“The secret of becoming a writer is to write…and keep on writing.”
Ken MacLeod, writer
Excellent, now you have:
• the right destination
• the right angle
• the right market
• the right images and you have secured interest from an editor.
All in the Mind
But what’s happening?
Starting, stopping, can’t do it…
Are you suffering from writer’s block?
I have good news:
Writer’s block does not exist, it’s all in the mind, a lack of confidence or an excuse to be idle so all you have to do is change your mind set.
Facts, anecdotes, you have it all, what’s stopping you?
Adopt a ‘can do’ attitude, decide what you will write and when, then get on with it. You owe it to yourself. Make it a habit and rewards will be greater than you ever imagined.
Here are three easy steps to help you start:
Decide what you want to ‘visit’ along the way and plan the best route, for instance:
Destination: Tenerife
Market: holiday magazine (self-catering)
Word count: 1000
What to include? beaches, theme parks, boat trips (watching whales and dolphins), soft adventure (volcano by cable car).
Four sections, 220-250 words each, allowing for beginning and end, flexibility allowed.
The route? Start with whales and dolphins (action scene), then beaches and related activities, followed by inland adventure (would the kids like a change?) and ending with a bang, theme parks/family fun.
Cold starts don’t work for cars or for me. Many of my students feel the same. Give us a sheet of paper, a theme, 100 words to write in 15 minutes, and more often than not, the page is blank or leads nowhere. Your mind is your friend, give it time to think, mull over your ideas and when it is ready, it will let you know.
Do your thinking when you’re cooking, cleaning the car or cycling home from work and you will realize that physical activity increases blood flow to the brain and makes it more alert. No more staring at your computer, waiting for inspiration, it’s a waste of time and does nothing to uplift mood or mind.
For many writers, the best time to think is bedtime. I don’t mean staying up all night, just go to sleep thinking about the start of your feature, or maybe the next step, and by morning, it will all come to the fore and you’ll be raring to go. Try it, it works, 90 per cent of the time.
Better still, don’t begin until the first paragraph is written in your mind, bursting to come out, and if you have done your planning well, the only thing you’ll miss out on is the insidious ‘writers’ block’.
Identify your best writing time, that’s when your mind is most alert and you don’t feel sluggish or stressed. Some of us work best in the morning, others late at night. Many suffer a bit of a dip after lunch, not quite a siesta, but the brain seems to move in slow motion, dreaming, musing, procrastinating. Use your low time for relaxation, exercise or answering emails, you’ll feel better for it, ready to get back to work as soon as the cloud has passed.
• Decide what you will cover in your article.
Weed out anything irrelevant to your theme or readers and if that happens to be your best anecdote, save it for another time.
• Sort out your ideas into sections, set a rough word count for each one.
What will you include in each section? You can’t cover every beach or theme park, which ones will you select and why?
• Decide on the beginning (your most exciting but relevant bit) and end (your second best).
• Map a route to move with ease from one section to the next.
Start to Finish
What does that mean?
Beginning, middle and end.
Obvious, boring?
Not at all, this is how it works.
‘Sri Lanka is an island off the south east coast of India.’
So what? Either I know that, so don’t tell me, and if I don’t, it does not entice me to read on.
The first line of your feature is the most important. Grab attention straightaway and the editor will continue to read, fail to do that and they’ll give up within minutes. No point hiding a gem on page two if no one gets there.
How do you grab attention?
Here are some ideas:
• A surprising fact or statistics:
“Did you know the Great Wall of China has just got longer?”
• An amusing quote or sign:
“Do not enter a woman” (Bali temple, no entry for women)
• A must-read-on opening sentence:
“The tyrant’s head fell with a thump, just feet away” (statue)
• A close up scene:
“A freak storm whipped up the waves, the boat pitched and rolled, tall and slim, the perfect shape to capsize in the Gulf of Tonkin”
• An anecdote:
“All was going well until the bull appeared”
• A topical link:
“The Prince beat me to it. He got to Bollywood before I did but I doubt he had as much fun…”
• An intriguing start:
“It all began on April’s Fool Day…”
• Humor:
“Sleeping with 200 monks? Wow, but when I got there, they’d all gone to Taipei, where I’d come from…”
• A sense of impending disaster:
“The problem is, volcanoes tend to erupt and when they do, you’re bound to notice…”
You’ve made a great start, you know what comes next, how do you keep your readers interested all the way through?
