Here’s how to transform your travel journaling habit into the foundation of your future travel writing career:
1. Start Before You Depart: Set the Scene
Your journey begins long before you leave home or pack your bags. Grab your notepad or your journal and use it as a planning tool.
Jot down:
- Your expectations and hopes for the trip
- Your must-see sights (research to find hidden gems that may not be mainstream)
- Local dishes or restaurants you’d like to try
- Any cultural elements or traditions you're curious to observe
- Practical details like flight numbers, booking confirmations, and contact information
Capturing your research and important contacts within its pages will ensure your journal is your go-to for article ideas. It will also help to build anticipation and give you a “before and after” contrast to reflect on to help you develop your article angles.
2. Write While You Travel: Capture It in Real Time
Time has a way of blurring even the most vivid of details; this is why writing in your journal needs to be a priority, even if only briefly. Scribble in your journal over your morning coffee or while waiting at a train station. Take notes in an app on your phone (dot points are fine) to write them down in more detail as a nightly wind-down before bed.
Your notes don’t need to be polished essays. Just capture enough sensory impressions, emotional responses, or quirky anecdotes to bring the moment back to life later. A passing comment from a local, the smell of the fish market at dawn, or a wrong turn that led to a magical discovery—all of these are story seeds.
3. Look for a Theme: Unearth the Destination’s Spirit
As your journey unfolds, try to spot a recurring theme or emotional thread. What surprised you? What challenged your assumptions? Were the locals warm and welcoming, or did you feel like an outsider?
Good travel writing often explores more than just scenery—it reveals a destination’s personality. Use your journal to explore how a place made you feel. Treat your entries as if you're writing a letter to a friend:
- What would you recommend—and why?
- What would you do differently next time?
- What aspects of the culture inspired or moved you?
4. Get Specific: Engage All Five Senses
The most compelling travel writing is rooted in vivid, sensory detail. Use your journal to log what you saw, heard, tasted, touched, and smelled. For example:
- The cinnamon scent wafting from a roadside chai stand in Jaipur
- The rhythmic clatter of a cable car in Lisbon echoing through narrow lanes
- The sticky humidity of a Bangkok morning
These notes will add texture and authenticity to your writing and help readers feel like they’re walking beside you or make them want to follow in your footsteps.
Final Thoughts: Your Journal Is More Than a Diary
Think of your travel journal as both a personal keepsake and a professional toolkit. It not only holds memories for you but also article ideas, narrative arcs, and character sketches for your future feature articles.
Every great travel writer started somewhere. Yours might begin with a single sentence scribbled in a notebook at 30,000 feet or in a dusty café off the beaten track.
Take your journal, trust your instincts, and start writing your way around the world.
