TripZillaHow to Create the Best Travelog – A travelog is a description of a journey created in the form of motion pictures, narratives, or public lectures. Most people prefer to write their experience and share it with the world through social media channels, blogs, or magazines.
If you have been on a trip recently and want to document those moments in words, here we have shared how you can create the best travelog. If you are doing it as a profession, you may need to follow additional editorials guidelines defined by each publisher.
Start Writing While It’s Fresh
The sooner you start writing your travelog, the better. Many travellers begin making notes as soon as they set off on a journey. If you have already returned home after your trip, you should recollect and outline the events you want to share as soon as possible. Your memory will start to fade if you wait too long. Writing while everything is fresh in your mind will allow you to create more real and robust content.
Don’t Look at Your Photographs and Videos
Most people start browsing through photographs and videos they captured on the trip while they are returning from it. However, you should avoid this practice, at least until you finish with the travelog. This Psychology study argues that photographs overwrite the original memory in our brain. You won’t be able to describe the real experience in your narrative if you don’t utilise those original memories from your trip.
Start by Providing Background
Your travelog should start by providing your readers with a little background about yourself and your travel destination. Moreover, describe your traveling conditions. It will give them a clear idea of what your audience is about to read and help connect with you. It is after this introduction that you will start the main body of your travelog.
Write Like a Story
Write your travelog like a story instead of a travel guide or formal essay. A story is more engaging and fun to read. If you have created an outline, make sure you write a story that connects all the dots and nothing feels irrelevant or out of place.
Add Feelings, Not Just Facts
A travelog isn’t just about informing readers. It’s about making them experience what you experienced. Your writing should deliver feelings. Share what you learned, things you loved, and all your experiences, good or bad. Try to be honest with your readers and also add occasional humour to keep the mood light.
Include Images and GIFs
All text and no graphics would make your travelog look dull and boring. Multimedia and colours engage the readers and make them want to read more. Add relevant photographs you captured on your trip and avoid the use of selfies and images from the internet. Use photographs that fit in the context and provide value to the reader.
A more engaging and recommended approach is to create and add a GIF (Graphics Interchange Format).
Gifs have become increasingly popular and are now an integral part of the Internet. Therefore, you should use animated images to depict feelings or visualize short stories. Nowadays everyone can create animated gifs themselves quickly and easily and make your travelogue more descriptive and attractive.
Avoid Ordinary Details
There is no need to write about things that weren’t unusual. You will probably have a huge list of new things you have experienced while traveling, and that’s all you need to mention. If you had a regular breakfast, then there is no point in sharing it with your readers. However, if you tried a new place or new cuisine, that’s something to document.
Mention All Good and Bad
A travelog shouldn’t be just about good things. It’s about your experience and you should share all of it. Write about the things you enjoyed as well as about the times you got sick or lost. If something bad happened to you, share it with the readers and warn them about it. This will also add a mixture of feelings in your travelog.
Guide the Readers
You should also make sure that readers learn from the travelog if they ever decide to go to that destination. Write about places to visit, some fun facts, hotels, restaurants, and all expenses. Don’t write all the facts in one place. Scatter them all over the travelog and mix them together with humour and your story.
Let Readers Have Their Opinion
While you should share all good and bad incidents, avoid passing judgements on the customs and cultures. You might have encountered somethings that might be weird for you but normal for other people. Your personal opinion could be offensive to some people. Let your readers experience them personally and form their own opinion.
Also Read: Best Travel Photography Apps
Write Drunk, Edit Sober
Start by creating an outline of the complete travelog, and don’t stop writing after that. Pour all your feelings out and don’t worry about spelling mistakes or sentence structure. The tricky part comes later during the editing phase. Be very careful and strict when editing your travelog. You will find a lot of errors and improvements, and you should not be afraid to delete entire paragraphs if needed.
