creative writing road trip

21 Road Trip Writing Prompts

by Joe Bunting | 133 comments

Summer is the season for road trips. Whether you are on the road yourself or only dreaming of a vacation, today we have some road trip writing prompts to make the time fly. Try one out today!

This prompt was originally posted in June, 2012. Today, I'm traveling overseas and thought a few of you might also be on the road! We've added twenty prompts to the original one, but I kept my own practice from 2012 at the end. Enjoy!

Road trips yield great stories. Why? Because a road trip forces you, your family, your friends, or your characters into uncomfortable and new situations. Add to that the potential for various complications and conflict, and you have all the ingredients for a terrific story. 

Whether you want to write the story of a road trip you took, or one you're planning, or a scene from your work in progress that involves a road trip, you can use the elements of plot to help you. (See our full guide here.)

Start with a character who has a goal, and then let the complications and conflict ensue. Bring their actions to a crescendo of crisis (will they make the best bad choice to get what they want?) and deliver the climax and denouement .

A road trip has a built in external goal: you want to get to your destination, usually in a specific way for a specific purpose. But all those details can get hijacked by internal conflict, car trouble, wild roadside stops, and any other complication you can dream up. Give it a try!

Twenty-one Road Trip Writing Prompts 

• My original prompt was simple: Write about a road trip.

You can still do that one. But here are twenty more to take for a drive. (See what I did there?)

2. A parent and adult child have to take a road trip to sort out important family business. What happens?

3. Two co-workers have to drive to a work event one state away, but the trip goes terribly wrong.

4. A group of college seniors embark on a final road trip before graduation, but at the beginning of the second day, they pick up a hitchhiker who looks a lot like one of their professors who died the year before. 

5. A newlywed couple borrows a travel trailer and sets off on a cross-country roadtrip, when…

6. A young twenty-something trying to get home makes the mistake of stopping at…

7. An older couple has to move closer to family and takes a route that has some unusual memories.

8. A multi-family caravan road trip is derailed when a sink hole drops them into another dimension.

9. A motorcycle road trip through the Rocky Mountains turns deadly when…

10. A photographer sets out to capture pictures of the last five family-owned motels along a historic route when they discover…

11. A child convinces their grandparent to drive a thousand miles to return to a family home, but when they arrive, they are shocked to find…

Ten more road trip prompts for journaling

12. Tell about a time you took a wrong turn on a road trip.

13. Describe your dream road trip. Be sure to include details about the vehicle and riders along with the route and sights along the way. 

14. What was the best thing you ever ate on a road trip? The worst?

15. If you could only take a single route to a single destination for a road trip every summer for the rest of your life, which would it be and why?

16. Describe a time you learned something new on a road trip. 

17. Create your dream road trip playlist. Which artists and albums would you include and why?

18. Write about the characteristics that would describe your worst-case-scenario road trip buddy. (You can approach this either way: the person who would be best in a crisis OR the worst person to ride with.)

19. Find pictures of the open road in your favorite region and describe how it feels to be in that setting. 

20. What is your favorite book or film that includes a road trip and why?

21. Write about your favorite season or time of day to be on the road and describe it. 

For this writing practice, choose one of the prompts above. Set your timer for fifteen minutes . When you’re finished, share your work in the Pro Practice Workshop here (and if you’re not a member yet, you can join here ).

If  you post, please read and comment on a few posts by other writers. Share the love 🙂 

Here's my practice from 2012:

We're driving from California to Georgia this week, my dad and me. The first time since I was sixteen and only spoke six words to him the whole trip. We drove to Big Sur and then to Cambria where we stopped and listened to jazz in a little club along the road. It was the first time I had really listened to jazz. The piano player was blind. He could play well, the whole band could play well, but all I remember is feeling sad and alone and observant.

This time we're driving to Georgia through New Orleans where we'll sit in a smoky bar on Canal Street and listen to jazz. We drove through Texas today. Texas is normally a two day state, but for us it's a three day state. He wants to take it slow and relaxing so we'll stop in San Antonio and then Houston before making it the Mississippi Delta. I'm impatient to go faster and farther, a flaw of youth I suppose.

In El Paso we ate the worst Texas barbecued brisket either of us have ever had. Me, because it's the first Texas barbecued brisket I've ever had so it was both the best and worst. And he, because it was so dry and tasteless he had to chase it with shots of BBQ sauce just to get it down.

