Last Updated: 10/15/20 | October 15th, 2020
To me, the crux of all online endeavors is good writing. With so many blogs out there, if you can’t write engaging stories, you’ll never get anywhere! So today, I want to introduce one of my favorite travel writers, David Farley, who is going to share his writing tips for fellow bloggers and writers out there!
I always thought that once I started writing for glossy travel magazines, I could relax a bit because I’d “made it.”
Nope!
Then I thought that once I began penning pieces for the New York Times, I could say I was successful.
Not. At. All.
OK, maybe when I had a book out, published by a major publishing house, things would get a bit easier for me. I wish!
Writers, in some ways, are a sorry lot. Rarely do they ever look at something and say “perfect!” Maybe for a moment — but give a writer a day and he or she will come back to that same article and find dozens of mistakes. Writing is a craft you never perfect.
We’re always striving to be better. Creatives tend to be perfectionists. Writing requires you to keep learning and improving.
But that’s good because that drive makes writers improve their work. And only through practice and effort do we end up with the Hemingways, Brysons, Gilberts, and Kings of the world.
If you’re a travel blogger, you probably started off not as a writer with a journalism background but as a traveler looking to share your experience. You probably didn’t have any formal training or someone to peer over your shoulder and give you advice.
So today I wanted to share some tips to help you improve your travel writing or blogging. Because the world always needs good writers — and good writing helps get your story heard more!
These tips, if followed, will better your writing and make a huge difference in the reach of your writing!
1. Read
This is number one. because whenever a budding writer asks me how they can improve, it’s my first piece of advice. Read good writing. Absorb it. Let it sink into your soul. When I was first starting out, I was sick one weekend, so I spent three days lying in bed reading every page of that year’s Best American Travel Writing anthology. After I finished, I opened up my laptop and started writing for the first time in days. What came out surprised me: it was the highest-quality writing I’d done to date. And it was all because I was absorbed in good writing and it filtered through me back onto the page in my own writing.
(Matt says: Here’s a collection of some of my favorite travel books that can inspire you. I also have a monthly book club you can join!)
2. Do it for love
Maya Angelou wrote, “You can only become truly accomplished at something you love.” Don’t get into travel writing for the money — after all, that would be totally unrealistic. And please don’t gravitate to the genre because you want free trips and hotel rooms. “Instead,” Ms. Angelou added, “do [it] so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.” Or, in other words, strive to become such a good writer that the editors of all the publications you have been dreaming to write for can’t ignore you anymore.
3. Don’t be attached to linear writing
You need not compose a piece from beginning to middle to end. Sometimes that’s not the ideal structure of the story. Sure, maybe you’ve already figured that out. But if not, it’s OK to just get a few scenes and paragraphs of exposition down “on paper.” Then you can step back and take a look at the bigger picture and rearrange what you have, figuring out the best way to tell the story.
4. Tap into your own sense of motivation and drive
The students of mine at New York University who have been most successful were not always the most talented in the class. But they were the most driven. They’d read enough quality writing and thought about it — understanding what made it so wonderful — that there was just something about writing that they got. They weren’t born with that understanding, but ambition drove them to seek out better writing and then to think about it, to analyze what made it good (or not so good).
Drive also inspires future successful writers to go out on a limb, to render themselves vulnerable, by reaching out to more accomplished writers to ask for advice, or by introducing themselves to editors at events or conferences. Don’t be shy! Standing in the corner quietly won’t get you as far as putting your hand out to introduce yourself will.
5. Try to figure out what gets your mind and writing flowing
Let me explain: I can sit down at my laptop and stare at a blank Word document for hours, not sure how to start a story or what to write about. Then I’ll respond to an email from a friend who wants to know about the trip I’m trying to write about. I’ll write a long email with cool and interesting anecdotes about my experience and include some analysis of the place and culture. And then I’ll realize: I can just cut and paste this right into the empty Word doc I’ve been staring at for the last three hours!
Several of my published articles have blocks of texts that were originally written as parts of emails to friends. The “email trick” might not work for everyone, but there is inevitably some trick for the rest of you — be it talking to a friend or free-associating in your journal.
