ShAFF travel writing workshop

On Saturday, I attended a travel writing workshop run by Phoebe Smith, editor of Wanderlust magazine. The workshop was one of a varied programme of events at ShAFF (Sheffield Adventure Film Festival) held in Sheffield's Showroom cinema.

The room was full for Phoebe's talk - obviously there are a lot of aspiring travel writers out there! I did notice, however, that very few attendees were taking notes; so either the've got brilliant memories or they're not quite that serious after all.

After telling us a bit about herself, Phoebe spent an hour sharing lots of tips. As part of the workshop we looked through a travel article from the Guardian and discussed the different techniques the author had used. The workshop ended with a Q&A session.  

Throughout, Phoebe was friendly, clear and, even though it was only an hour, managed to impart an awful lot of good information. As I've read so much about writing over the past year and I'm currently taking part in a travel writing course with the London School of Journalism, I had been hesitant about the benefits of attending this workshop and wondered if my time might be better spent at one of the other events. By the end I was so glad I'd made my last-minute decision to go as it was definitely an hour well spent. And I know that if I ever get the chance to do a longer workshop with Phoebe, my name will be first on the list.

 

I took pages of notes - below I've included some of the main points.

 

 

Key Tips

 

Make people interested in what you're writing – don’t just assume they’re going to be interested.

How do you get people interested?

• Know who you are writing for:
• Age
• Sex
• Interests 
• Write accurately
• Grammar, punctuation
• Facts
• Write with a purpose – what’s your aim?
• Instructing?
• Educating?
• Write well – get your audience to come back
• Practise, practise, practise ... 

 Common Mistakes

 

• Not reading your finished piece through first – print it and read it on paper as well as on screen; get someone else to read it
• Making it too personal – do your readers care?
• Humour – great if it works; cringeworthy if it doesn’t
• Toilet stories – nobody wants to know about your bowels

 

Getting the Introduction Right

 

• Grab the reader in the first paragraph
• Make it suit the tone of the article
• Try a couple of intros to see which is best – you can make your final decision later
• Look at how other people begin their articles – read the work of others analytically
• You can start with a strong quote, but it has to be good
• Write straight away – don’t worry about what you write, you can change it – just get started
• Go back to the intro at the end – do you need to change it?

 

Story Structure

 

• Beginning – grab your reader with the introduction
• Explain and elaborate – explain why you’re doing the trip or activity – each paragraph has to move the story forward – don’t lose sight of the purpose/reason for your article
• Ending – don’t suddenly end because you’ve got to your destination or the activity has finished – bring it slowly to a conclusion – slow it down over the last few paragraphs before concluding it

 

Getting Started

• You can write about anywhere at all – it doesn’t matter if you’re not travelling – where you are now is a destination for someone else
• Notice everything – e.g. people’s habits – what are they doing with their hands? Are they chewing, fidgeting, limping?
• Record everything – always have a pen and paper – you will forget details if you leave it till later
• Speak to people – get local knowledge
• Start writing

 

Writing the Perfect Journal

 

• Who is your journal for? - Is it just for you? Is it online for friends and family to read?
• When writing your journal think about potential beginnings and endings for articles – circle or highlight them so you can easily find them when you look back
• If it’s a public journal, leaving out things can be as important as what you include – don’t woffle or include every minute detail to the point of boring your readers
• It doesn’t have to be chronological
• Use your senses - what can you smell, taste, etc
• Dialogue – have a ‘cast list’ at the back of your notebook – people's names and notes about their personality, etc – assign a symbol or number to each so you can quickly refer to them in your main text, especially when making a note about what they have said
• Avoid listing everything
• Get out a pencil and sketch
• Scrapbook it – stick tickets, receipts, etc in your journal
• Do use a date
• Do leave gaps so you can make notes on your notes
• Stick to what interests you
• Get it down on paper while it’s fresh
• Enjoy it!