After El Paso we drove along Texas roads so long and flat you stop seeing road entirely and completely disappear into the black asphalt, the golden land, and the blue eternal sky that seems to dissolve the land itself.

Joe Bunting

Joe Bunting is an author and the leader of The Write Practice community. He is also the author of the new book Crowdsourcing Paris , a real life adventure story set in France. It was a #1 New Release on Amazon. Follow him on Instagram (@jhbunting).

Want best-seller coaching? Book Joe here.

133 Comments

“Come on, Nick, are you coming or what?”

“I’m coming, hang on.” Nicky rummaged through her shoulder bag again. “I just…hang on. Have you seen my Dramamine?”

“You already took it. The bottle is in your pocket.”

“Right. Okay.” She patted her pockets. You reminded your sister about the plants?”

“I did. Twice a week. She’s going to take the orchid home with her tonight.” Jack jingled the car keys and stared her down. She started down the front steps.

“Oh, I’m just going to check the coffee maker. I don’t remember if I turned it off.” She started back up.

“Nick! It’s on a timer. If you forgot to turn it off, which you didn’t, it’ll go off in an hour.” She hesitated at the top of the stairs. “We already got the garbage, the modem and tv are unplugged and the refrigerator is closed. We dumped the extra milk.”

“You’re sure?”

“Do you want to do this or not?”

“Of course I do! We’ve been planning it all month. You know how I am…” She smiled weakly. “ Just being thorough.” He didn’t respond, just spun the keys around his index finger before turning to climb into the driver’s seat of the rental car.

She took a deep breath and plunged down the steps and into the passenger seat. After arranging her bag on the floor she started to put on her seat belt, but stopped. Jack’s fingers drummed on the steering wheel as he stared ahead. Nicky picked her bag back up, took out her water bottle and put it in the cup holder. She exchanged her glasses for sunglasses. Hesitating, she put the box with the Sea Bands on her lap before buckling up. She anchored herself in the seat and reached for the bar on the roof.

“You know I’m a good driver, right?”

“Oh, I know. Its the rest of them I’m not sure about.”

I like the banter between your characters, Catherine. It’s great dialogue. It also made me laugh. I swear I have been Nick on a car trip or two.

I love the mystery in this. Are you going to keep writing this? I would.

I just might. I’ve been getting a sense of where these two might be going on their (ill-fated) trip. I’ve only been visiting Write Practice for about two weeks now, and the practice prompts are all so great I keep tucking all these little 300 word stories aside to work on later!

This is like a great study on the beginning of agoraphobia. What would happen is you followed them further. Would she want to go back. Would she worry about her home while she was gone? Very interesting theme.

Love it. Great dialogue. Getting ready to go on a trip is such chaos. Especially around worry warts (not sure if “worry warts” is a real thing or just a phrase we made up to describe my brother) I really felt that in your piece.

Really enjoyed this piece and would continue reading to find out more. I related to the woman’s OCD tendencies and her companions resultant frustration.

When I was a kid, road trips were awful. I remember the miles of boredom. Green mile marker after green mile marker ticking by like the second hand on a clock on Christmas Eve.

There was only so much we could do in the car. Read books. Play animal poker. Sing songs together.

Seat belts were usually neglected like the leftover tuna casserole in the back of the fridge. Some states protected us with laws back then, but nobody cared. We would often fall sleep while laying in the floorboard of the car.

My kids do not understand how good they have it. The minivan was built to keep them entertained for the 13 hour drive to Tampa. Instead of having to stare out the window for what seems forever, they can stare at the LCD screen conveniently hanging from the roof of the van.

Instead of swiping through the pages of a book and the story hidden within the collections of letters and words and punctuation marks, they can swipe through “Angry Birds” or “Cut the Rope.”

Instead of singing songs with each other, belting out the “I Wish They All Could be California Girls” with Brian Wilson and the beach boys, they can put on their headphones and sing along silently to Lady Gaga.

If only my kids understood how wonderful of a world they live in with all of the technology that helps the time pass by.

I guess someday they will say the same about their kids. In that great mystery of time and life, the present will become the past, and the past will become the present. The future will remain as it were, a better place that none of us find.

