No matter where you go and what you do, you’ll always return from travelling with a few interesting stories to tell!

Well, with the right expert advice and tutoring, you could soon be one of the many travel writers out there who make money from their own holiday and travel stories!

Below is a small taster of the sort of thing you would learn, once enrolled on a travel writing course.

Task!

Write 100 words on each of the following, using the appropriate language:

• Describe your favourite foreign destination to a 70-year-old maiden aunt.
• Describe your last holiday to a five-year-old.
• Describe your worst travel experience to a 16-year-old boy.

You should find that each bit of writing was completely different – because you were writing for a different target audience. There’s no point in being proud about improving YOUR writing style. You shouldn’t have one! You should be able to change your style according to the reader – or not bother.

So – having looked at the need to write targeted articles, we move onto the next challenge for the freelance writer. What do we write?

Coming up with some ideas

1. As we said at the start of the E-book, start where you are: your interests, the things you, your family or friends have done, or experienced, can be turned into features.
2. Write about places you have been to.
3. Write about different modes of travel you have used.
4. Write about holidays/trips that involve your hobby, special interest or qualification.
5. Write articles that give advice for holidays/trips you have been on.
6. Look in the dictionary – pick a word at random and them write down 5 possible article ideas. For instance: take the word ‘single’ …

• How the single currency will affect holiday travel.
• Why do travel agents discriminate against single people?
• Holiday reviews for the young, free and single.
• A singlemum’s trip to Barcelona/Riviera/wherever.
• A single ticket to Thailand/Morocco/wherever.

Or try the word ‘chocolate’ …

• A chocolate lover’s guide to Paris/Toronto/wherever.
• Chocolate holidays.
• Chocolates of the world.
• The chocolate shops of Madrid/Bangkok/wherever.
  • Chocolate recipes for rainy days on your caravan holiday.

1. Get ideas from other peoples’ articles. A local paper has a filler about a man who has won a chess competition. You could write an article on chess holidays. The Times Education Supplement has an article about a 6-year-old boy genius. You could develop it into a feature on holidays for brainy kids.  See every article, letter and even advert you read as a starting point for a new, original piece of work for another publication. The more unusual your ideas, the more likely they are to get used.
    
2. Look for categories – you may have interviewed someone, or read about someone, who has become the oldest person to go hang gliding. So why not try to write travel features about the youngest, the unlikeliest, the worst?
    
3. Look for spin-offs – while writing one article, you might get an idea for another. For instance, you might write an article in which you mention the back-streets of Cannes. This could be developed into a series of features on … ‘the back-streets of …’
    
4. Listen out for the unusual and outrageous.
    
5. Look for seasons – there is a huge market for travel articles about Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day, Halloween etc, providing you can come up with something original. But you need to be thinking several months ahead.
    
6. Recycling – could one article be re-written or refocused for use in a different publication – abroad, maybe?
    
7. Follow-ups – revisit articles six months or a year later. Have there been any spin-offs?
    
8. Fill the Editor’s shoes – get hold of a magazine, analyse it thoroughly, and then sit down and write as many possible article ideas as you can.
    
9. If you’re stuck – then try buying a book called The Writer’s Block. It provides hundreds of ways to stimulate ideas. It’s by Jason Rekaluk, ISBN 0-7624-0948-7. 
    
10. Write about people you have met on your holidays – taxi drivers, hotel porters, fellow travellers, travel couriers, market stall traders.
     
11. Try to come up with original themes for your articles: Five things to avoid … Getting the best out of … How not to lose your temper in … How to lose your virginity in … (!?)

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