 

Blogging

• Don’t make promises you can’t keep e.g. don’t say you’ll write every day if you can’t
• Be unique
• Write about what you know
• Let the passion show
• Be accurate
• Use photos
• Get to grips with some of the techy stuff e.g. SEO, plugins, etc
• Social media is your best friend
• Do try to get some revenue, but don’t do it for the money!
• Your blog is a great shop window – it’s the portfolio of the modern day

Publishing

 

• Think about your local papers as well as the national press
• Try digital magazines as well as print magazines
• Write for other people's blogs - guest blogging
• Other websites
• Guidebooks and advice books have more need for writers – you need to be very disciplined and write within a strict structure – much more so than a personal travel-writing book

 

What Editors Want / How to Pitch

 

Phoebe used an interesting scenario to explain this -  

 

Imagine a bar full of editors and writers – editors are needy and promiscuous, but getting a lot of offers – as a writer you’re trying to catch an editor's eye – build some trust – let them see who you are and that you're serious and dependable – it can take a long time to get noticed as you have some pretty stiff competition - it took Phoebe two years of trying before she got a freelance article published in Wanderlust even though she was an established writer.

 

Continuing the allegory, Phoebe advised us to start by asking the editor for a drink and not proffering a marriage proposal straight away, no matter what your long-term intentions are. In other words, start by pitching a short article, not a full-blown series.

 

Getting that first date is the hardest - once you've got it, make it a success, then you'll find the second date much easier to get.

 

Phoebe gets around 100 pitches a day and although she reads every one you're going to have to stand out from the crowd to have any chance of being successful - make sure you have a good subject line and introduction.

 

As for how to pitch, most magazines will have guidelines on their website. The guidelines for Wanderlust can be found on the ‘about us’ tab.

 

Your pitch should include:

• Paragraph about the article/pitch
• Intro of the article
• A bit about you

Other tips when pitching include:

• Photos are not usually essential, but if you have them it's better to include a link rather than clogging up the editor's email box up with attachments.
• There are many reasons why you might not be commissioned – the magazine might already have enough articles; they might have already covered the topic or already commissioned it.
• Magazines plan 6 months/issues ahead   – bear this in mind when pitching, especially if your article is topical
• Newspaper features/articles are usually 700-1000 words
• Magazine features/articles are usually 2000-2500 words
• Multi-pitching – make it different for each pitch – if multi-pitching the same or a similar article and an editor accepts after another one already has, tell the second editor the article is no longer available

 

 

Sheffield Adventure Film Festival

Is it possible to go to a film festival and not see any films? Well, on Saturday I did just that. I spent the day in Sheffield at the Adventure Film Festival (ShAFF). The festival lasted the whole weekend, but Saturday was the only day I could be there as on Sunday I was supposed to be in a hot air balloon floating above Bakewell. It didn't happen AGAIN, but that's another story. Back to ShAFF.




ShAFF has been an annual event for a few years now and is a brilliant showcase for the (usually short) films made by (usually young male, but not necessarily short) people who are making their lives all about adventure. I was really interested to see some of these films and get myself a good dose of inspiration, but was far too distracted by all the great workshops, forums and talks that were on offer.


First up was a travel writing workshop run by Phoebe Smith, editor of Wanderlust magazine. I made lots of notes and was really pleased to hear a lot of what she said tallying with what I've found out from all the research and reading I've been doing over the past year. It's so good to know I'm on the right track!


Rushing back to the 'lecture theatre' (aka the bar area) after a quick lunch of rather tasty fennel and potato soup, I found it already filling up for the cycle touring forum. The only seats left were on the front row, right in front of the panel. As one of my personal mottoes is 'live life on the front row', this was definitely not a problem. 


