And as a follow up to last week’s post …

…I asked Jonathan Lorie, the director of Travellers’ Tales and ex-editor of Traveller magazine, a few questions.

How much of a traveller writer’s success depends upon their raw talent and how much comes from hard work, determination and practice?

“You don’t need to be a genius to produce publishable articles for the travel press. You need to know how to go about writing a structuring an article, and what editors are looking for. Those are things that can be taught, and we see people on our courses – beginners even – make amazing leaps with the right input from experienced professionals like our tutors.”

“Writing a travel book is a bigger undertaking and more demanding. You do need more of a feel for words and for storytelling. But again, we find there are plenty of people with ideas and talent who just need to know how to go about things – how to channel their natural creativity properly – that can take you a long way.”

I also asked him… is there a traveller writer in every traveller?

“Most travellers love to share their stories and experiences, and this lends itself naturally to travel writing. The enthusiasm is the basis for great stories! But writing for the page is different from telling a story out loud – it needs more structure and style – so travellers need to learn to be writers as well. That’s where Travellers’ Tales can help aspiring writers save a lot of time and frustration.”

“We regularly hear success stories from our past students getting articles published around the world. We do give people the tools to do the job : then it comes down to how much time and energy they put into making a go of it.”

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