Think about this for a moment:

Your long-awaited trip has just ended. It was mind-blowing, and it exceeded your wildest expectations! How do you keep these emotions and impressions forever?

Write about them!

You may be a travel blogger sharing this lifestyle with others. You may be an aspiring writer practicing storytelling with your social media followers. Or, you’re a high school or college student returning from holidays and getting that standard writing task from a teacher on “How I spent my summer.”

One way or another, writing skills come in handy.

Professional writers assisting students with a term paper from Essayshark.com have shared tips on stellar travel paper writing. Let’s see how to turn your travel story into an exciting journey for the readers.

Below are your five steps to follow.

Learn the Rules of Travel Writing

The more writing styles, the more rules and details to remember. The best writing practices for travel papers include:

1. Conversational tone
2. The first person (You use “I” or “we” when writing)
3. Past tense
4. Compelling storyline
5. Descriptive language with sensory details
6. Some value for readers (tips on traveling, practical advice on being at the described place, etc.)
7. Structuring a paper for better readability (short paragraphs, subheads, images, a table of contents, bolding core information, etc.)

Use Storytelling

The human brain retains 70% of information through stories but only 10% from data and statistics. (It’s a story that activates brain areas responsible for experiences.) When telling a story, you create emotional connections with readers, making them want to listen to you.

Savvy writers, marketers, and brand managers know that. They use storytelling techniques to engage the audience and win their loyalty and trust.

For your travel paper to become a story, ensure you include these five elements of a narrative there:

1. Exposition (the context of your story, i.e., its setting and background)
2. Plot (the sequence of events happening in your story, with rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution)
3. Characters (you as a narrator and other people in your story)
4. Conflict (the turning point of your story, its central meaning)
5. Conclusion (the moral of your story)

A narrative arc. Image by Reedsy

Add Sensory Details

A short yet practical writing tip all savvy authors stick to:

“If you want a more beautiful world, write more beautiful words.”

This statement couldn’t be better for travel writing. To engage and entertain the readers, you need to watch the language items you use in the text.

Consider the following:

1) Power words. They are active verbs and descriptive adjectives that trigger an emotional response from readers. These words can make us feel curious, encouraged, scared, angry, safe, etc.

2) Sensory words. They are adjectives appealing to humans’ five physical senses, helping readers “see, hear, smell, taste, or touch” your story. With their help, a writer paints scenes in our imagination, making us enjoy reading and remember the story.

Example:

A blog post by Jon Morrow at SmartBlogger

Include Dialogues

Dialogues add engagement, bring a scene to life, and give personality to the characters in your story. Add conversations with locals or your fellow travelers to your papers. It’s a surefire way to set a conversational tone and make your writing authentic.

Let’s compare:

• “Oh, look! There! It’s a black cat at that table, near that old lady in a red dress,” whispered Mary.
• “We could see cats sitting near cafe visitors.”

Which one is more compelling to read?

Show, Don’t Tell

It’s a well-known storytelling technique:

Instead of lengthy descriptions of where you went and what you did, focus on the details that help readers “see” the scene. Describe what you saw, heard, and felt: Show them the location through your eyes.

See this humorous video by Stephen King on YouTube.

When describing, do your best to avoid travel writing cliches. All those “breathtaking mountains,” “crystal blue waters,” or “grand monuments” are so overused in travel papers. They make your writing stale.

Focus on evocative details and rare metaphors (or create your own). Consider thesaurus for synonyms to diversify your vocabulary.

Use images to complement your description and help readers imagine your words. While pictures might not work when you write a travel essay in college, they are a must in travel blogging.

Here’s the Bottom Line

Travel writing is about entertaining and informing readers, not impressing them. There’s no need to use sophisticated phrases to show off your writing skills.

Follow the lead of Ernest Hemingway, who said:

“My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.”

And readers will thank you.