I love this Jeremy, especially the part about state laws. Great writing.

Jeremy, this is beautiful. The first three paragraphs are my favorite. Oh, and “California Girls” will be stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

Interesting idea in the last paragraph. I wonder what will happen to the human mind when it no longer has time to rest and wander (or be bored).

I really love that last line. Too often we are caught up with the Future, as if it were something we knew as well as the Past. I enjoyed the compare and contrast between then and now as a sort of reminder that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Keep up the good work.

The last line is GR-R-R-R-R-R-E-A-T!!!

Brings back so many memories of sleeping in the back of the station wagon. Things have definitely changed!

The last paragraph really is just great. Though to be honest technology tends to be a negative thing because it removes the human interaction in road trips. We suddenly now have our own worlds where we’re alone along with our phones / laptops.

Actually that was the angle I was going for. Thanks JB.

I agree with EVERYTHING. (Except that I much prefer reading to electronics). 😉 😀 I HATE it when somebody says “I’m BORED.” My hair bristles at the thought of someone being bored when they have the whole world around them.

Great piece which keeps me reading on. The last paragraph is wonderful. 🙂

I never could read in a moving vehicle.  Even with all of today’s technology,  my kid’s still cry boredom.  I think they suffer from the same “car sickness” affliction as I have my whole life.  Although, I believe technology doesn’t add anything, it subtracts a whole heck of a lot!  Loved your writing.

It’s odd but I have the opposite reaction. I wish they could experience just a little of the joy of those good old days when we we not all separate and know they joy of singing loudly and off key hurtling down the road to a new shared adventure

The rain pounded on the car, a thunderous sound on the silver metal hood of their little car as they they drove northeast to Rochester, New York. An unexpected trip they didn’t plan to take. They had no plans this New Year’s Eve so Rick had planned an impromptu road trip to Rochester. Erin had always wanted to go to New York for New Year’s eve but by the time they got on the road they knew they wouldn’t make it to New York. They settled for Rochester. Erin stared blankly out the window. The darkness outside made the car feel like a tightly enclosed space adding to the mounting anxiety burning deep in her stomach. Rick reached over and squeezed her knee. He always squeezed her knee, on car trips when she drifted and he wanted her to talk to him. She didn’t feel much like talking on this trip. “This will be fun,” He said to her with a smile. There was an air of genuine excitement in his voice. She nodded. She knew Rick had nothing planned. They would arrive at a hotel and from there they would meandering aimlessly in a strange town in the middle of the night. They would end up in a bar with strangers for the midnight count down, she was certain. She let out a breath, silently. Trying to release some of the tension inside her. She told herself it would all be fine. But, things hadn’t been fine for a while and this trip only reminded her of the disconnection that was growing between them. It seemed to be getting worse and worse everyday. This trip felt like an attempt by Rick to pull her back into him. It only really prolonged the inevitable, in her mind, at least. She looked over at Rick. He noticed and smiled at her. She gave him a forced tight lipped smile in return. She turned her attention back to the darkness beyond the car window.

I like it. I felt the tension.

This is interesting. I don’t really like the narrator because I can’t figure our why she is still with this guy, but I would keep reading to see what was going to happen mostly because it’s a trip and trips often show conflict well. I like the phrase “pull her back into him”. The first paragraph is confusing I think because you say the trip is unplanned too many times and in different ways..

Good story–very heartfelt.

I think this is an interesting narrative depicting inner tension and anxiety in the woman, who is evidenly not at home anymore in the relationship. This might make a good scene in a longer story developing the reasons for the tensions and their resolution. Does he attempt “to pull her back into him” because he wants her to be an extension of himself, or maybe his posession? In my opinion, the second “car” in the first sentence is somewhat redundant — there are all manner of descriptive nouns that could be used to fill in the portrait — their little (BMW? roadster? Toyota? the possibilities are like endless!)

The description is great. I know it was only fifteen minutes for the practice, but I was left wanting more. DID Erin end up in a bar? Or did Rick pull off something amazing?

I love the built-in futility of the beginning (having lived near Rochester and in New York). It shows the incompatibility between the characters so clearly right from the start.

