Your travel writing is pithy, funny, and ‘beautifully written’…but does it matter? Josh Johnson wonders how we can make our travel writing more relevant.
RECENTLY I THOUGHT: Does what I write matter? Aside from being a way to express myself, does my writing actually serve a purpose?
It seems to me that most travel writing doesn’t matter. Personal adventures, marketing couched as ‘destination pieces’, and ‘look-how-cool-my-trip-was’ essays seem to make up so much of amateur and even professional travel writing.
Most people don’t seem to mind their travel writing doesn’t matter. They are writing to relive the experience for themselves, or to ‘be creative’, or to try and make money. Which is fine. I do the same.
But I have to ask myself: Why am I writing? Why should I continue? How can I take the next step in my travel writing?
I would like to become much more relevant. I want what I write to matter. And by “matter” I mean be important, relevant, timely, and meaningful to the community at large. To help evolve literary forms, to encourage readers to gain new perspectives. But how?
This is not a post with answers. This is a post with questions.
- Where are the spaces we can fill that traditional writing leaves vacant?
- What stories can we tell that matter?
- What should our goals as individuals and as a community be?
- How can we make our travel, and the writing that comes of it, more timely and relevant?
- What are the elements of relevant travel writing?
- How can we incorporate those elements in our writing?
I put it to you. Please respond in the comments with your thoughts and if your travel writing does indeed matter, tell us why.
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34 Comments... join the discussion!
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I feel you %110 Eva. I believe that the act of writing is first and foremost a gift you give to yourself.
But…
I believe we have a responsibility to step up to. Good writing is an end in itself, yes, but my question is what are we going to do with it? What percentage of the earth’s population have the leisure of creative writing? Of that fraction, how many are creatively inclined? From that even smaller fraction how many have an audience of any sort?
The future history is being written from thousands of computers.
The grapes of wrath is my fav book not because of the amazing writing, it is the social act in the face of disaster in the vehicle of amazing writing.↵ -
An even more important question to ask: “Does my article do damage?” There is “travel writing” and there is “responsible travel writing.” The urge to report on the “hidden places” can ruin local economies — or it can help them immensely. A travel writer must be the arbiter.
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great point Charlie!
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On some level, I think providing entertainment or escape for readers makes you relevant–maybe not in the deeper sense you’re seeking. You’re certainly not going to crumble someone’s worldview by writing about your vacation, but we all need time to sort of step out of our minds and our daily lives, and art–in its many forms–helps us do that. So that, to me, is providing a service.
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Great questions. From a personal viewpoint, I want my travel writing to matter. This is why I am drawn to the political, environmental, and socio-economic part of travel writing. I have always been drawn to the more “controversial” topics that make people think. Ouch! Most people do not like to think. Writing a destination travel piece is not my “cup of tea.” But that’s just me…
Many travel writers are drawn to writing the guidebooks, memoirs, journals, or destination pieces. As long as the information is timely and relevant, the book will serve a purpose. However, you must update it. What happens when a hurricane blows into town and demolishes the restaurants you site in your guidebook? They don’t exist anymore which means you must update your guidebook. Just some food for thought…
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That really is the question, isn’t it! It’s difficult. I partly agree with Eva – that genuinely good writing within any genre is an end in itself, and actively seeking relevance or importance could be counter-productive or even somehow contrived.
However, I feel travel writing has the potential to be very meaningful. The oft-repeated ideas that travel writing can help highlight the universality of humanity whilst celebrating its diversity, and help dispel misconceptions about little-understood places, sound like cliches (perhaps they are) but I believe they are true.
A travel writer has the ability to give a voice to the voiceless, bring a human face to otherwise impersonal places, and tell stories that would otherwise be left untold. From the woman who cooks the sweet potatoes by the roadside in Cairo, to the life of the porter on the Inca Trail, to the eco-tourism initiative in the Tanzanian rainforest, these are stories that provide a window onto humanity, or point towards hope for the future.
