Slides from the travel blogging workshop at

1. Travel Writing for Travel BloggersHow to Write a Better Blog Abigail King

2. Who am I? Blogger Inside the Travel Lab & Cheap Weekend Breaks Visit Britain, Lonely Planet, UK Inspirations “Traditional” writing & photography Lonely Planet, BBC, CNN, Red Magazine Academic journals Guides Corporate work

3. Writing Magic Can transport a total stranger into a completely different world Mundane Rules, tools and tricks of the trade

4. Writing... ...is like driving

5. Writing Is Like Driving You can learn to do it You can learn to do it well It’s a skill that brings you great freedom, pleasure and other opportunities Some people do it exceptionally well You may or may not be one of them So what? Not winning a Grand Prix doesn’t stop you from driving

6. Overview The big secret What is the point? Headlines Beginning Middle End Final polish

7. The Secret to Great Writing Is... ...REWRITING “The first draft of anything is shit” Ernest Hemingway

8. How To Improve... Remove the mystery Get writing Edit, edit, edit and then edit some more You can always edit bad writing. You can’t edit a blank page

9. Two Main Approaches Pour your heart out onto the screen. Take a break. Get to work. The impassioned artist approach. Plan every point methodically before you start and the fill in the gaps afterwards. The careful civil servant approach.

10. Writing for Blogs All the usual principles of good writing, plus SEO Continuity Call to action A sense of story & personality. You are not Wikipedia

11. What’s Your Point? Why are you writing this post? Information guide Provoke a discussion Entertain

12. Finding a Theme What can you say about this experience that no-one else can? History Quotes Current affairs

13. Headlines Bad headline > no-one reads the rest Page Title H1 Tag Modify the headline for Facebook, Twitter, Google +

14. Headlines For Search Use the AdWords tool Consider what people type into the search box For Social Media & Regular Readers Room to be more creative Use lists Use questions Use words loaded with emotion

15. An Example Page Title - Search “Visiting the Alhambra” or “What’s it like to visit the Alhambra?” H1 Title – Social “Beauty, brutality and motherhood”

16. Headlines Experiment Read Write to Sellby Andy Maslen Read Copyblogger Test your headline against the “So What?” test

17. Opening Line Crucial People are busy. There is already too much information to consume and too many distractions online You HAVE to hook them with your opening line

18. Start Mid-Action I’m running through Kraków’s bus station, spinning around to see coaches lined up behind me and smaller trams rattling through the concrete space below. My eyes jump around, searching for D8, for Oświȩcim. A stocky man strides towards me. “Proszę,” I say, please, before my supply of Polish dries up. I’m suddenly embarrassed, flushed and ashamed to say to the face of a stranger one of the most emotionally charged words in the world. “Auschwitz.” He says it first.

19. Start With Speech “Bend your knees,” he says and I have to obey. From behind, he pulls the strap until the rubber scrapes my skull. I hug my arms against my chest and crank my head back, making the shackles around my thighs tighten further. “Now,” he commands, as I try to ignore the gap where the side of the aeroplane should be, “don’t forget to smile for the camera.” And with that, we’re gone.

20. Start With A Bang Launch with the biggest piece of information: “The world’s best restaurant – that’s how it was billed.”

21. Do Something Different When I first started travelling in Italy my relationship to beach going and sunbathing was strained. I’ve got the natural skin tone of a maggot, so when I first started travelling in Italy my relationship to beach going and sunbathing was strained. Italiannotes.com

22. Opening Line - Pitfalls Rambling Errors Assumptions – When you think of Independence Day, you think of sales, right? What if that’s not what I think when I read it?

23. The Middle Consider headings Keep your theme in mind Use the five senses Use transitions

24. Make It Punchy Short Words. Use Them. Avoid the passive Cut unnecessary phrases & fillers Use verbs not adverbs

25. Examples I walked quickly and quietly I tiptoed I sprinted I paced

26. Spelling & Grammar

27. Spelling & Grammar

28. Spelling & Grammar Always run a spell check Choose one version of a language & stick to it Use other resources to help you with finer points eg The Guardian online

29. Research & Fact Checking Always do it Errors reduce your credibility Check with reputable sources

30. Pitfalls Breathtaking Stunning Gem Amazing Use in moderation. They don’t tell me much about the place (or you)

31. The Finish Don’t just stop Deliver your reader safely back to the real world Make them glad they bothered to read the whole thing

32. The Finish - Techniques Echo something from the start End with a teaser End with a quote End with a question

33. Bring Them Back... Ninety minutes later I’m back in Krakow, in the rush hour stream of 21st century life. Beyonce’s Beautiful Nightmare accompanies the commuters and shoppers, while fluorescent lights shine over the latest Zara collection and women sell salt-encrusted Obwarzanki from kiosks sheltered from the wind. I go to buy one and find two pieces of paper in my pocket. Jan’s card and the square cut-out from the first bus driver. It lists the departure times from Auschwitz back to the modern world. It’s only small, but perhaps this was the sliver of beauty and hope that I was searching for.

34. The Teaser... Then we enter the kitchen and meet the man himself: Ferran Adria, the head chef. To be continued...

35. The Call to Action What do you want your readers to do? Comment? Share the post? Buy something? ASK THEM TO DO IT

36. English as a Foreign Language Wow. Congratulations. However... Don’t think you can forget all this Especially the grammar and spelling part

37. The Final Polish Search for your own “danger” words Look for colours, the passive, rambling Read it out aloud Spell check Link to other posts from your site and beyond

38. Experiment Play around with these techniques Test what works for you and your readers Aim high but don’t let the quest for perfection hold you back Enjoy it

39. Questions ?

40. Resources Online courses – www.writers.com Write to Sell – Andy Maslen On Writing – Stephen King Story - Robert McKee Copyblogger