The Writing Process for
Travel Articles

© Roy A Barnes - All Rights Reserved

Seeing your travel article in print or online doesn't happen by magic. There are four major steps involved in this milestone. Let me walk you through what I do to get to add another clip to my name and get to the pay window of an editor.

Step #1: Outlining Travel Articles

Before I ever visit an area full of attractions and events, I see if those attractions and events have websites so I can do some online scouting of them. I find out what each of them entail, their contact information, what I can expect generally from visiting and covering them, and things I should inquire about while visiting. I note those in a rough outline and take it with me so I can take notes during my visits and coverage, which leads to the second step. *Note: When I’m on a travel writing trip, this can involve numerous outlines since I am essentially writing about more than one subject.

Step #2: Writing Travel Articles

Once I have taken notes from what I’ve seen and experienced, I can begin to start writing and working towards the final product. I take the things that stood out for me and start incorporating my thoughts and impressions into my Word-formatted outline, backed up by my notes and any literature that I obtained from being on site of the event or attraction. I don't care too much how much I write out initially, as I will whittle down or add more text depending on how long I want/need my travel article to be. Oftentimes, I may mention many attractions in one article which can make an article really long, so cutting down the article can become a challenge, and involves Step 3. But getting that first rough draft completed is a very important accomplishment, because this is where the "grunt" work is done.

Step #3: Reworking Travel Articles

The revising process is really the most creative part of the article because this is when I compose my final cuts of travel articles to be submitted to editors. I will have in mind different versions based on the mediums I want to target, so now it's time for me to whittle down my word counts or add more words to whatever version I plan on submitting first. I may need to stress one aspect of an event or attraction for a particular publication in one version of my article, but re-edit that article for another publication that I want to submit my article to later. I spell and grammar check as well as read out loud to see how the article sounds before submitting.

Step #4: Submitting Travel Articles

Once the article is completed, I submit it to publications I believe will be interested (or initially to the publication who commissioned my work), according to their specific guidelines. At this point, I also check the publication rights they are seeking.

Each subsequent submission may require more revising (including reslanting to suit the publication), but once the article is submitted, it's out of my hands. The editor concerned will make a decision on whether or not to publish my work, and may even ask for further revisions or more information, sometimes before a contract is signed.

The writing process is always “on call!”

About the Author:  Travel writer Roy A. Barnes is a past contributor to Writer2Writer and other writing-themed publications like The Willamette Writer, The Busy Freelancer, FellowScript, Writers Weekly, Writing for DOLLARS, and The Christian Communicator. He lives in southeastern  Wyoming USA.