Joe, I’m sorry for you terrible BBQ brisket experience, but that’s what you get planning a road trip through Texas. Next time go through my home state of Missouri and enjoy some delicious Kansas City BBQ brisket or St. Louis ribs. Wash ’em down with a cold Bud and then finish it off with our famous Gooey Butter Cake and Frozen Custard.

We may just have to add a day to the trip and do that. 🙂

I loved your story, especially the scene about barbeque. Here’s my attempt.

Kin Marla Cantrell

I’m writing a review for the new album Kin that author Mary Karr wrote with singer/songwriter Rodney Crowell and I’m thinking about drinking again. The whole thing is about drinking and pickups and firearms and cussing and drinking, you get my drift, and I’m trying to find a way to say I love the album but you shouldn’t drink, no sir, you should not drink to excess, which is what you do now if you’re a writer for a responsible publication, and don’t we all want to be responsible?

So I’m thinking about drinking and I’m thinking about family, which is the catalyst for this album, and I say in it that family makes you as crazy as a sprayed roach, and then I worry that my family will read this and be offended, and hit BACKSPACE, and up in the cabinet is a bottle of Arkansas Moonshine that I took home from a bluegrass show last July, and it’s calling to me, all sweet and sinister at the same time, but I’ve got another story to write, about beer makers, my Lord, beer makers, and my eye starts to twitch.

I chunk the story for now, and get back to the review. Norah Jones sings, “If the law don’t want you, neither do I,” and I remember that summer with Troy who had a twin named Roy, and how Troy stole change from Coke machines in rest stops all along I-40 all the way up to Little Rock, and how I rode with him on those black nights, and how it felt like flying to be so close to him, the quarters piling up, and his arm around me and the windows down. He took me to Del’s Place, out past a cow pasture in Clarksville, where they’d serve you if you looks old enough to do long division, and we drank beer that stuck on the bar, which I now know, thanks to the beer makers I interviewed, is not a good sign.

There used to be a man with fancy leather pants whose entire job was to wait on the brewers, let them pour their beer on a bench, and then he’d sit on the beer for thirty minutes. If his pants stuck, the beer was bad. If he’s was at Del’s Place, it’d take a crow bar to set him free.

In the review I say I love Mary Karr’s foray into country music, and her triumph over alcohol that led her to write Lit, and how I have my own demons, don’t we all? I say, but drinking is not one of them. No-sir-ee, I say, but now I’m sweating, and the moonshine’s talking, and Troy still lives up in the hills, a half day’s drive away, and my keys are right there where I can see them. Right there like an omen, like dare, like a bad country song.

Wow. That was impressive. The second sentence in the first paragraph is confusing, needs to be made into two. Other that that this is great, perfect.

Thanks Marianne. I think you’re right. I just started writing and kept going. It needs editing, but it was so much fun.

Oh my goodness, I LOVE this character!! Hilarious, and I love the feel of this piece – you’ve hit the nail with the pace and ‘ramblings’!!! They’d serve you ‘if you’re old enough to do long division’, the keys are ‘like a bad country song’. REALLY enjoyed the freedom of this. Please write more!!!

Thank you so much. You made me smile. It was really fun writing it.

The last bit is awesome. 😀

Thank you so much, Themagicviolinst.

The sun set early on that cold night in November we hit the road. The entire family, as well as Grandpa Ace, was headed across the state to visit family for Thanksgiving. I was at the wheel, while Ace rode shotgun; the wife and kids were safely stowed in the back of our minivan.

I hate driving at dusk. It seems my eyes have a hard time adjusting from day to night vision. The lights of oncoming cars blur and multiply on my dirty windshield. I’m convinced that every oncoming car has purposely turned on their high beams just to mess with me.

State Highway 54 is a narrow two lane road heavily traveled by farmers, hunters and college students. That’s not a great combination; so it’s important to stay alert and practice defensive driving.

Ace is breathing heavily next to me, fogging up the window. His asthma is working overtime due to his lung cancer treatments. I try not to act annoyed, being that he’s dying and all.

“If we pick up the speed, we might be able to make the last quarter of the football game when we get there,” Ace said. I hate driving when my father-in-law is in the car.

I see up ahead a police car and a truck pulled over on the other side of the road. The policeman is shining his flashlight towards me.

“Why is he doing that? Doesn’t he know that’s blinding me?” I say, highly aggravated. I slow down to about forty and keep moving ahead. As I get up next to the cop with the blinding light, I hit something.

