Travel Writers Online

In this pocket-sized paperback, Methods for Travel Writers I set out the design methods for you to develop your travel stories and your own literary style for your blog posts or longer travel stories. The reason I propose these D-Methods is to provide experiments to try with your pieces of writing, drawn from travel literature and creative non-fiction. D-Methods for Destinations  I number each method but prefix them with the letter D, so that you can refer to each one and as a reminder that each is a design decision as you develop your writing on the destination that you are researching. For example, I propose the use of the first person, the I-narrator to draw attention to your own identity as the investigative travel writer exploring the location.  The literary travel writer, W G Sebald draws attention to his notebook and journaling in this way so that his readers can imagine him there,  'And so I found myself, hardly knowing how I came there, in the entrance hall of the Musée F

Please ensure you have completed Step1 before starting this second step. Step 1 is here   Step 2 - Out in the Field Later, preferably after 2 days, please visit the exact spot you described in your first blog entry, based on the place in your imaginary. You are heading outside so you will need all your field equipment, that is: warm clothes, pens for writing with ink that does not run in the rain, a hardback notebook of, I suggest, A5-sized pages that lie flat, so spiral bound is good. Your 'phone and the Google Keep App on your 'phone with your mic activated.  Be sure to have the journaling notes from Step 1 with you so that you can see your old notes on the quantitative question you tried to answer for yourself from your imaginary.  I bought Oxford Black n' Red A5 hardback for fieldwork Log in your journaling notebook the date and time and any spatial landmarks to help locate the exact spot including - Time, day, date and year, like this: 10:02am Monday 31st October 2022

Preparing for Journaling in the Field This three-step activity for bloggers aims to get you started with your own travel blog writing. It takes you through the design of three posts to your blog. The 3 steps aim to give you direct practice in journaling, making field notes, preparing for fieldwork and keeping a record of your practice for later analysis. You will need notebooks for your fieldnotes. I always have a stock of these Black n' Red. The wire bound spine lets the notebook open flat and the hardback provides support for writing when standing up.  The other learning objectives are to understand how human memory and passing time have been conceptualised and how these can help in your evolving identity as a productive writer. Finally, it is an opportunity to start to think about the literary concepts of the addressee and deixis. Google Blogger is free web logging software with free server space. Please try a Google Blogspot, if you have not already set up your blog with anothe

on  the rue Picpus in Paris.  Glance at the front cover of the US edition of Modiano’s novel. Can you see the street running diagonally through the background map? It is the rue Picpus. In that same edition of the evening newspaper mentioned in the previous blog-post, Paris-soir , on page 2 is the heading: Signé Picpus . It is an instalment from a serialised novel by Georges Simenon with his famous detective, Maigret as the main character.  What is the significance of Picpus for these two writers of mystery? Looking forward to hearing your literary detective discoveries... In the mean time, please re-read last week's post on Patrick Modiano and literary detective work at  Read last week's blog post   A 3-Step activity for travel writers online starts in the post for 28th October 2022. Please Follow this blog below to be sure you do not miss Step 1... 

The article-length post from the Travel Writers Online magazine that has the highest number of reads is 'Across the Bay from Concarneau'. Is it possible to see why so many people enjoy it? Reasons for Viewing a Blog Post The first two reasons are often discussed by writers and bloggers in the tourism industry. First, the recounted story is on-topic for those who follow this online magazine. And, second, it is a full-length article. By that, I mean, it is the classic size of three A4 pages of handwritten text. When I count one side of my writing, it comes to 350 words so 3 of those makes 1050 words. When you transfer your handwritten text into to your digital workspace, for example, Google Keep, you usually edit and improve the readability. I also add my photo captions at that stage, too. These writerly processes increase the word count to 1250 words. This substantial text gives the Google search bots sufficient content to classify the page and add it to Google's database f

Which Blogger to Use Over the last twelve years of teaching and travel writing I have used WordPress, Google Blogger and a bespoke content management system. However, in 2020 I have come back to Google Blogger. Sometimes called Blogspot, and branded in orange. The key reason was the ease of managing the blogging package. Google Blogger releases me from lots of administration so that I can devote time to writing. More and more web users have a free Gmail account, or they can open one easily, and this means that they share a common environment with Travel Writers Online magazine. For example, here they can check quickly which blogs they follow, hopefully adding this one to their list. Please click on orange image below. You will need to select and copy our url to paste-in, it is https://travelwritersonline.blogspot.com Google’s blogspot offer is free and you can be up and running with your own weblog in less than 15 minutes. Of course, you need a free Google Account which you will alre

Patrick Modiano’s novel,  Dora Bruder   Immobilised indoors has given me time to indulge in Literary E-Tourism.  I started reading Patrick Modiano’s novel from April 1997, Dora Bruder this morning and immediately his opening lines provide sufficient detail to see if he is using real facts and places. He opens with a brief newspaper item from 31 st December 1941; it was the period when Marshal Pétain was Chief of State in France. The first literary tourism question then is, can a copy of that evening newspaper, Paris-soir be found? I know that Gallica, which gives on-line access to scanned documents from the French National Library, the {BnF, will probably hold the edition mentioned in the novel. Actually, it was with genuine surprise and something of that same thrill of discovery you feel when you arrive at the exact spot mentioned in a novel that I found this: There is the missing persons message for Dora Bruder on page 3 as Modiano’s novel says!  Take a look at the front page to

At the October 2022 Arnhem conference for writing lecturers it was time to meet the people behind PanOdyssey. This is a platform ideally positioned for literary travel writers. The CREA consortium have created a new digital space for the creation and diffusion of social and cultural content. The business model seems sound, too, where writers are paid by readers who value their work. CREA, the creative room alliance has nine founding partners across Europe, in France, Italy, Spain and further afield. More recently, new associates have signed up: Linea Edizioni in Padua, an independent Italian publisher, and EDRLab, an international, non-profit development laboratory, working on interoperable digital publishing. EDRLab head office is at 14 rue Alexandre Parodi, 75010 Paris.

Congratulations to Annie Ernaux today, Nobel laureate 2022 for Literature.  My monograph examines the writing practices of three contemporary French writers working in the closing decades of the twentieth century in Paris. The aim is to discover if travel writing, a practice chosen by all three, belongs to a specific discourse which suits the writing practice of the authors in their treatment of a particular subject. Within this the study attempts to discover defining aspects of what may be called the genre of travel writing, by finding parallels in the work of all three writers and then by examining the uses of these aspects or themes to understand what they offer the writer as a means of expression. One work in particular is studied in detail as the key text for this research, this is the second travel journal by Annie Ernaux (2000) La Vie extérieure. Read more about her travel writing here on ResearchGate at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267331805_Traversing_Paris_French_