What do you normally enjoy doing when you are on a long journey? Some people carry novels along with them, some watch movies, some love admiring nature and they will keep taking photos and videos, and some will even sleep the entire journey. How about you, the freelancer or blogger that you are? You will definitely carry your laptop and be deeply engrossed in article writing. However, it does not necessarily have to be typed. You can also have a pen and piece of paper to note down important things that will be later transferred to the final draft.
In other cases, you may be writing to complete that class assignment, writing for money, or writing for fun. Imagine writing a descriptive essay about the longest trip you ever had and it happens to be the journey you are on. Interesting, right? You will be able to capture everything in detail and categorically, unlike trying to narrate a trip that happened months ago. You are likely to leave out one or two important points.
Regardless, of the reason for writing, you will always want to write an article that is of the good caliber that you will be interested in reading even in the coming years. Good and interesting articles will market you and you will find readers looking for more articles from you or looking for you for meets ups etc. Thus remember to be thorough and to exhaust all your points, just be sure you haven’t left out any critical information.
Below are some of the points that will help you when writing interesting articles while on a long journey.
1. Take notes
If your journey is on land and you are driving, have a voice recorder that enables you to speak your notes instead of writing them down. You can also stop to take photos and videos that will remind you about the happenings in the place or object captured. You will then compile everything later and type them or write them down manually.
If you are traveling by land, air, or water but you are not driving, it is a perfect opportunity to capture any important observations and write them down. Simply look out through the bus, train, or plane window and note down exciting details about the places and things you will see, and then write an interesting article.
I really love traveling and writing at the same time. I’m so good at narration and I am the type that will take plenty of photos and videos during my journey and later compile them to write my essay. These pictures and videos have every detail that needs to be captured in the writing.
2. Choose and stick to a particular topic
At times, it is tedious to write each and every detail of the journey unless you are needed to write comprehensively long articles. However, be careful not to stray from your topic. For instance, if you are tasked to write about the architecture of a given place, stick to the architecture. Do not go about writing about its people and their way of life. If you really need to, then have a separate article for that.
With that, you ought to choose a topic that has tons of information. The topic should have enough material to cover your article. You will find many writers going out of their topic because they have run out of ideas on the chosen topic.
3. Avoid the negatives
You have to put in mind that you must be clear about your descriptions. However, being so transparent will make the article be about you and not the reader, which is not the aim of the article.
Avoid telling the negatives to your reader. They do not make good reading to the reader. Imagine talking about the disturbing turbulence on a plane crossing the Atlantic Ocean for eight hours. How will the reader feel if they have a height phobia? Not good at all. Or put yourself in the shoes of the reader and come across a story on food poisoning in one of the best hotels in London, a hotel of your dreams. Are you sure you will still hold on to that dream of visiting that hotel? No! So try to avoid negatives by all means.
4. Avoid clichés
Normal is boring! You will find lots of words and phrases that are over-expressive and commonly used. However, before you fall victim to these words, ask yourself what specific feelings you are getting from the journey. Ensure the reader gets a good perspective of the things you will see and experience. Most readers will want to put themselves in your shoes to feel what you felt.
5. Go straight to the point and avoid ambiguity
You do not have to use those big words to sound relevant. Go the simple way. Keep your sentences short, precise, and free of ambiguous words. Overusing words decrease the quality of the article and the reader gets bored with it easily. These huge words might also be unclear and break the flow of sentences and paragraphs hence making it difficult for the reader to understand your article.
Your choice of words is important. It will determine whether the reader will continue with the article or will get bored and flip the cover. You do not want to be a boring writer. Capture the attention of the reader, make him or her anxious to know what happened next, and how you managed to come out of or overcome the situation.
Conclusion
Whether for assignment or for fun, you have to write something that will leave the reader wanting to know more or to read other articles you have written. As you plan to go for that vacation, I hope the above pieces of advice will be of great help. Writing while on a journey not only improves your writing but also helps you become a confident and strong writer.