6. Understand all aspects of storytelling
There are two types of travel writing: commercial and personal essay (or memoir). In commercial travel writing, you should make the various parts of the story an intrinsic aspect of your knowledge: from ways to write a lede to the nut graph, scenes, exposition, and conclusions. For memoir and personal essays, know what narrative arc means like the back of your typing hands. It helps to get an intuitive understanding of these things by paying attention to writing — to reading like a writer — as you read nonfiction (and travel) articles.
7. Don’t stress if your first draft is shit
Ernest Hemingway said, “The first draft of anything is shit.” And he wasn’t kidding. I find this true when I’m writing a personal essay or travel memoir. I write and I write and I write, and I’m not exactly sure what I’m putting down on paper.
What’s the point of this? I ask myself.
Why am I even doing this?
But here is where patience comes in: eventually, the clouds part, the proverbial sunbeam from the heavens shines down on our computer monitors, and we see the point of it all: we finally figure out what it is we’re writing and how to best tell that story. It just happens like magic sometimes.
And not all at once: sometimes it’s bit by bit, like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. But as I mentioned, patience is key, because we never know when that divine magic is going to be activated. But sit around long enough and it will happen, I promise you. (Just be cautious when taking Hemingway’s other writing advice: “Write drunk, edit sober.”)
8. Write what you know
“Start telling the stories that only you can tell,” said writer Neil Gaiman, “because there’ll always be better writers than you and there’ll always be smarter writers than you. There will always be people who are much better at doing this or doing that — but you are the only you.”
9. When you’re finished with a draft, read it out loud
Preferably, print it out and read it out loud. This will allow you to better hear how the piece sounds, and unacceptable segues and clunky sentences or turns of phrases will jump out at you in a more obvious way.
For longer stories or books, it can also be good to print out your story and line edit it the old fashioned way. This way you see the story on paper and as a reader. You can pick up a lot more mistakes and errors when you do this.
10. Always get another set of eyes on your writing
While all writers make mistakes, it’s harder to spot them without an editor. Editors are very important, but they don’t necessarily have to be someone with formal training. While hiring a copyeditor is always great, getting a friend to read your blog or story can be just as good. You don’t always see the forest through the trees and having another set of eyes is ultra-important to the writing process.
Matt says: I like having someone who doesn’t know about travel read my drafts. I have a friend who doesn’t travel much who reads my blog posts because she helps me make sure I include the important details I might have skipped. When you’re an expert on something, you often fill in the blanks in your mind. You go from A to C automatically; step B becomes subconscious. Getting someone who doesn’t know the steps will help ensure you include explain everything in your post and don’t leave your readers going, “Huh?”
11. Learn to self-edit
This is where many people go wrong. They write, they read it over, they post. And then feel embarrassed as they say, “Oh, man, I can’t believe I missed that typo.” You don’t need to be a master editor, but if you follow a few principles, it will go a long way: First, write something and let it sit for a few days before editing.
After your first round of edits, repeat the process. Get another set of eyes on it. Print out a checklist of grammar rules to go through as you edit.
As you review your work, say to yourself, “Did I do this? Did I do that?” If you follow a cheat sheet, you’ll catch most of your mistakes and end up with a much better final product!
12. Improve your endings
The two most important parts of any article or blog post are the beginning and the end. Endings matter more than you think. They are the last thing people remember about your story. This is where you can really hit home your point and leave the reader captivated. An average story can be saved by a solid ending. Spend some time working on a conclusion that connects the dots and leads to some sort of resolution.
All stories need an ending. Think of your favorite stories – and your least favorite ones. The ones with the great endings are probably the ones you remember the most.
13. Aim for progress, not perfection
All too often, I hear from students that they don’t want to hit publish on a post or submit a piece because it’s not perfect. They want to keep tinkering, keep editing. While you definitely want to make sure your work is the best it can be, at the end of the day, perfection is the enemy of progress. If you keep waiting for every single word to be perfect you’ll be editing forever.
When it comes to blog posts, learn to accept good enough. Hit publish when it’s good enough.
Don’t wait for perfection because it rarely comes. Accept your best, and move on. Otherwise, you’ll be tinkering and editing until the cows come home and you’ll never get anywhere.
Writing is a craft. It takes time. It takes practice. Aim for progress, not perfection.
