Inside travel writing

The first sentence of a travel story can take me hours. Sometimes days. But once I find it, the rest flows. If you're getting stuck on beginnings, you're definitely not alone. This week I'm sharing five of my favourite ways to open a travel piece, with real examples from published stories (including a couple of my own) that show exactly how each one works. We cover dialogue, foreshadowing, immersi...

This week I'm breaking down something almost nobody talks about: why your email subject lines might be the real reason editors aren't replying to your pitches (or even opening them). I'm sharing the exact subject line formulas I use (including one that took multiple rewrites before it finally landed a commission), the difference between a subject line and a headline that almost every writer gets w...

This week I'm joined by Fiona Tapp, award-winning travel writer, editor, and my co-coach inside The Travel Writer Accelerator. Fiona is a Londoner who's been based in Ottawa, Canada for 20 years, which makes her the perfect person to unpack exactly how press trips and pitching work differently on each side of the world. We get into all of it, including: Why Australian writers are expected to confi...

From Silence to National Geographic and BBC Travel: Jade Raykovski's Travel Writing Breakthrough For years, Jade Raykovski pitched without seeing much success. Rejections, when she got them, were rare - mostly she heard nothing at all. Then something shifted, and in a relatively short space of time, Jade went from wondering if travel writing was ever going to happen for her to landing commissions...

The questions everyone is asking before joining TWA Applications for The Travel Writer Accelerator are open, and over the past few weeks I've been receiving lots of questions about the program. If you've been considering applying, this episode will give you a behind-the-scenes look at how the program works and whether it's the right fit for you. 1:51 — Do you have a shorter version of TWA? Why I m...

Susan Reoch is a UX copywriter who went to Nepal with her dad and came home with a story she couldn't stop thinking about. She had no travel writing bylines. She didn't even know what a personal essay was. And yet six months later, her piece was published the most widely read masthead in Australia. In this episode, Susan and I walk through exactly how it happened: the trip, the angle that almost d...

That feeling when an editor doesn't reply to your pitch? We need to talk about it. This week on Inside Travel Writing we're unpacking why silence and rejection erode confidence for so many writers... and how to stop letting it with super practical advice (that really works). Sign up to get weekly email newsletters all about travel writing here. Love the show? Share it with a fellow writer or leave...

This week’s episode of Inside Travel Writing is all about the smartest (and easiest) way to break into travel writing - especially if you don’t have bylines yet. If you’ve been wondering how to land your first commission and get published without constantly traveling or having a huge online presence, this episode breaks down what actually matters and the simple steps to start. Love the show? Share...

This week's episode of Inside Travel Writing is all about the one thing that will determine whether you ever get invited on a press trip (and it's probably not what you think). If your inbox is quiet and the invitations just aren't coming, there's usually a very specific reason why. In this episode, we get into what that reason actually is and the practical steps to change it. Love the show? Share...

This week's episode of Inside Travel Writing tackles one of the biggest misconceptions in the industry: that you need to be constantly on the road to build a travel writing career. Host Lindy Alexander (a self-described homebody who burnt out from over-traveling) makes the case that the key to travel writing isn't the destination, it's your ability to find stories. Lindy uses her own small regiona...

This week’s episode of Inside Travel Writing breaks down three pitching mistakes even good writers make and how to fix them: including irrelevant information, not giving enough attention to the headline/subject line, and sending pitches that are too vague. If your travel pitches are being met with silence or rejections, one of these three issues is often the cause, and diagnosing it is the first s...