Calling all budding travel writers, we want your stories. Photo / Supplied
Calling all budding travel writers, we want your stories. Photo / Supplied
Every week, we bring you stories from our team of writers about their travels both near and far. But now it's your turn. We want you to share your best travel stories with us and your fellow readers.
Thanks to Lonely Planet, the lucky winner of our Herald Travel writing competition will win their choice of Lonely Planet books, valued up to $1000. Two runners-up will get a $250 prize pack of Lonely Planet books (Train Travel in Europe, The Travel Book, Best of NZ, Best Day Walks NZ, Gourmet Trails Australia and NZ, Wine Trails of Australia and NZ). The winning stories will be published in upcoming issues of Travel and online at nzherald.co.nz/travel.
Your story should be about the best trip you've ever taken - whether in New Zealand or around the world. To enter, go to nzherald.co.nz/win, fill in your details, then upload your travel story of no more than 500 words, along with a photo of you in the destination you've written about. Your story can be about a trip you've taken recently or pre-pandemic, but it must be a holiday or travel experience of your own, and the story must be original and previously unpublished. Stories will be judged by Herald Travel editor Stephanie Holmes and Lonely Planet's vice-president, experience, Tom Hall.
But what does it take to write a good travel story? Read on for our tips, then get writing! The competition closes on April 8, with winners named in the May 3 issue of Travel.
When it comes to travel writing there is one great unanswered question. Is it an art, a branch of serious journalism, a literary genre in its own right? Or is it a means to get out into the world, the price of a ticket, an excuse for a holiday? If the past two years have shown us anything, the answer is maybe it's a little of both. Take away travel and we've certainly discovered that not being able to write about it - though down the list of downers - has removed some sense of discovery, exploration, even joy. Well, it certainly has for me.
Tom Hall in Mount Tamalpais, California. Photo / Supplied
It is therefore a delight to turn attention to this topic again. But what counts as good? After 20 years of writing for Lonely Planet and newspapers and magazines around the world, I've seen the notion of good travel writing turned upside down more than once. Sure, it's indisputable what has been great in the past: there's a reason why Bruce Chatwin, Dervla Murphy, Patrick Leigh Fermor et al. are still celebrated. Their intimate takes on people and places, with their own adventures weaving in and out of a story, are still essential reading for any aspiring writer. They stand out from the crowd for their ability to place the reader in the heart of a place, to weave in detail that can sometimes be arcane, to entertain and to deliver the feelings that come with exploring the world.
But as we've passed into - and through - an era where there's a need for more information and less inspiration, guidebook and magazine writers have had to focus on clipping their prose in favour of simpler guidance. Short sentences. Keep it to the point. Some writers have questioned whether they're authors or fact-checkers. In fact, good travel writing for guidance is pure service to the reader. The writer is the bridge between the destination and the traveller. Their role is to provide vital and accurate advice at the right time and remove themselves from view in doing so.
The basic tips are still the best whether you're writing for online, periodicals or books. They apply across the board. Write for the reader, not for you. What do they want and need? Make every sentence count. Add colour, but don't waffle. Structure the piece before you start. You'll need to redraft several times. Oh, and feedback is your friend, so get it out there early and often.
Tom Hall in Namibia. Photo / Supplied
In 2022, the globalised world has shifted the definition of good travel writing again. The hottest takes on places come from people living there, challenging the outdated - and some would say colonial - notion of a wanderer wiring home a dispatch for a waiting audience. Writers now do more than write. They use video and photography to bring places to life and tell the story via a variety of mediums old and new. If you want to be a travel writer in 2022, your journey may start by upping your Instagram game.
The good news is that despite all the odds there are still professional travel writers out there - and there's no reason why you shouldn't join our ranks. The first step is to give it a try and get out there.
Tom Hall is vice-president at Lonely Planet and co-author of their new Train Travel Guide to Europe.
TAKE US WHERE WE'VE NEVER BEEN
Stephanie Holmes, NZ Herald
The beauty of a good piece of travel writing is its ability to transport the reader somewhere they've never been. It might even be somewhere they'll never go. But from your words, they can form a picture in their minds of this strange, faraway place - its colours, its sights, its smells. It might even inspire them to book a trip for themselves.
It's not always easy. How many different ways are there to capture the colour of the ocean, the magic of a sunset, the majesty of a mountain, without descending into cliché? That's why it's important to tell us not just what you did and what you saw, but also how your trip made you feel. What did you learn that you never knew before, either about the world or about yourself? Chances are, that connection will resonate in your readers' hearts too.
Stephanie Holmes is the Herald's Travel editor
CUT TO THE JUICY BIT, WHAT CAN'T WAIT?
Winston Aldworth, NZ Herald
Any time you go travelling, something happens that is amazing... or terrible, or disgusting, or heartbreaking, or rock 'n' rolling*. There is always a thing. It's the first thing you tell your mates about once you're home.
"How was Japan?" they ask. "Amazing," you say. "And also disgusting. We ate the sperm sac from a pufferfish."
When you're writing about your travels, figure out what that one hot titbit is that you'd share with your friend (the story, not the sperm sac), and make that the start of your story. The "first-thing-you-tell-your-mates" test is the surest way of finding the sharpest intro for your story — and it will often unfold to reveal a theme for the whole piece.
Other than that, get local people into your yarn, make notes about how things smell and taste and don't be afraid to piss people off with what you write.
* If when you go travelling, nothing happens that is amazing, terrible, disgusting, heartbreaking or rock 'n' rolling, then you certainly shouldn't be travel writing and you probably shouldn't bother travelling.
Winston Aldworth was Herald Travel editor for seven years. He's now NZME's head of sport
