How to Write Travel Stories – a Three-Part Online Course | How To Academy
Search

Fri, 16 October 2020

10:00 am - 11:00 am GMT

How to Write Travel Stories – a Three-Part Online Course

Jonathan Lorie

Led by Britain’s most experienced teacher of travel writing, this course will help you to find your voice and shape your story.

Designed for all levels, from absolute beginners to professionals from other genres, this easy-to-follow course offers a mix of inspiring ideas and inside information to help you practice and enjoy writing about your travels.
Taught over three successive mornings by the acclaimed author, former editor of Traveller magazine and director of the Travellers’ Tales travel writers training agency, Jonathan Lorie, this immersive course will explore the key creative skills, the possibilities of the genre, and the way ahead for you.

At a time when we cannot travel, we can find time to capture and reflect on the experiences we have had, from the highly personal to the completely farcical, and this course will help you to write about them all.

Fri 16 Oct – Session One: Finding your way in travel writing
Travel is a wonderfully open genre that welcomes all kinds of story – memoir, comedy, adventure, history, journalism, nature, even fiction. This session looks at where your travel stories might fit in this wide-ranging field and how to use two core concepts: the quest and the first-person narrator. It concludes with a look at a recommended reading list of classic travel authors.

Fri 23 Oct – Session Two: Finding your voice
This highly practical session looks at the key writing skills for travel literature and how you can develop them. These include describing places and people, creating action and mood, using symbols, and writing about yourself. We will look at examples of good work and learn how to pick up tricks from successful writers.

Fri 30 Oct – Session Three: Finding your story
This week we look at the hidden art of shaping stories: how you create a compelling structure that turns your actual experience into a satisfying tale which other people will want to read. We will explore different story shapes and the formats involved in writing for publication, including for articles, blogs and books. Finally we consider what is involved in taking the leap and starting on your own writing project.

Jonathan Lorie

Travel writer, magazine editor and author of The Travel Writer’s Way

Jonathan Lorie has two decades’ experience as a travel writer, magazine editor and travel writing tutor. He is the author of The Travel Writer’s Way, the ultimate handbook for travel writers, which was hailed by William Dalrymple as ‘a unique and completely invaluable guide to the dark arts of travel writing’. Formerly the Editor of Traveller magazine, Jonathan writes travel features for national newspapers and magazines and is the Director of Travellers’ Tales, the training agency for travel writers. He has taught writing courses in Europe, Africa and Asia and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He has been a judge of many travel writing awards including the Stanford Dolmen Travel Book Award, the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, the Independent travel writing competition and the annual prize of the British Guild of Travel Writers.