Leon McCarron (young, male, not particularly short) led the panel which included another solo male cyclist and a couple of couples (half of each couple was female. YES!). The six had done very different tours and had different views on speed with Ed Shoote being the most zoomy. They each spoke a bit about their cycle tours and then answered questions from the audience. Cycle touring is on my list of things to do so it was quite interesting to hear what they had to say. Though I'm not planning on cycling round the world as Laura and Tim Moss did or even cycling 2,500 miles along the Great Divide from New Mexico to Banff in Canada as Hannah Maia did for her megamoon (a longer, more adventurous version of a honeymoon) with new husband Patrick. A week in the Netherlands might be quite enough for me. 


After a coffee and cake break, it was time a film making workshop. In the first half Paul Diffley showed techniques for interviewing people on camera and explained how to set shots up. The second part of the session focussed on sound with Chris Prescott making us aware that good sound engineering is just as much about the sounds you remove as those you leave in. This is all really useful as I've used video a lot in my teaching and at some point I do want to make a short film of my own - this being another item on my list of things of do.


The final session of the day was a series of Shed Talks. These were modelled on the slightly better known TED Talks, but as we were at ShAFF in Sheffield the moniker 'Shed' sounded more appropriate. The talks were all motivational with the most moving speaker being a climber with terminal cancer who, after diagnosis, set up the charity 'Climbers Against Cancer (CAC)'. The charity has raised thousands of pounds internationally and I felt privileged to hear founder John Ellison tell his story in his brief ten minute slot. When diagnosed he was given two years to live. That was three years and four months ago.


I thought of how much he's achieved and how important it is to never waste a second of the life we're given. With that sobering thought we repaired to the bar to sample Abbeydale Brewery's special ShAFF IPA (no, not Indian Pale Ale, but Intrepid Pale Ale of course).






ShAFF is held at the Showroom Cinemas and Workstation close to Sheffield train station. As well as films, workshops and talks, there are stalls advertising or selling adventure related products and a second-hand kit stall where you can sell your old kit and use the proceeds to buy someone else's old kit.




The website for ShAFF can be found here.

First Feedback

Last week I wrote about how I'd finally got round to starting my Freelance and Travel Writing Course with the London School of Journalism. Yesterday I received the first feedback from my tutor. There wasn't a lot (it would have been a HUGE blow to my confidence if he'd obliterated my assignments with red pen!), but what there was, was really positive. He even said my English skills were exemplary. Exemplary! Such a nice word; sort of rolls off the tongue. Hopefully, I'll be hearing it a lot more over the coming months.


He has provided me with a list of recommended reading. I got straight onto Amazon and, as some of the books were extremely cheap, I have them winging their way to me as we speak.


I've downloaded my second lesson and have already started working on it. If I keep up this level of enthusiasm, I'll have to re-assess my previous estimate of 45 years being the amount of time I'll need to complete the course!

Writing course

About 3 years ago I signed up for a online course with the London School of Journalism. I'd been recommended the course by a friend and also noted that other writers I follow had mentioned doing courses with them. 

The course I signed up for is Freelance and Travel Writing. Each unit has a chunk of reading and then a series of writing tasks that I complete at my own pace, emailing the finished tasks to my assigned tutor when I'm ready.

The reading for lesson one is basically background on journalism: history of journalism and printing, types of journalism, types of publication. The first of the four assignment tasks was to write a personal statement including prescribed criteria and with a strict wordcount. For the second task, I had to detail the journalistic equipment and resources I have (computer, camera, books, etc) and my relevant abilities e.g. my computer skills, level of English and knowledge of other languages. Thirdly, I had to provide written advice for someone who wants to be a freelance writer, and finally I had to submit a 'character study' of a magazine of my choice and a 'pen portrait' of the type reader it is marketed to. Each of the assignments has a maximum number of words allowed. 

