The Mechanics of a Good Travel Article

 You are sharing your experience with someone who may never visit where your are; make them want to go. Give them reasons to want to go; add interesting side trips, activities and restaurants. Give links to lodging alternatives and "insider tips" (like don't visit rural Maine in May without a large can of insect repellant) to show that you really have visited this place and know it well.

Be absolutely sure that you've proofread your article before you submit it for publication! Nothing says unprofessional more than errors or typos.

 

The ideal travel article makes the reader either feel like they're right there with you, or that they can't wait to go. How do you accomplish this? By bringing in all of your senses to describe what you see (not just a beach, but a turquoise beach gently lapping the pink sand), what you hear (the cry of the seagulls overhead and the delighted squeals of a small child knee deep in the water), what you smell (someone is having a BBQ nearby, the salt water, the scents of a multitude of suntan lotions), what you are feeling/touching (the soft sand, like talcum powder, the hot sun on your back) and what you are either tasting (an icy pina colada) or are about to eat (the fried calamari with jerk spices). The idea is to show the reader through his/her senses. Using the suggestions above, which one of these two mini articles sounds more inviting to you?

I'm at the beach and it's a sunny day. Lots of children play in the wake as gulls fly overhead. The sand is really nice. It's smells nice here; lots of different scents. The drink I'm having is good and cold--just what the doctor ordered.

-or-

A small red-headed girl squeals with delight as she jumps in the turquoise water; her bright red bathing suit matches the pail and shovel nearby. The talcum-like sand beneath me makes a comfortable seat as I sip my brain-freeze-cold strawberry Daiquiri and wait for my spicy Conch chowder and even spicier jerk chicken salad that is to be delivered to my blanket shortly. If I closed my eyes right now, at first it would seem as though it is very quiet here on this almost deserted beach, but then I would notice the seagulls squabbling nosily, the soft lap of the small waves upon the sand just feet from me, and the splash that the Pelicans make when they dive into the water twenty feet away. The sun is at my back and getting ready to set and has already lost some of its heat. The scent of the salt water and the cooking food is almost too much to bear!

Now you can see in your brain's eye where I am and what I'm doing; which did you want more - the daiquiri or the jerk chicken?

One exercise that has helped me immensely when I am writing a travel article is to quickly write down the basic things I am noticing at my location. It's: hot, smells like cigarette smoke and stale beer, shabby shack with no windows, peeling paint around the windows, and so on. From these words and phrases, I would go to my ever-at-the-ready Thesaurus and I would start looking for words that might be more discriptive. Hot, for instance, might become blistering or igneous. Likewise, stale might become fetid or musty or even stagnant. This will help you find just the right word.

Another great way to show? Great photos! Whenever you are visiting a location that you think worthy of an article or review, take twenty times more photos than you think you will need. Take some at a verticle angle (you just never know when you might just have a feature and they want a verticle angle for the cover!) Become very good friends with your camera so shooting photos is second nature. Another great thing about taking photos is that they are great reminders for your prose.

 Sometimes you write the article first and choose a hook (title or sub-title) from its words. What works better for me is to write a great title first, because it automatically tells me the direction in which to take the article, narrowing the scope and making it more concise.  Either way you do it, the Hook is what makes a person decide whether or not they are going to invest their time in reading your article. That especially is true for editors--think of all the thousands of titles that pass over their desk or on their computers! In order for them to choose you article, it better grab them and, hopefully, the article will keep them hooked.

If you wrote an article about the Inn of Garland Maine (doesn't exist), you might title your article "The Inn at Garland, Maine"  which isn't very original. A better, but not perfect title might be "Inn the Know in Garland, Maine."  How about "Garland rings INN the new year!"  Keep working until you feel that the title is as perfect as you can make it.