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Taking a trip to a dream destination can be a life-changing adventure and writing a travel narrative or travel guide of that experience is a no-brainer. But what if you could write your journal in such a way that makes it easy to write and self-publish it as a travel book? Here are seven things you can do to make sure you write useful travel journal that converts more easily to a published book.

1. Ask Yourself: Why This Trip?

There should always be an intent for your trip. In writer’s terms this is defined as your theme and angle, and will help you reach your target audience. Find a common thread and loop your travel journal content around it. Then explore your destination and take notice of all the sensory elements that support your theme and angle. These observations will add the necessary depth to your book, and raise if from generic too engaging.

2. Research About the Destination – A Lot!

Knowing what will sell is important if you want to make your book a success. So you need to conduct some competitive research to find out what’s already been written about your destination. The best place to start is on Amazon and they’re avid list-compilers. You can review their Top 100 paid and free books for your destination to see what’s currently selling well.

You should also spend time researching possible niches, to help you determine how you can successfully cover a popular destination from a different perspective.

Pre-trip research is essential. You will have already done some research to define your theme and angle, but this pre-trip research needs to delve deeper to find out what’s already been written about your destination. During this process you’ll uncover opportunities and gaps in the marketplace, which will help you define the content areas you want to focus on.

You can use this research stage as an opportunity to develop a trip itinerary to make sure you make the most of the time you spend at your destination. Then once you arrive you can speak to locals to see what additional insights they have to offer.

3. Find Your Writing Style

When you read a ton of books from a particular genre or author, you might end up writing in a style that is similar to theirs. What this does is create a surplus of written works that sound just the same—boring.  Try finding your own style as a writer. Think about how you make conversations with people, the words and phrases you use. Let your book reflect you. 

You can develop your style by writing and reading your work afterwards. Sit down every day and find time to write something. This will go to help you in the long run as a writer. So when a person walks down the aisle of travel books and keeps back all those that sound the same to later pick up yours, they’ll end up turning a page and then another because your book has a style of its own. 

4. Include a Lot Of Dialogue

Great travel books are not just about the destination, they’re also about the conversations that take place with the locals. Using dialogue is the best way to immerse your readers in your surroundings and show them what’s going on rather than just telling them.

You can gather dialogue by listening closely and taking notes during the conversation, or using a recorder. Recording conversations gives you the opportunity of listening to again when you’re back in your room.

These recordings also make it easier to pull out direct (an accurate) quotes. This helps to retain their choice of words and the way they frame their sentences. Your reader will get a richer experience of the people you met and your cultural exchange.

5. What To Keep and What To Leave Out

Knowing what to keep and what to leave out from your book is important, but you don’t want to do this self-editing during the travel journaling phase. While you’re at your destination take copious notes. Capture your observations using detailed descriptions or bullet point lists, so that you have a wealth of material to choose from when it comes time to converting your journal to a book.

You may think you’ll remember every detail of your trip, but some elements that will fall between the cracks or the details will get muddled or fuzzy. So if something captures your attention during your trip, take the time to write it in your journal. Treat this stage as information gathering, so that you have plenty of material to pick from when it comes time to write your book.

Conclusion

These five pointers will help you write a strong and creative travel journal that can be developed into a book. The key is to know what your end goal is so that before you write the first word in your travel journal, you already have a clearly defined book concept. However, remember that your trip is about you and not the book. Enjoy every moment and make memories throughout.

Author Bio:

Leon Collier is a freelance essay writer and blogger from the UK who works for some of the best college paper writing services. His current assignment is with Write my college essays, where he leads a team of professional essay writers. When he’s not busy writing, you can find him behind a book or playing tabletop games with his friends. You can follow him on Twitter @LeonCollier12.