On several occasions over the last few years, I've sat down and attempted these tasks. I've ummed and ahhed, written a bit, scribbled it out, written it again, scribbled it out again, given up. This isn't because the tasks are difficult, but, I realise now, because my head wasn't in the right place. It was far too full of lesson planning, marking, meetings, extra-curricular activities, union work, Duke of Edinburgh Award training, finding time for family, finding time to go to the dentist or renew my car insurance. There was no room in my head for something that seemed frivolous, a mere hobby. Even though it was something I really wanted to do. Fortunately, when I enrolled for the course I ensured it was one with no deadlines as, even then, I knew I'd struggle with time constraints. I just didn't realise how much I'd struggle.

Finally, my head is clearing. I'm feeling like I'm getting to the top of the mountainous mess of my life and the view is good. I can see where I've been, where I am and where I want to go next. It was with this clear head I finally sat down to look at the assignments again and this time I could see exactly how I wanted to complete them. I had to spend a lot of time re-writing to get the wordcounts down to the required maximums and this meant corrupting some sentences I'd really like to have kept as they were, but at no point did I feel as though I was floundering. I knew I could do it. I even enjoyed doing it. 

This morning I checked the submission info, attached my work to an email and hit send. It felt good. As well as adhering to the set criteria for the tasks, I've tried to write in a way that demonstrates my writing style and is 'journalistic' rather than just a list of information. I'll know if this was the right thing to do when I get my feedback.



As there are a total of 15 units and it's taken me 3 years to complete the first one, if I continue at this pace it will take me 45 years to finish the course. By then I'll be aged, erm, er ... well, I hope I'll still be alive. 

Researching and writing

After a lot of research into travel books (good excuse to do lots of reading) I've come to the conclusion that most books have around 200 pages and 100,000 words. Give or take 10-20%. This is reassuring because this is what I'm aiming for with the book I'm trying to write at the moment. I'm not looking at bestselling travel writers as they tend to have much longer books, but more the sort of writers you only discover when researching books on a particular region or way of travelling.


At the moment I'm about a third of the way there with around 32,000 words. I've divided the writing of my first draft into three phases:


Phase one was typing up my diary notes. I kept quite a detailed diary as I was walking, but as I was hand-writing and, more importantly, not wanting to add a huge notebook to my load, it was in note form. My typing up in phase one involved writing it up into proper sentences and paragraphs rather than just copying up notes. As I'm a fairly fast typist this was completed quite quickly.


I'm now working on phase two, which is much slower going. Phase two involves the factual side of my walk and means lots of research. One of my USPs (unique selling points) is that the book will be useful for anyone planning, or thinking about, a walk along the Kungsleden. Although it's not intended as a guidebook, I do want to get quite a lot of solid information into it. One of the reasons I wanted to write this book is because so few people in the English speaking world are aware of this walk and there is very little written on it in English. The very reason I want to write the book is also the reason my research is going quite slowly - there's very little written on it in English.


I'm finding quite a lot on the internet, but it tends to be in Swedish. Although I picked up a few Swedish words, my language skills are definitely not of the proficiency needed for reading Swedish websites. I'm ploughing through, picking out the words I know and finding myself doing a complicated process of translating into English via Dutch. Yes, Dutch. When I was in Scandinavia in February I noticed how a lot of the words in both Danish and Swedish seemed to share a similar root to Dutch. I don't speak Dutch, but my Dutch vocabulary is far more extensive than my Swedish vocabulary and whilst I was travelling over the summer I found this came in very useful. I'm finding it just as useful now. When I've read through a page and got the gist of it in Dutch and English (Dutlish?), I'll put any relevant bits into Google translate to double-check. Although it comes up with a few strange translations and the word order is sometimes rather jumbled, I'm quite impressed with it. I wouldn't use it to translate anything of importance, say a legal document, but for my purpose it's fine.


Once I've done some research and made my own notes, I'm then inserting this into whichever part of my draft I think it'll best fit. This is all taking quite a long time. I'm aiming to have roughly 50,000 words by the end of the phase two. That'll be half the book dedicated to my first USP. Only 18,000 words to go then ...