Does that make them meaningful? I don’t know. Sadly, another factor has to be the cold hard truth of can you sell stories such as these?
I guess my point is that I’d like to believe a travel writer has the opportunity to dig deeper than the “travel” experience, and investigate the people and issues that underlay the place. Like it or not, travel writing is bound up with all sorts of more “meaningful” issues, such as social justice and the environment. Eco-tourism (with all that implies) is the new black.
That’s my two ideological and inexperienced cents, anyway ; )
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Sorry it took me so long to write that that I didn’t see the other two comments. I agree with both of them too!
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I believe in your ” universality of humanity whilst celebrating its diversity” and I don’t think they are cliches.
The travel writer does have the ability to dig deeper and perhaps effect the conceptions of the soon-to-travel. I agree with everything you are saying…I guess what I am wondering is ~ are we only going to respond to the market demands of travel writing (gotta eat!) while trying also to dig deeper and produce meaningful writing, or are we going to advance our genre and create a new market understanding of travel writing beyond the expected “sun dappled” cliches.Travel has its consequences. As does how we portray our travels.
what are these consequences and how can we address them?
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I think writers have no choice but to respond to the gotta-eat market demands for their writing. The more you rely on writing for income, I guess the more important these pressures become.
If writers do yearn to write pieces which – in their opinion – have more depth and meaning (and I attach no value judegement here), then I think it’s possible to do that along with the bread-and-butter that pays the bills.
As for advancing the genre, it seems constantly to be evolving. With Internet publishing, writers can produce whatever sort of content they want, and build an audience around it.
As many others have said, for more eloquently than I could, it’s all about why you are writing, and who you are writing for.
I love your energy, Josh, and can resonate with your search for “meaning”. Who knows how things will develop? To a certain extent, it’s in our own hands.
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Have you thought about taking up journalism? (as a correspondent) It’s the only thing I can think of that ticks all the boxes.
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Regardless of what we write, there will always be someone who doesn’t care for our style or voice or point of view. But we write to tell stories to those who can’t be there with us. We write to educate people who don’t know. Our stories don’t have to matter to everybody … they just have to be relevant to somebody, even if that person is the writer.
You say: “It seems to me that most travel writing doesn’t matter. Personal adventures, marketing couched as ‘destination pieces’, and ‘look-how-cool-my-trip-was’ essays seem to make up so much of amateur and even professional travel writing.”
While I appreciate where your opinion is coming from, I think there is a place for destination pieces and personal essays. For people who haven’t or can’t walk in our footsteps, this kind of writing is important. My goal is to touch even one person with my writing; if I’ve done that, then I’ve achieved my goal. I can’t please the world with my words, but if people enjoy reading them, then maybe I’ve done my job.
Along these same lines, I would also point out that, as writers we may have specific goals, but readers expect different things from us. If someone needs specific destination information, then a well thought out piece on the philosophy of travel doesn’t mean anything to them. As writers, we need to be flexible and able to focus on different types of writing, depending on the ultimate goal of a particular piece.
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i value destination pieces. and I value personal essays.
personal essays comprise the bulk of my writing. I love bringing people into my journey, an act that can impact people who will never leave their small town orbit.
While in Vietnam (just about when i discovered Matador) I was blogging like a madman on Myspace about the journey, the unexpected choice to forgo flying home and live in vietnam for six months and what life was like for a seattle boy in Saigon.
When i was lonely, choking on motobike exhaust, sick of being the odd one out and not understanding a single word people were speaking, when i was just plain sick of it, the telling of it in my blogs kept me going.
And the response was very moving to me. Every week hoards of people read my misadventures and the gratitude from my readers astounded me.
That writing is what brought me here. I love it. It was important for my growth…
..but now what?
Many of us are reaching a point ( and with the dwindling influence of traditional journalism this is ever more relevant! ) where we have been writing a particular way, about particular topics and it is time to evolve.
