Pubspeaks

Creative Travel Writing Techniques

By Melissa Dittmann, WIW Member

As you write a travel article, take readers on a journey to capture the mystery and charm of a location and its people, said travel writer and author C.M. Mayo, who spoke at WIW’s Feb. 8 Pubspeak.

Mayo encourages writers to incorporate creative writing techniques like dialogue and imagery to create a vivid dream or virtual reality for readers using a novelist's approach.

She said it comes down to three main techniques:

Appeal to the Senses

Mayo said that when she is at a location, she jots down how the place feels, smells and taste. In other words, it’s about “showing” and not just telling, she said.

Dialogue

Use dialogue to depict what people are like and where they are from, she suggested.A literary travel article often is more about the people than the place. Dialogue can be used to help show something about a character, conflict, mood or relationship.

Imagery

Mayo stressed the need for metaphors, similes, allusion and personification to enliven travel pieces. In Robert Isaacson’s The Healing Land: The Bushmen and the Kalahari Desert, instead of writing “it was dawn,” he wrote: “We drove on, the morning growing in the sky to our left.”

“Writing what feels flat and not as vivid can be pumped up a lot with imagery,” Mayo said. She recommended incorporating at least one imagery device per page.

Other techniques include experimenting with the story’s viewpoint, the narrative structure or creating a rhythm to your piece that draws from poetic devices.

Literary travel articles appear in commercial magazines, newspapers and literary magazines. For a list of literary magazines, visit www.clmp.org. For additional tips on literary travel writing, visit Mayo’s Web site at www.cmmayo.com.

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