennifer Magnuson who won the Oregon Journalism Education Association’s Pica Stick Award for Outstanding Journalism in 1988 while taking summer seminars at Southern Oregon State and is the author of Peanut Butter and Naan. Her work has appeared in Brain, Child and Bitch magazine, along with various websites including Mamazine, The Imperfect Parent, Sanity Central, Top Blog Magazine (now Blog Nosh), and her own blog, Get in the Car. Get in the Car was nominated for best humor blog in the 2007 Blogger’s Choice Awards. In 2008, Jennifer was approached by Nickelodeon to help launch their parenting website, Parents Connect. Jennifer recently returned from Abu Dhabi and now lives in Oregon with her husband and five children. Visit Jennifer on her website, jenniferhillmanmagnuson.com.

I wanted to document our time living and traveling overseas so that our experiences as newly-minted expats would not soon be forgotten. The twelve-and-a-half hour time difference made communication with the United States difficult, so I created a private blog to share stories with friends and family back home.

As the months passed, I realized that the act of writing about that which was all around me enabled me to see and remember details I might miss with a camera, or – more precariously – my own memory. The more I wrote, the more I noticed, and the more I wanted to continue to observe and create a record for posterity. [Like this quote?— Click here to Tweet it!] I t was a delicious cycle for a writer; having suffered my fair share of writer’s block I was delighted to discover that being surrounded by the unfamiliar was perfect fuel for what I call writer’s lust. Wanderlust, of course, is often the precursor.

[Learn about Freelance Writing: 10 Ways to Satisfy Editors & Land More Assignments]

Life in India meant coping with frequent brownouts that rendered technology obsolete; instant gratification and high speed internet often fell by the wayside, necessitating the purchase of my first notebook from an artist cooperative in the former French Colony of Pondicherry, on the Bay of Bengal. Bound in handmade paper the color of saffron and embossed with the golden outline of a lotus flower, it was a wise purchase. Resuming the practice of writing in longhand was more than a way to write when the electricity went out; the cadence of putting pen to paper became a metaphor for the pace of life in India as I adjusted to the slower cultural flow of life outside of the United States.

I still carry this notebook, now lovingly tattered, alongside iPads and laptops to Europe, The Middle East and everywhere in between. The act of recording the beauty that is born from the sheer otherness of places far from home is now my primary concern, the method is always secondary.

As the years pass, it has also become clear to me that a beautifully bound travel album isn’t enough to memorialize an experience. With each year that slips behind me, my recollections become as sepia-toned and blurred as the pictures themselves.

I hold in my hand a picture of a street vendor in India squatting next to a hand-woven basket of peanuts. But without my travel journal, would I remember that the nuts were roasted in red sand? Would I remember the small, wiry man and how he ran, barefoot, to catch up with our moving car to toss us a hot, steaming bag as we slowly navigated the crowded streets of Faridibad? In ten years – five, even – will I recall how, after greedily shelling nuts, the peanuts stained the tips of my fingers ocher, how this made me feel like an Indian bride fresh from her mehndi ceremony? Had I not scribbled my observations in my journal, I’m certain I would have forgotten how the air smelled of kachoris; how they dripped with clarified butter onto hissing coals, the aroma of spiced lentils and vegetables fried golden brown sending a beckoning finger of scent into our car.

One of the stories I shared via the blog made its way into the hands of a literary agent (with whom I shared a mutual friend), and when I returned home to Nashville, TN she asked me to write the first two chapters of what was to become my first book, a travel memoir about our time in India called Peanut Butter and Naan: Stories of an American Mom in the Far East. My belongings, along with the notebook, were still on a boat en-route to America. I began writing the chapters, confident that my recollections would suffice. It wasn’t until I finally unearthed my notebook from the last of the packing crates that I realized how much had escaped me in a few short months. A random flip to a page confirmed this.

[Memoir or Novel? 8 Issues to Think About Before Writing Your Own Story]

I am going to see the Taj Mahal with someone I hardly know these days – myself. Our car hurtles past a semiarid landscape punctuated with splashes of red, gold, and fuchsia bougainvillea climbing implausibly over stone walls surrounded by dust and rocks. Peacocks perch themselves on boulders, sharing space with the cows, ducks, horses, chickens, and occasional monkey that make up the incredible roadside wildlife found in this region.

We whiz past towering white-stone temples with tinny Hindi music bleating from loudspeakers affixed to spindly turrets with a little wire and luck. It’s such a contrast with the southern state of Tamil Nadu, where I live, where temples sprout up between concrete buildings on every street in a riot of colors and faces and arms, every towering inch a jumbled mass of gods and goddesses. We wind through the village of Faridibad, whose aesthetics are more like those of my temporary Indian home with its piles of trash, water buffalo, and hogs alongside each other in the muck. Street dogs with long, sad-looking teats (which look disturbingly familiar and cause me to straighten up from my slouch) push tiredly at bright cans and boxes, unmindful of the potential slaughterhouse of cars just feet away.

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Nearly every word from this journal made it into my revised chapter, now part of the book. I had forgotten these small details, and even if I weren’t journaling with the intent of publication, I am content knowing these notes forever cement the vignettes of my travel in a way a picture cannot.

As much as I adore my travel photos, a camera limits me to what I see through the viewfinder. Journaling expands how much I notice, enabling me to absorb my surroundings in a way a photograph cannot. Not only does travel writing help create a time capsule of sorts, it fosters my ability to remain present, allowing for the transformative nature of travel to encompass all of my senses. And, as a writer, I am better able to place a reader in scene if I have remembered to capture the ephemeral details such as the scents, sounds and feelings of a particular moment.

I hold another photo in my hands, this one of my youngest, a baby at the time, sitting on a veranda in the sleepy beachside town of Mamallapuram, India with a red plastic bucket on his head. What would I remember, ten years from now, had I only this memento? That he played in the sand with his one bucket brought over from the United States? My journal entry from that day tells a different story.

We are finally here. It has the air of a place forgotten. Our relative solitude underscores the feeling that we have somehow stepped into another time. The air is thick with dragonflies – they are enormous, zipping around like bright blue helicopters. Henry and I are relaxing on the veranda while Bob and the older kids chase down an elderly man leading his herd of goats along the beach. It is high tide. I lost sight of them after they passed the brightly-colored canoes that dot the shoreline just beyond the palm trees. Henry and I need to investigate.

Without my journal, I fear the photo, dusted off years from now would just be baby Henry, adorable in his red plastic bucket hat. And so, when my travels take me from home, I am quick to remember that each beautiful photograph I take has its own story, begging to not be forgotten, and the pages of my journal whisper, take me with you. Remember.

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Brian A. Klems is the editor of this blog, online editor of Writer’s Digest and author of the popular gift bookOh Boy, You’re Having a Girl: A Dad’s Survival Guide to Raising Daughters.

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