Postcard 1: To be honest or not to be

Dear Youssef,

I have just read this article which tells you what kind of rules to obey when writing a travel story. The article begins with telling how travel writing is in essence journalism except that it looks more at the places that you visit rather than events that occur. Doing this will also make you the narrator and the person from whom everything is perceived. You can of course tell about people you meet, but don’t wander of to far.

Travel writing is something that is unique, it says. It isn’t comparable to anything else. A travel story is a story in which real events take place, just like journalism. Yet the former has to be more. It must look at certain beautiful details the traveller sees and admires, but there is one thing which is the most important part.

According to this article a travel writer has to be able to tell vividly about remarkable events, sensations and emotion. When this is not present in a travel article, then it’s not alive, it is just one more tourist guide. A travel article has to recreate the right atmosphere in which the traveller found himself in. In doing this, the reader will be engaged in this journey, together with the traveller.

So after this explanation to travel writing, we now know that travel writers have to know how to put emotions and unique moments on the go to paper, but they should have mastered the delicate art of storytelling without going over the top. By this the article means that the emotions have to be genuine and the truth. If not, the reader will know this and the article is lost, so to speak.

When writing a travel story, make sure you know about what things you are going to tell, use tricks to pull the reader along, but don’t ever make things up. Be honest about everything, but do this in a special way, make the reader eager to know more so that he does not loose attention.

The article is a good read and when you should have to make a travel story of your one, remember these rules: Capture the special thoughts at just the right moment, make it a grand adventure but most importantly, be honest about it.