I don’t want to shun any way of writing, any style or genre…but as the modern philosopher Ken Wilber says ~ we must include and transend.↵ -
I definitely agree with all these thoughtful responses. IMO, travel writing helps the writer actively build on their own experiences, personal ideologies and agendas however self-serving or altruistic they may be.
I think that as much as people say they write for the reader, for the most part travel writing is about the writers, their personal perspectives and places in this wide world. It’s catharsis made public.
Which is fine. If someone wants to listen so that they may be inspired themselves, more power to em. If not, they’ll leave for the next person. And even if no one cares, the writer will still feel better for having written it.
It’s a win win.
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I would respond, but this piece doesn’t matter
I agree. I think there’s a whole area of travel writing that is still void. However, I think the real travel destination pieces do serve to inspire people and make those who never have traveled, go out and explore.
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As a lay person, I really enjoy the story telling aspect of the travel writing that I read. I also enjoy a little comedy thrown in if possible. I think that to build up a reputation and to become more noteable, you need to develop a style that is unique and funny.
I’ve often gone back to magazines and blogs of writers that have this kind of approach to their writing. It’s just more fun
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on a most basic level i think a travel writer encourages others to travel, and provides tips and insights from experience
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I had an epiphany / breakdown the other day, brought on by looking at my site statistics. If you write it and no one comes, is it a failure of writing, marketing, or your site’s SEO? Or is it that there are so many people out there trying to do the same thing – write about their travels – making this moment very crowded.
I was (am?) frustrated because I write travel narratives and most attention seems to be given to lists and best of articles, which are boring me to tears.
I am seeing the glut of online travel writing as a moment of quantity over quality. I’ll wait for the tide to shift. For now, I am letting my writing matter to me and me alone. In the meantime, I’ll continue to write for myself, since something inside me compels me to do it, and the more I write the better I get.
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“On some level, I think providing entertainment or escape for readers makes you relevant–maybe not in the deeper sense you’re seeking.”
This was 99% of my approach to travel blogging on my RTW trip, and the people back at home – former coworkers, family, friends, and strangers alike, all provided great feedback. I was kinda surprised people were looking forward to my daily posts (beyond my parents) each morning.
The more feedback I received like this, the more it motivated me to keep writing and presenting my experiences in the same way. Do that consistently over time, for say a year, and you’ll start to matter in people’s lives in ways you would never imagine.
The power of travel writing/blogging!
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Wonderfully insightful post Josh!
I think one of the things a lot of writers keep missing is the fact that what matters to them doesn’t necessarily matter to everyone else. Various writing voices appeal to different folks.
This post inspired me to muse over here – http://lolaakinmade.com/2009/11/03/first-things-first-know-thyself/
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Thank you for your thoughts in geotraveler’s niche.
It feels like a big ol cross roads doesn’t it? And your simple advice is perhaps the most sound. Know yourself. Know what you are about.
And if the ground is shifting under your feet and what you knew about yourself slips away…?
I guess the root of this post is knowing myself, as a traveler, as a writer, as a citizen, as a 1st world consumer, as a cog, as a freelance dreamer, as a Matador team member.
I want to know a new, more influential, more self aware josh. And I want to reflect that in what and why I write.↵ -
I agree with JoAnna in that everyone has an opinion about writing, so something that is totally moves one person might not do anything at all for another. I write to share my experiences, thoughts, and opinions with others, and in the process, hope to inspire someone.
I don’t necessarily think that the writing community should have a “goal” or really worry about writing what “matters”… just write about what you love, what you do, and where you go, and I bet we’ll find that we’ve got it all covered already ↵ -
I think it’s only when we’re not trying so hard to produce something that matters, that we do in fact make a piece the most memorable. I’m not trying to make a work of art every time I pound the keys for a destination or “running niche” piece, but every so often, I’ll find the response to something I considered so ordinary is in fact quite remarkable.
