Make it Personal
The Feature article is a type of journalistic writing (i.e., writing that appears in newspapers, magazines, and the online equivalent of both). Travel Features differ in purpose such as Journey, Destination, and Memoir, and you will have an opportunity to write one with more creativity in the second to last module of the class, but one approach to feature writing is focusing on the traveler, their insights, perspective and travails.
As Pico Iyer points out in “Why we Travel,” going to new places changes us. What we share about how a place changes us can make a difference to those who are looking for a change, but also those who are looking to travel to a place.
Much of travel writing seems personal, but it’s usually the grand adventures that matter to an audience. Your “Day at the Magic Kingdom” probably won’t get published. However, I want you to give it a whirl in this module. The samples in this unit are all larger in scope than what is available to you in a week. However, feel free to rely on your memory for this assignment.
Each Sample describes a place, but spends more time talking about the self or larger philosophical issues.
One Sample might not seem like a travel piece, but it really is. Author Neal Stephenson wrote a collection entitled In the Beginning…was the Command Line, and in it is the essay “Interface Culture” in which he uses his observations from a trip to Disney World to think about how we mediate experience (or how we are mediated). Travel writing no matter the form, genre, or purpose, is mediating the experience for others. When we read about a place, does that make us want to go there, or do we feel like we have been there by reading, seeing, or hearing about it? When we see pictures or journals of where we have been, do we see ourselves there, or do we just remember the media?
Techniques
Samples
- How I learned to go in circles in Kathmandu by Eric Weiner for BBC Travel [1,500 words; 12 minutes]
- How Korean Karaoke Changed My Life by Lavinia Spalding for WorldHum [1,900 words; 15 minutes]
- Interface Culture by Neal Stephenson from In the Beginning…was the Command Line [3,862 words; 30 minutes]
Assignment
Due dates
- Personal Story draft due Wednesday, October 21
- Editorial Comments due Monday, October 23
- Personal Story revision due Wednesday, October 26