One magic phrase, ‘vary the pace’.
• Mix facts and anecdotes, dialogue and description. Imagine this is a tapestry and you’re weaving in a range of colors to create a pattern.
• Change the mood, exciting, quiet, romantic at times or add a little drama or a touch of humor.
• Imagine your writing as hills and vales, highs and lows. If you stay on a high all the time, your readers will get out of breath, sprinkle a few facts here and there and give them a rest. They’ll absorb the information but won’t have time to get bored.
• Vary the length of your sentences. Every word must count so be concise but within reason, or your copy might end up sounding like a machine gun. It’s ok to use conjunctions now and then.
• Avoid hiccups, have smooth transitions: in the evening, later, the next morning, or refer to the previous line, ‘the rain had stopped when we reached…’
• Think of your feature as a film, a story, give it movement and variety. Next time you read fiction or watch a movie, do it with a critical eye, see how the scene changes to keep your attention.
Avoid repeating what you said, summing up or stating the obvious: readers got your point first time round. If you doubt it, you didn’t make it clear, go back and do it. This isn’t a school essay or a TV repeat.
You could expand, perhaps giving a hint of what might happen next, or end with a haunting image or an amusing anecdote, or close the loop: referring to the title, the opening scene – start with dawn, end with sunset -, or a theme that held your story together, a local character appearing here and there, a river mentioned a couple of times.
What do you think of these?
“We emerged from the forest, muddy and tired, ready for a snack and a rest, but the young boa constrictor had beaten us to it, basking in the sunlight across the picnic table. We moved on down the road.” (Trekking in Tobago, the snake appeared earlier on the trail)
“That night, I dreamed of swirling colors and carpets of flowers and a rice barge gliding under the palm fronds, a haunting farewell to God’s Own Country.” (Festival in Kerala, the last words refer to the title)
Leave your readers satisfied and they’ll be keen to follow you.
1. You don’t have to write your story in chronological order, start anywhere exciting then use flashback. Keep your opening paragraph around 50 words. A big chunk of writing at the start often puts people off.
2. Bear your readers in mind all the way through from beginning to middle and end. What sort of tone would appeal to them?
3. Remember your photos, close ups and long shots? Think of your feature in the same way, keep to your theme but offer some variety and readers will stay with you.
“I read your article in…but the first paragraph doesn’t sound like you,” said a colleague, “it’s odd.”
I’m sure the editor had good reason to rewrite the intro, but that wasn’t ‘me’.
Likewise when a feature was wrongly credited (it does happen), my students spotted it straightaway.
So what is your voice?
It’s not just how you write.
It’s the ‘real’ you, the mirror image of your life and personality. It’s your trade mark and if editors and readers like it, you can’t go wrong. It’s hidden deep inside, bring it out, trust it and you’ll do well.
How do you find it?
Do you have a favorite author or travel writer? Ask yourself why you enjoy their work. Is it the content? Would it be the same if some else had written the story? Probably not. Is it the personality that shows through, witty, humorous, casual, knowledgeable, romantic? Most of all, is it the passion, the excitement you can sense?
You’ve got it, passion is the key: if you love what you’re writing, it will show, if you don’t, it will leave the readers cold. Follow in the footsteps of writers you admire, read as much as you can, consider the market but do it in your own way (see Handy Hints for Writers by Lynne Hackles). Let intuition be your guide.
Do you keep a journal? Read it back from time to time. It won’t be polished but it is ‘you’ and that’s what you’re looking for. Your journal is like talking to a friend. Some of the best travel writing sounds just like that, with a little gloss of course and attention to market.
Now and then, allow yourself to write for fun. Choose a word or a theme and see what you can write in ten or twenty minutes. Let it flow, don’t worry about style or ideas, any nonsense will do. It might cast a little light deep inside you. Do it now, take a break, enjoy and surprise yourself.
