Flightster

Professional Travel Writing and Not Being the New Karouac

• by Colin Wright
• on October 25th, 2010
• 3 Comments

I always chuckle a little when people call me a travel writer because I don’t really consider myself one.

I’m a writer, and I travel, but a travel writer? Nahhhh. I’ll leave that chore to more idealistic and focused people than myself.

But here I am, finding myself doing more and more ‘travel writing,’ and getting more and more emails asking ‘Dear Colin, how do I become a travel writer? I mean, like one where they’ll pay me? Because I really want to see some koalas? And how do you get your hair to look like that?’

The answers to these questions are: I’ll tell you below; it’s more difficult to get paid well than you’d think; is that really a question?; and, the secret ingredient is ‘adventure.’

The thing about travel writing is that like being an astronaut or the President or a professional hula-hoopist, it looks like it’s a piece of cake; all you have to do is float around, wear nice suits and hula-hoop all day. This leads people to want to be a travel WRITER, when in reality what they want to do is TRAVEL.

I mean, obviously there is a good deal of travel involved with travel writing. You’ve got to be where you’re writing about, otherwise all we’d have to fantasize about would be thinly-fleshed-out retrospectives on a resort cobbled together by algorithms pulling facts from Google. You’d find out what time the place is open, how much it costs and what amenities to expect, but you wouldn’t get the sexy travel-porn we’ve come to expect with the really meaty stuff.

The thing is, in most cases YOU have to pay for that travel.

That’s right, unless you’re a top-dog, cruising around for National Geographic, wearing a safari hat, etc, you’ve got to foot your own bill, and that can add up quickly (those safari hats aren’t cheap!). Few and far between are the writers who can afford to live such a lifestyle (hell, I couldn’t on my travel writing alone – I run multiple businesses to be able to afford my travels!), and most find themselves having to come up with supplementary income just to be able to work as a travel writer.

In some cases, you will get freebies if you become well-known enough as a travel writer. I haven’t been doing this for too long, but already I sometimes get recognized or one of my readers will call ahead to let their friend who runs Chez So-and-So in Bangkok know that I’ll be around and that they should send me an invite for a free meal.

I’m not going to lie, these handouts are awesome, but because of the aforementioned budgeting issues, it also leads many travel writers to focus their attentions almost exclusively on the places that are on-the-ball with handouts for writers, and that means you may not get a whole lot of variety.

So yeah, travel writing sucks and it’s bad for the world and I hear the safari hats are from a safari ride at Disney Land. May as well go home and get a real job. See you later! *clomp clomp clomp creeeeeeeek SLAM*

Are they gone?

So now that I’ve scared away the weak of heart (I’m picturing them running back home, clutching their English degrees to their chests and shouting ‘I thought for SURE I had found a way to use my education to make money!’ at the sky), the rest of you who are just crazy enough to still be here are going to get a dose of hardcore, travel writing reality.

How does one actually become a travel writer?

There are a few ways to go about it, and most will leave you unhireable in a traditional corporate setting, so keep that in mind if you want to go down this path.

The first is to realize that if you write like everyone else writes, you probably won’t make a cent off travel writing.

Once more with emphasis, because this is the biggest mistake I see being made: DON’T WRITE LIKE ANYONE ELSE. Don’t follow the formulas taught to you in school. Don’t follow a writing course that tells you how to write your article. Don’t take other people’s advice to mean ‘copy me, do as I do.’

Don’t mimic your favorite travel writer; if I see another young Karouac or Krakauer hoping to get discovered for their ‘original writing style,’ I’m going to blow up the Internet, LOLcats and all.

Be unique, because now that everyone has the means to travel relatively cheaply and everyone has an opinion, a blog and a Yelp page, the only thing setting you apart from every other Joe Traveler out there is your voice. Keep it unique and you can’t be replaced.

Second, don’t get taken for a fool.

There are a million sites out there that will gladly accept your work and make money off it without sharing a dime (or maybe only sharing a dime) with you, the writer.

If you are going to be a professional writer, your content becomes your everything. Your most well-written piece should be treasured like a kidney, not given away, willy-nilly, like an appendix. Make sure you’re selling it for the right price, or giving it away for the right connections or exposure. If you’re getting none of these things, pick up your typewriter and saddle up to another rodeo (mixed metaphor included to remind you about maintaining your own sttyyylllleee).

Third, write all the damn time.

You shouldn’t even be reading this, you should really be writing at this very moment.

It took me a little while to grow comfortable writing stories about traveling, and it took me even longer to completely unify those writings with my other, more practiced writing style, which is a lot more journalistic and columnist-like.

I started writing professionally YEARS ago, and though I can whip out a solid article or blog post pretty quickly now, this hasn’t always been the case, nor have I always been able to create something that I’m happy with and get it send out before a deadline. These are things that only come with practice and more practice.

If you aren’t able to produce high quality-content when you need to, quickly and concisely, you need more practice. In fact, I need more practice. We all need more practice. That’s the nature of the beast. The more you write, the better you will get, no exceptions. I write for a lot of different blogs on a lot of different topics because I know that with every post I create I get a little bit better at writing.

So if you write 500 words per day, you’ll be in good shape. If you write 750, you’ll be in better shape. If you write more than that, you’ll be golden, because the more you churn out, the more you’ll see what works and the more accustomed you’ll get to the process of being creative and putting that creativity down on a (digital) page.

If you’re still excited about the prospect of travel writing and you’re willing to put in the work (and continued work – potentially in another field – to help fund the whole thing), awesome, welcome to the party! It’ll be a long road, but I’m looking forward to seeing what you produce.

If not, no worries. There are plenty of other jobs that will pay you enough so that you can afford to travel regularly, no writing necessary (except for a Tweet or two, so your friends feel jealous…it’s an important part of the travel experience).

Colin Wright

Colin Wright is a minimalist, branding expert and serial entrepreneur. While running his blog Exile Lifestyle ,his branding studio Colin Is My Name and his e-publishing business ebookling. Colin travels the world (moving to a new country every 4 months), meeting up with amazing people, giving talks (to audiences ranging from tech industry professionals to college students to Catholic school girls) and hunting down new and interesting experiences.