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Many great points made here.
I have lately shared this question, expanding it in my life to whether a particular trip is a valuable life experience (rather than a PR jaunt), which has cut back the number of trips I’ve made this year.
I get paid to write about a lot of things that don’t matter to me at all. But getting feedback from readers that an event or venue I recommended “made their trip” shows that this content I consider fluff, can make a big difference to someone planning a trip. And most of the people who find our work online are planning or contemplating a trip. So I guess as long as you’re authentic about what’s really worth recommending in a destination piece, it matters at least in some small way.
I would much rather be writing great adventure tales and analyses of successful sustainable tourism practices in emerging markets, but that’s much more of a niche readership, with too few paying assignments for all of us literary social scientists who’d like to have that gig.
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I hope everyone knows that I value destination pieces…all writing is good writing in the principal that writing is good. Am I hearing that the feedback you receive keeps you stoked for your travel writing? If that is the case I can def relate.
Does doing pieces that do not inspire you wear you down?
As a pro how do you keep it fresh for yourself?↵ -
It all matters and it doesn’t matter atall…..
Travel writting isn’t going to stop the arms race or put an end to world poverty. In fact no one thing can do this.
‘Meaningful to the comunity at large’ can only come from personal motivation and the actions that follow.
I’m not a writer and am struggling with getting my point into words so i hope these quotes sum it up; “We can do no great things, only small things with great love” Mother Teresa
“Be the change you want to see in the world” Mahatma GandhiI think ultimately you are looking for greater fufilment from writting when it must come from within. Questions of whether stories matter or not and what our goals should be are circumstantial with no right or wrong answer. What matters is a motivation of love.
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You sound like a writer t me Ruby!
Thank you for sharing your input and blessing my afternoon with that Mother Teresa quote.
I guess I was wondering add we can “matter” more by adding more “great love” into our writings and actions. I see potential from the creatives that has never been more palpable or powerful since the last Renaissance .↵ -
Before I continue, please note I agree with the majority of comments already made. However, for me, there are two important aspects I consider as well (he says writing from a hotel room in Tokyo):
#1 Accuracy / age of the information – for travel it’s critical to find the useful
#2 My constant struggle for relevant travel writingAnd this is why I write, post, and send out information in all forms of media. As people have mentioned such writing is relevant for everything from an online diary to keeping friends in the loop, but I care about #2 even more and the apparent void in reaching it.
My writing/media/posting is drawn out of not finding the information I specifically want before travelling or my trust in old information being appropriate.
I’m serving back what I didn’t have.
On reflection I don’t think this type of writing has a finite space from which to feel jaded. If we write about culture, trends and discoveries wrapped within adventure how can such editorial ever be irrelevant or not an indefinite source of cross cultural communication?
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The question to me isn’t, “does my writing matter?” but rather “to whom does it matter?” Good travel writing matters to me. I write pieces about what I see and eat because I believe that food is a tangible extension of the place. In a way, it is easier to go to India and talk about the dirt and poverty and all that stuff that National Geographic and Sally Struthers has shown us for decades because they are the glaring, in-your-face “socially-conscious” issues. When I talk to my readers about the piping hot samosas and the creamy rich roshogolla, I want to express the commonality and differences in the most basic of needs. I want to show them a beauty and richness that delves beyond poverty or dirtiness and fulfills our human desires. Food ties us all together just as it separates us apart.
On the other hand, does my writing matter to my readers? Probably not. I get far more comments on our photography than on my writing. But, I get more emails about my writing than about my photography. So, I don’t know what matters in the end.
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Great post & interesting comments….
I recently wrote an article about bike riding in outback Australia & I happened to show my sister in passing. She was so inspired by the article that within a few days she’d planned a similar trip for us to do in 2010. This may not seem remarkable, however my sister has three young children & she’s never spent more than a night away from them (even though her husband is quite capable of looking after them). This is a really big step for her & I’m quietly pleased that it was my writing that inspired her.