Phase three will be dedicated to my second USP which is something along the lines of stressed, middle-aged woman/teacher gives up job and goes for a long walk in the Arctic wilderness. I think I'm going to enjoy writing this part. Not that I'm not enjoying what I'm doing at the moment, but I'm conscious of time and want to get as much done as possible before the need to pay bills means I have to go back to work. 


Of course, once it's all done, that's only really the start of it. My first draft will be a collection of disorganised ramblings and will be in need of some serious editing. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

I've returned ... what next?

I've been home for about 10 days now and I'm slowly getting myself sorted out. As planned, I've spent the summer on a long walk in a long country. I aimed to walk the Kungsleden trail in the far north of Sweden and managed to complete just under half of it before my knees gave out. Although it's disappointing not to have finished the whole thing, I really enjoyed what I did and developed a whole new mindset towards walking. I'll write more about that in another post. I've also got an excuse to go back next year.


Before I went to Sweden, I left my job. Drastic but sometimes these things have to be done. I was getting less and less time to do the things I want to do with my life and to spend time with the people I want to spend time with. Work was, quite literally, taking over my life. I feel a lot calmer and more in control of my life since finishing work. Unfortunately, as I'm not a rich heiress or lottery winner, and I don't have a sugar-daddy to hand, I'll have to find some other means of earning a living. But this time I want it to be on my terms. In the meantime I want to spend some time focussing on things I want to achieve personally.


One of the items on my list is to write a book. I've had ideas roaming around inside my head for years, but they've never seemed quite right when I've come to put them down on paper. My time walking in the wilderness gave me lots of thinking time and I now feel I have the right ideas for a book. I had thought about writing up the walk even when I was at the planning stages. There is very little written on it in English so I'd hope it would be helpful to others wanting to do something similar. This would be one of my USPs. Yes, I've been reading up on what helps a piece of writing to sell and found out all about the need for a USP (Unique Selling Point). I have two USPs. Is that a good thing? The first, as mentioned, concerns the lack of writing about this trail that is currently available in English. The second goes something along the lines of 'stressed, middle-aged woman gives up job and goes off alone for a wander round the Arctic'.


I kept quite detailed diaries whilst I was away and I'm now in the process of writing them up and adding to them. As I read back over them and think about fleshing them out, the book is almost writing itself in my mind. I have so many ideas. I think I'm almost glad I only completed half the walk as I definitely have enough material for one book already!

Lots going on

There seems to be so much happening at the moment. We're on day 9 of the year and already I feel that this is going to be a good  year in which I'm going to achieve lots.

I signed up for the travel writing course with the London School of Journalism on Saturday night and by Sunday I had my first two lessons emailed to me. I really wasn't expecting it to be that quick! Today I've had another email from them with a lot more information. I've skimmed through the two lessons to get an idea of what's expected of me so I can start thinking about them. I'll wait until the weekend to go through them properly though.

Still on the topic of writing, yesterday I was reading Wanderlust magazine and found a short book review that had been submitted by a reader. This is a regular column where readers can submit a review of a 'must read book' that they've 'read on location'. There's no payment involved, but it seems like a good way to start getting myself into print.

I made a quick study of the style of the already published article and then wrote one in a similar style and emailed it off to the magazine. I also used a few of the tips I'd picked up from my skim-reading of the two writing course lessons I've received to make the layout and presentation seem a bit more professional. I've already got a reply from 'Tom' thanking me and saying he's looking forward to reading it. Reading what? My review? Or the book itself because he likes my review? Does this mean I'm going to be published? It's all a bit ambiguous. But if I am published then that's a good start on my 2012 twelve list.

