Part 2: First Steps
Travel journalism. Admit it. It sends a globe-shaped shiver down your spine. It’s the promise of glamour, the lure of the high life, and a calling rich with tradition.
There have been some true journalistic titans in this business, and that’s for damn sure as hiccups. For the first-timer Johnny, it’s not easy to stand up under the obsidian weight of sheer professional expectation. Look at the names. But not for too long, or you’ll soil yourself scared. Behold the roll call of greatness. Paul Theroux. Jan Morris. Jamie Theakston.
Daunting, isn’t it?
Of course, you have to remember that it’s not all lying around the pool, chugging free cocktails and all the a la carte breakfasts you can snort. Don’t be stupid. Sometimes it’s a buffet.
How does your career as a travel writer begin? That’s right, with the pitch.
NO! That’s wrong! What are you thinking? See, already your expectations are confounded. maybe you should think about an alternative life path.
It begins with: the idea. Without an idea, a pitch is just a series of unconnected words, buzzing about an editor’s inbox like a crazed bluebottle. And no editor – with the possible exception of those with brutally low budgets – is going to employ a crazed bluebottle.
You want a story idea that intrigues your editor. “What I did in Paris.” “Prague: city of contrasts.” “Shopping in Fez.” Utter dross. Don’t make me laugh.
Don’t be lazy. Do you think I was being lazy when I successfully pitched “Melodic Sands: A journey to the least accessible music venues of the Kalahari”? Because I wasn’t.
People – lesser people, those who haven’t been published in domestic airline inflight magazines in Syria – ask me where I get my ideas. I tell them there is no easy answer, but the simple answer is: my brain. And that’s my advice to you, young, inexperienced would-be scribe. Use your thinking brain to come up with an idea. Obvious? Perhaps. Self evident? Maybe. Common sense? Possibly. But isn’t it the fishermen of the Andaman that say “the brightest pearls are sometimes to be found in the most conspicuous oysters”?
Fare thee well, fellow traveller. Until next time. Stay safe. And stay global.
Previously on So you want to be a travel writer?
(Image used under Creative Commons, copyright massdistraction)