Thud! Kerplunk-kerplunk!

My windshield goes dark, completely covered in deer juice.

That was great Tom. I’m so glad your posting her again. I like how you describe that time at dusk when it gets really hard to see. I can definitely sympathize with your narrator. Well done.

Love it! Grandpa Ace is a great name. Makes me feel like he was once a powerful man and even though he is sick, his ego must be maintained. Shows the difficulty of keeping track of a lot of details at once.

Thanks! This is actually a true story and my F-I-L was named Ace. And your description of him is spot on!

I can identify with your driver. Every other driver absolutely puts his high beams on to purposely blind me. It’s a conspiracy I’m telling you.

I love your description of Highway 54. Great work.

Really enjoyable reading, due mostly to the sardonic family humor!

ewwww … deer juice! Great piece.

I’m so excited. My parents are taking my brothers and I to a beach to celebrate my 11th birthday. We’ll camp and get to stay up late. I’m a little more excited about the staying up late part than the camping park. There will be bugs. Sandy restrooms too. But at least I’ll get to stay up late. I’m pretty sure we’re mostly going for my mom since she loves the beach so much, but that’s fine. I love the beach too.

We always take our road trips at night. My parents probably think we’re all back here asleep. My brothers are, but I’m not. Ha. All they do is sleep. My mom says they’re always tired because they’re growing, but they’re only 13 and 15 years old. Not that much older than me anyway.

I like them the most when they’re asleep anyway. Even if they did put me in the middle for our car ride down. I don’t know why they think it’s fair to put me in the middle of them. Every single car trip. Just because I’m a girl. Hmph.

I can feel the energy of the narrator. “I like them the most when they’re asleep anyway.” So true!

You have a great narrator here. She is very authentic and I would keep reading were this a longer piece to hear more from her.

What is a road trip without snacks. My favorite road snack, well probably really my favorite snack overall, is popcorn. For the car, I usually stop at Trader Joe’s and get their salted corn popped in olive oil. Once, when driving across country, I went about 15 miles out of my way to stop at the closest Trader Joes. My boyfriend said I needed to get back “on point” if I was going to complete the drive from Southern California to Georgia. That tells you a lot about that relationship. I’m enjoying my road trip and he’s talking about being “on point.”

That was the trip where I decided almost at the drop of a hat to move across country. I had 3 weeks to empty my house, load what was left in my car and arrive in Georgia start my new job. I usually don’t make snap decisions like that and after that one,and I know why. Lets just say the job didn’t even last a year.

Now it’s sounding like I don’t have any stability, changing boyfriends, changing jobs, moveing across the country. Well I used to be the most stable person in the world. My nickname in college was Maytag – because I was so dependable. But that was a long time ago.

I took a great road trip came when I was in high school. What kind of parents would let their 17 year old girl get in a car with three boys and drive half way across the state to see a friend’s college play? Only the best in the world – mine.

That brings me to another key ingredient of a legendary road trip. Music. For that trip in 1984, the music that still stands out in my mind is Queen’s “We Will Rock You – We are the Champions.” Oh yeah, they were doing mashups before there were mashups. Driving down the freeway, John K’s feet hanging out the front passenger window and all four of us pounding on whatever was closest shouting “We will, We will., Rock You!” Sigh

So far we have two key ingredients in the road trip – snacks and music. But what about the car you ask? Isn’t that an essential ingredient. Well, it depends. A road trip could be by road, rail or air. While I didn’t realize it at the time the trip I took with my parents from San Diego to Seattle on the Amtrak was a road trip too. Although I was only about 11 that was a really great road trip, too.

So here we are at the final ingredient I have time to discuss today. The Company. At eleven years old, my parents were great company. At seventeen, three boys was even better. Now at nearly 50 I find my own company some of the best.