Next time you write a feature, read it out loud. Does it sound like you or did you stop to re-read a sentence, a turn of phrase? Maybe that was borrowed and it wasn’t you.
How do you feel when you close your laptop?
Elated?
Confident you tried your best?
Did you have fun?
If so, your passion will shine through, well done.
Your voice isn’t only about telling a story, it’s the way you tell it.
Your voice is unique, it shows what sort of person you are, what you care about, how you experience a journey and the world.
Your voice will change over time, as you do, let it reflect whoever you are.
Do it in Style
It’s easy when you know how.
A couple of words at the top of the page should be enough to help you focus. If you can think of a good title, such as a pun or alliteration, put it in but don’t sweat over the small stuff or use it as an excuse to procrastinate. Most editors like to make up their own titles.
Sometimes, you get a flash of inspiration when you’ve finished your piece. If it matches your theme, go for it but don’t take it personally if the editor has other ideas.
Fiction or features, that’s the golden rule.
How do we apply this to articles?
This is what two writers might say about a resort:
‘There were lots of activities, from scuba diving and fishing to aerobics, beach volley ball, pedalos, banana boats, parasailing, windsurfing…’
‘Daunted by the activity board, I headed for the pool and chilled out all day…’
What’s the difference?
The first one tells – facts could go in a side box -, it’s static, reads like a tourist brochure; the second shows you a scene, you see the writer looking at the board then walking away, you smile and empathize.
So don’t tell me how uncomfortable it was sleeping in a tent, show me what it was like when you stumbled out in the early dawn, your back aching, your legs shaking as you headed down to the icy torrent…
• Include details, but be selective, choose those that tell a story or paint a picture: the Buddhist monk with a crash helmet under his arm, the ten year old child mouthing words as she pretends to read like her friends.
• Add a few names, places, people, birds, rivers, trees, choose those easy to read.
• Explain discreetly, what is a langur? Mention ‘the langur monkey preening its white beard’.
• Use plain language, especially when recording a dramatic event:
“Tashi was ten. He lifted his basket, fixed the rope across his forehead but as bricks fell out, it slipped around his neck. He died instantly. His father arrived within minutes. How much compensation will I get? he asked.” End of story. The simpler the language, the more effective it is.
• Use original metaphors, but sparingly, the shivering dawn, the ringing stones.
• Remember the senses, all of them. When you’ve written the last word, go back and check. No sound, no smell? Think again, they were there.
• Choose action rather than static verbs: ‘her red sari fluttered in the breeze’ rather than ‘she wore a red sari’, but don’t do it every single time.
• Use the passive voice if the active will do: ‘she was chased by a dog, barking right behind her’, ‘the dog chased her, barking at her heels’, fewer words, more impact.
• Use vague qualifiers, such as quite, rather, fairly, very…Make up your mind, ‘it was fairly expensive’, what does that mean?
• Pepper your copy with exclamation marks to stress important points, your words should be strong enough.
• Use adjectives that don’t paint a picture: what is the ‘beautiful’ scenery, the ‘pretty’ girl, the ‘awesome’ shrine? I can’t picture them, can you?
• Use clichés, that’s for the brochures, you should do better. Forget the azure sky, the tumbling waterfalls, the blue Mediterranean. The same goes for people, not all Thai are ‘smiling’, not all French eat frogs.
• Indulge in purple prose, waxing lyrical about the people, the scenery, it isn’t cool any more.
• Pad with trivia because you’re short of words. Every word, every idea must have a reason to be there so think again.
What could you add that would be relevant?
• Include foreign or difficult words unless it’s essential. If you stumble on a word, so will your readers. Keep it simple.
1. Always bear your market in mind, what is right for one may not be for another; most publications loathe clichés for instance but a few love them.
2. Don’t take anything to extremes, too much of a good thing is as bad for your writing as it would be for you.
3. Read as much as you can, in various genres, and make a list of original expressions, striking vocabulary, turn of phrase, transitions, not to plagiarize but to inspire you. The more you read, the better your writing will be.