There’s a quote I really like, but I can’t remember who said it: “If you write to satisfy your soul you satisfy your reader”. This is true for me. I write because I love writing. But if I can inspire others to travel this also makes me happy because I know that travel can be life-changing (as it was for me).
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I do a weekly local travel/outdoors column for a magazine in Salt Lake City, and I always try to give tips & directions in addition to a narrative. I’m psyched when readers actually go to the places I write about. It’s as important as a reader telling me I’m a good writer.
That impact is easier when it’s local travel. I’m not expecting people to make a 16-hour flight somewhere and stay for several months. I’m urging them to look at some petroglyphs in a canyon 200 miles from our town or drive an hour to go cliff-jumping.
I like reading travel accounts for the narrative unto itself. But it actually has to BE A NARRATIVE, with a conflict and rising and falling action. Describing some teahouse poetically does not a narrative make. There must be some sort of protagonist with interests at risk for me to read an essay about a place I do not want to visit myself.
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Well to begin with, I don’t have such noble ambitions of changing the world or making my travel writing matter. Looking at it from a practical point of view, people read travel articles to feel what it’s like to be on the road or at a particular place. And that’s what a travel writer does, to bring you virtually to that spot from the seat of your armchair.
Perhaps it depends on what type of writing you do – guidebook or magazine writing, I’d say what matters most is that you enjoy what you do – writing! And if you do, your readers can feel it too, and they in turn enjoy what you write. Let’s put all that thoughts aside and just soak in our love for travel writing!
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It’s comforting that so many others feel this same tension between the creative fulfillment of writing itself and the real desire to affect social change, to produce work that matters, to use the power of our words to make a difference.
While it all sounds a bit like a college admissions essay, I’ve always felt conflicted about the role of travel writing. As several of the other comments hint at, writing is, in itself, a selfish act. As perhaps it has to, travel essays privilege the writer’s experience of a destination. Successful travel writers rely on their distinctive appraisal of a road that (for the most part) has already been well traveled. While these pieces might inspire a reader or raise awareness about some issue, those are collateral effects. For the writer, its about writing itself, committing your thoughts and experiences to paper.
At the same time, I find a lot of travel pieces I read irritate, instead of inspire with their abundance of adjectives and cliched tugs at the traveler’s imagination. If I read one more travel article about Hanoi or Bangkok or (insert any city in the developing world) as “bustling” “vibrant” or “at the crossroads of modernity and tradition”, I’ll hit someone with my knock-off Japanese motorbike.
Travel writing, at its best, allows both the writer and the reader to better understand the world and their place in it. Some of the comments bring up the consequences of travel and social responsibility. This is something that I think travel writing, as an industry, has to start addressing more. To be relevant to readers, our writing has to answer the question, “Why should I care?”
How to reconcile this notion with writing a piece on the “best budget hotels in Dublin” to pay the rent, I must say I’m still trying to figure it out. Perhaps developing niche markets for our writing on the internet is part of the answer? Or at the very least, we should refuse to grab that thesaurus when writing a city profile!
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Interesting debate here… thought provoking on a theoretical level – it’s great that people are thinking so hard about what they write.
The thing that concerns me though is that there is virtually NO discussion about what your READERS want. Ultimately I write for my reader – not for the personal bang of writing some really smart prose or whatever. (Though occasionally the 2 do come together!) Any editor worth their salt will have instincts built up over years about what his readers want to read about and even what style of writing works best for them. To a significant degree a freelancer writer’s job is to understand those instincts and offer ideas and work that works with them.) Web is allowing anyone to self-publish – which is no bad thing – but we’re losing the important role of the experienced editor in the process.
If you are serious about making a career of writing I think you need to turn your gaze away from yourself and think about the people you write for.
For me… it’s all about audience. What’s the point of writing if no one is reading?↵
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