Writing is an art form. It takes a lot of practice. When you’re a blogger out on your own, it can be harder to improve your work, because you don’t have an experienced voice giving you tips and advice and pushing you to be better. If you don’t take it upon yourself to be better, you never will be. However, even if you aren’t blessed to work under an editor, these 13 tips can help you improve your writing today and become a much better blogger, writing stories people want to read!
David Farley has been writing about travel, food, and culture for over twenty years. His work has appeared in AFAR magazine, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Condé Nast Traveler, among other publications. He has lived in Prague, Paris, Rome, and now New York City. He is the author of An Irreverent Curiosity and was a host for National Geographic.
- Monthly calls with David
- Edits and feedback on your writing
- Sample pitch templates
- Sample book proposals
- A private Facebook group where we share job opportunities.
If you’re interested, click here to learn more.
Book Your Trip: Logistical Tips and Tricks
Book Your Flight
Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner or Momondo. They are my two favorite search engines because they search websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is left unturned.
Book Your Accommodation
You can book your hostel with Hostelworld. If you want to stay somewhere other than a hostel, use Booking.com as they consistently return the cheapest rates for guesthouses and cheap hotels.
Don’t Forget Travel Insurance
Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. I’ve been using World Nomads for ten years. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:
- World Nomads (for everyone below 70)
- Insure My Trip (for those over 70)
- Medjet (for additional repatriation coverage)
Need to book your trip?
Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel. I list all the ones I use when I travel. The are the best in class and you can’t go wrong using them on your trip.
Fenne
I travel (and moved abroad), I create and I try to put some words on paper (or on my blog). Not sure if that qualifies as a (travel) writer, but I sure have a good time with mix that is my life. Thank you for these tips, there are some I can start with right away 🙂
Jennifer
I loved this !! Great advice. Especially the part about waiting a few days before editing. I’ll write, and then come back and read what I’ve written and go “WTF was I thinking??” And edit the crap out of it! I also am guilty of posting articles with tons of grammar mistakes. So embarrassing. I will definitely use your linked cheat sheet for grammar. I need it! Great article
Ian
Thanks for sharing Matt / David! Self-editing… That’s definitely something we can all probably work on, I’ll ad myself to the top of that list. This is great motivation to keep at the constant works in progress!
Tam
Great post! I can\’t agree more with the reading tip! I definitely need to do more of the reading outloud though. Thanks for the advice 🙂
Beno
I think it\’s all about passion and love no matter how professional you are. great tips and I will certainly use them with writing on my blog.
Caroline Eubanks
Great advice from a great writer. I totally agree that I never feel like a “real” writer, despite some big stories and bylines. The reminder from someone like him is good to remember.
Katie
Thanks for the excellent tips and encouragement, David and Matt. I just started writing/blogging and I have a lot of interests, but I think travel writing will end up being my main focus. This post was really helpful.
Reshma Narasing
So many great tips here! I started my travel blog which will turn 2 next month. It\\\’s an everyday work to get better. And I can\\\’t stress the importance of your very first tip! Read. Reading other\\\’s work has helped me to a great extent. You gave me a few new ones that I should start following right away!
TDT
Great article and wonderful tips!! I’m lucky since I have friends who do read and correct my writings, but self-correction is definitely my biggest challenge at this point! However, blog writing is an amazing experience when do it with passion. All the effort that’s required is nothing compared to the fun of doing it! 🙂
Derek Cowan
Thanks for sharing the great tips, for sure it’s an art that evolves over time.
Dino
Great advice. Number 9 of reading the text out loud is something I plan to do with every future blog post 🙂
Jason Repovs
Thanks for the detailed and informative post Matt! Especially loved the comment around reading great writing if you’re hoping to improve. It’s the same advice I give around photography when people tell me they can’t get better at it. You can, but you need to be thoughtful in how you approach it. Go find great examples, then reflect on what it is that makes them stand out to you. Then borrow those elements in your own work. Appreciate you writing this article!
Alex
Matt,
This is a very interesting post! I think it would be really fun to be a travel writer or involved with it in some way. My favorite tip you gave was the one that said to tap into your own sense of motivation and drive. I find that I am most successful when I want to be because I am not held back by the feeling of being forced to get stuff done. Like you said, I agree that another helpful tip is to read your writing out loud. That way you can fix your mistakes and correct them. How did you first get into travel writing?
NomadicMatt
I just started the blog and the rest was history! You just need to start writing to get started!