On a completely different topic, today was my first day back at school and I was already discussing half-term plans with a colleague. We got onto summer holiday plans and she mentioned she has booked to go to Womad with a group of girlfriends. I had no plans to go to Womad over the next few years because it falls in the summer holidays when I'd rather be away somewhere for a month or more. I want to go to Womad, but thought it could wait a while. However, when my colleague mentioned it and then invited me along it seemed like fate. Another example of how keeping a list and focussing on the things I want to achieve helps to make them happen. So I've said I'll go. It should be fun to be with a group of people as well.

I've just been online to book a ticket, but it's all a bit confusing. I need to check with her tomorrow which type of ticket she's got and for which days, then I can get mine booked. I'll still have time to go to Scotland afterwards (or Japan if the free tickets thing happens), and I can explore Wiltshire or Somerset for a few days before the festival starts.

I've got the floatation tank booked in London for half-term and today they've emailed me to confirm two sessions. I've mailed back to correct it to one session! I've also got a ticket for the Hajj exhibition at the British Museum over half-term. During the rest of my time in London the friend I'm staying with suggested meeting up at lunch time one day to go to Jamie Oliver's restaurant Fifteen. If we can't get in there then we may go to the Ritz for afternoon tea instead. I'd like to go to Jamie's restaurant, but the afternoon tea at the Ritz would mean another challenge ticked off. Choices, choices ...

Whilst I was planning my half-term and thinking about the things I can achieve I thought I might as well check out England fixtures at Wembley. I got excited when I realised England are playing Holland on February 29th, until I realised that this is the week after half-term. I thought about trying to get down for the game, but I really don't think I'd make it on time. I've looked at other fixtures and there's a Belgium game I could go to in June. It's on a Saturday, so the travelling time wouldn't be a problem. I'd rather go to the Holland game, as The Netherlands is a country I go to most years and feel a bit of a connection to. Also, the only other game I've ever been to at Wembley was an international schoolboys' game when I was at school myself. This game was England vs Holland, and so it seemed kind of meant to be that the game I see now should be England vs Holland. Except it's not meant to be. Oh well, can't have everything.

To apply for tickets for an England game I need a FAN (FA number). I've applied for one and now have it ready for when the tickets for the Belgium game go on sale. I'll have to keep monitoring the FA's site to make sure I do get a ticket.

I still have quite a few posts about Iceland in the draft stage as well which I'm trying to get finished, but now I'm getting distracted by all these other things. I'm certainly not complaining about having lots of good things going on in my life though!

Writing

I've always liked the idea of being a writer - work when and where you want to, write about things you're interested in, get to do things that other people don't, and so on. However, I realise that I might not like the reality as much as I like the idea. Having constant deadlines, having to write in a way an editor wants me to rather than the way I want to, trying to sell my work, and so on. But unless I try I'll never know. A few years ago I started to think more seriously about this and managed to get paid £100 for a 200 word article I wrote for the Times Educational Supplement. Then life got incredibly busy again and I never got round to writing anything else. I've always kept travel diaries, but haven't really written anything else. So if I do get seriously involved in writing I think it would have to be travel writing in some form or other (I would include outdoor activity type writing in with this though).

A friend who lives in Bali has been writing for her local paper for years. She's written on education in past, but mainly writes a review and what's on type column these days. She'd like to get more involved in writing and has found a correspondence course with the London School of Journalism that she is interested in doing. I had a look at the course online and there is a travel writing version of it which sounds really interesting. I don't necessarily think a course would be a guarantee for me becoming a wonderful writer, but it might focus me and give me some direction in styles and markets.

I was fully intending to apply for this course in the summer when my web design course finishes, but then I got the opportunity to do a post-graduate certificate in specific learning difficulties which is paid for by the TDA. After a bit of thought I decided to go for it. How often do you get the chance of free education these days? And it's an area I'm interested in and may open up more job opportunities for me in the future. It's an awful lot of work on top of everything else I'm doing, so now I have to decide whether I can really take on the travel writing course as well. There's no point doing it if I'm not going to do it properly. But I don't really want to postpone it by a year. So in the next month or two I have a big decision to make.