Listen to Stephen King:
“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have time to write. Simple as that.”
Face the Challenge
Suggested answers at the end of this section.
Rewrite this paragraph in less than 30 words but keep the main points:
‘Our guide was a top expert. She knew everything about the island and could answer all the questions we asked. We were still suffering from jetlag but we listened to every word she said and even when it started to rain, nobody in the group went back to the coach.’
Here are a few clichés. Can you be original? You may write a full sentence if it helps.
snow-capped mountains
nestling in a valley
winding alleyways
freezing cold
pouring with rain
Imagine you are walking along a river.
Make a list of action verbs, put them in sentences if you wish, banning any part of the verb ‘to be’ (is, are, was, were…). Think of yourself, the river, the people you meet, what you see and hear, all the senses.
Here’s a list of colors, can you make them more vivid without using clichés?
Example: red
Cliché ‘blood red’, better ‘earthy red’
Try the following:
blue, green, white, yellow, grey
Paint a picture. Rewrite the following so the scene comes to life. Expand if you wish but no more than two sentences for each one.
The mountain views were stunning
The market was full of local color
The train ride was very bumpy
My only traveling companion was a monk who wore an orange robe
The child played with a sharp knife
These are only suggestions and if yours are better, that’s brilliant…
Challenge 1:
Our guide, the island’s top expert, could answer any question and despite jetlag, we listened intently. Even when it began to rain, none of us returned to the coach.
Challenge 2:
In the vast Himalayan landscape, fresh snow softened the peaks…
Cradled in the fold of the hills, a village beckoned…
Alleyways climbed up the slopes in twists and turns and dark mysterious corners…
We woke to frozen skies and a sharp crunchy frost…
The rain drummed on the tin roofs, the road, the trees, blinding…
Challenge 3:
You: stroll, amble, hurry, chat, muse, watch, look up or down
River: rush, tumble (over stones, weir), flow, glisten, ripple, lap (the shore), shimmer, mirror, reflect
People: jog, picnic, fish, doze, cycle, throw (stones)
Other: twitter (birds), stir (creature in a bush), rustle (leaves), linger (smells, scents), shift (light), sweep (clouds), drop (nut), scamper (squirrel).
Challenge 4:
Blue: slate, intense, cornflower blue
Green: acid, apple, sage green
White: sugary, silky white, bleached
Yellow: coppery gold, honey-colored, pale bronze
Grey: dove, steely, greenish grey
Challenge 5:
All around us, peaks rose crystal sharp, reaching for the sky…
Wild mushrooms and garlic jostled for space among asparagus, olives, tomatoes the size of your hand, gingerbread, honey and 45 kinds of sausages.
The train jolted and jerked, right, left, back and forth, no chance for a drink. How far to the next station?
Slumped in the corner, the monk tightened the orange robe around his shoulders and went to sleep. He was my only companion …
I shuddered as the toddler picked up a 10 inch knife and ran his fingers along the blade. Father smiled, mother took no notice.
The time has come for the real thing, let’s take a deep breath and put it all into practice, one step at a time.
1. Take another look at your market and make sure your plan is right.
2. Need more research? Do it before you start and set a time limit so you won’t procrastinate.
3. Is your opening paragraph ready? Great, time to get in the mood.
4. Wear the silk shawl you bought at the market, light the incense, switch the music on and you’re back where you want to be.
5. Write, write, write…
But don’t polish as you go, that breaks the flow.
Later when you have completed your first draft:
• Re-read the section about style and cut out redundant words and clichés.
• Check the senses, telling details and action verbs.
• Look out for repetition, ideas, phrases, small words that tend to litter the copy. Common culprits include ‘with, as, while, just, but, where, so’, use the ‘find’ option on your toolbar and take a few out.
• Be ruthless. No one enjoys cutting but it’s like pruning a bush, your copy will gain strength.
• Finally, read your work aloud.
Does it sound good? Does it flow naturally? Is there rhythm in your words?
If you need to re-read a sentence or a word, you need to change it.
Have fun and I’ll see you in a day or two!