Laura
Brilliant article and great tips. As a blogger not coming from a writer/journalism background, this is very useful! Thank you very much!
Bridget
Thanks for this post. I\’ve had a travel blog for two years. I cringe a bit when I look back at some of the earliest posts–and even some of the more recent ones, frankly. You always see things later! 🙂 And, like you said, there\’s always going to be room for improvement. Luckily, I really enjoy working on my writing. I appreciate the tips!
Ritika Gupta
Hi Matt,
Thanks for sharing your travelling experience and excellent travel tips to start the travel blog. I think it will be beneficial for the upcoming travel blogger like me. I will certainly use them with writing on my blog. I really appreciate this great piece of information. Thank for advice..
Burcu Basar
Thank you. This is very helpful – especially the tip about linear writing.
Dani
Thank you! This was exactly what I needed to read and am glad I fell upon it. #3 “Don’t be attached to linear writing,” struck a chord. My mental conflict…“absolutely not!” versus “this is brilliant!” I get stuck (cue blank stare) when attempting to write linear, yet it’s instinct. Surprise, surprise (or not, ha), when I chose to simply start writing whatever came to mind on the topic, it began flowing steadily. Thank you, again. It was truly beneficial to this newbie. 🙂
Maria
I’m exactly the same once I just start and stop thinking it flows so much more naturally and it’s still easy to follow for readers, even make it more personable I feel 🙂
David
Great advice from a beginners point of view. I just recently started a blog and made a trip to Bangkok, Thailand. I’ll try to keep these tips in mind!
Rene Young
I love tip number 5, that’s a new one that I’ll use. I find I agonise over the perfect first paragraph for hours and then lose all motivation. However, when friends need candid travel advice, I’m able to fire off a informative email to them.
Thanks for sharing a great list of writing tips.
abhishek soni
This is the exact post which I as a new travel blogger from India was looking for. Loved all your tips Matt and would try to implement the same.Thanks a ton!!
James
“You need not compose a piece from beginning to middle to end.”
I always struggle to write start to finish in the order it actually ends up. I tend to write different pieces and eventually put it together.
Emily from The Journeying Duo
Thanks for the post, some really useful advice! I practiced my editing skills while at uni but they are still sorely lacking! It’s always so easy to see someone else’s mistakes before your own. I like the advice about reading more. I already read a lot (there’s plenty of spare time on long buses here in Asia!) but maybe I should read more from the travel genre to inspire me. Although it would probably inspire me to travel more rather than my blog writing!
Maria
Love this! I have just started blogging and it took me soloing to actually do it firstly I couldn’t be bothered to set up my blog I was always too tired, or too busy etc… thinking it would take so long but it actually didn’t and I enjoyed doing it once I got started and it was exactly the same with my first post I kept thinking I wouldn’t know what to write or how to write it but it all just sort of flowed once I got typing and got involved in the story I was telling, like you said if you doing it cause you love it its not that difficult like with that first post once I started talking about my trip and my plans etc I could just keep typing without even thinking about it
Maria
totally agree you can tell when someone is truly involved in what they are writing!
Travis
Thanks this is very helpful. Finding your writing style has been tough!
Teguh Hariyadi
great article, thanks for sharing 😀
Victor
About the # 10. Exactly. I read and reread my posts, but my copy editor always find a million of mistakes and awkward sentences.
Thank you for the tips.
Charlotte
This is exactly what I needed to read today. Some great tips that I am sure to take advantage of. Thank you 🙂
Gary
Matt – Great advice! Especially your first tip about reading high-quality travel writing by others. I’m getting ready to write a post about my upcoming trip to India… checking out THe Best American Travel Writing now. Thanks!
Michael
Thank you Matt!
This is my best post have ever read about writing!
Number 2 makes a lot of sense to me, especially when I was thinking about starting my own travel blog.
David Hunter Bishop
Excellent advice, as always, but my I offer an edit for your article? The final graf says nine tips when there are actually 13. Thank you for so generously offering your expertise.
NomadicMatt
Fixed!
Niraj Bhagat
Hello Matt,
After 4 years of travel blogging i felt i needed an upgarde to something more engaging. I started my blogging as an infomative blog and your blog provides me the next step in my writing evolution .
Cheers