We drove for half an hour before saying anything. Cate and I were exhausted after the previous day’s drive through the south-eastern states. Waking up in Amarillo today was like opening our eyes on an entirely new world. The air was bitter, the sky straight-up blue, and the light of the sun was sharp, as if there was nothing between us and that great ball of fire. Insects were fewer, but the windshield would not get clean. I hit the dash after another attempt to clear off the glass. Cate looked at me as if she had just gotten a mouthful of dust. “We’re out of wiper fluid.” It was all she said, but it felt like she had just unzipped our pouch-full of problems and dumped them into the jeep. It was another jab at my ineptness, my inability to prepare for the trip, my incapability of doing any job to her standards, my lack of responsibility because I was still out of what she termed a ‘real job’, and my failure to give her a happy marriage. I felt like pulling over, getting out, and walking along the highway like a cowboy in one of those westerns I loved. Oh yeah, that was another thing my wife hated. Cate wiped her forehead. “It’s so hot, why don’t you turn on the air?” My brow must have furrowed too low for her, as I studied her, trying to figure out why I had married her in the first place; because she narrowed her eyes at me and said, “What? You don’t have to get mad just because I’m hot. It’s not my fault we’re out here in the middle of nowhere to see your parents.” I cleared my throat. “I’m sorry you’re miserable. You didn’t have to come.” She tossed her head and her red hair barely moved from all the hairspray she’d bathed it in. “Of course I didn’t. But someone has to keep you in line.” I laughed, completely unamused. “You know what, Cate, I don’t want any of this.” She hardly flinched, although I did. “You don’t know what you want, Caleb. You have no backbone. Just turn on the air conditioning and drive.” I wanted to hate her for her words, but I couldn’t because I knew her words were true. I didn’t know what I wanted. But at the same time she was wrong; I might not know what I wanted, but I knew I didn’t want her. As I started to count how many words we had spoken that day, she coughed and said, “Caleb, you know you need to think about what sort of job you want to get. Daddy doesn’t like you living off my allowance.” “I’m sure.” I grunted. “I don’t know why you have to live on his money anyway.” I said it softly, not harsh or cold, completely emotionless. “Shut up and drive, Caleb,” she snapped as I started to tell her how much I disliked her, her family, everything about her stupid life. Cate rolled her eyes. “Maybe if you stopped fooling around trying to write songs, you could make real money at something. Daddy is holding that position open for you and I will tell him you’ve taken it.” We sat in silence as I contemplated how best to tell her I hated everything about her. I wanted to make her hurt. Just as I mustered enough courage to say, “Cate?” she gasped and gave a tiny shriek. “Oh my gosh, where is my purse! Stop the car, stop the car!” I pulled over, looked into her startled, angry brown eyes and said it. The words that I had been biting back since the day I said I do. They finally came out. At least, I heard my voice yell at her. “I’m done, Cate. I want out.” I sat back and waited. Her eyes glistened and I thought maybe, just maybe she was going to cry. Maybe she would show some emotion and I would know her heart was not petrified. “Did you hear me?” I said, but the scratchiness of my voice betrayed my fear. There was a tiny tear in her right eye and my heart lept to think that she would react. “I can’t believe I left it. What if somebody stole it? It’s probably back at the hotel, right?” “What is wrong with you?” I said, hoping she would react at last to what I had said earlier. “Don’t you care that I can’t stand the sight of you? I hate being with you–I always have. Don’t you care that I don’t love you!?” I blanched, surprised at myself for finally expressing those thoughts that had tortured me for months. My emotions had felt so just, so right in the quiet of my heart, but as soon as I had spoken them, I felt dirty and cruel. Cate didn’t seem to care that I was pallid and sweating; if she did notice, she probably thought I was just hot from the oppressive heat. She tilted her chin up and repeated, “Just shut up and drive.” But there was something different. A tone in her voice that told me I had hit the nail on the head.

Painfully real and honest, Mollie. It was like they were both in different cars and conversations. I loved the line, “My emotions had felt so just, so right in the quiet of my heart, but as soon as I had spoken them, I felt dirty and cruel.” Sad to say, I’ve been there, done that. Great job!

Thank you very much. I have been there as well; I guess Caleb was really a reflection of myself at times…his quiet, cool bitterness. It felt truly awful to write those words he spoke to his wife.

I love the fact that the wiper fluid is the spark to all this… so true to life – that feeling that it truly is the last straw, that something so small can bring so many huge issues to the surface.

Thank you–I feel the same way. The simplest things can spark a huge fire!

I used the writing prompt as a way to reconnect with some memories from my childhood, writing about them for 15 minutes on my blog: http://amairedinsmore.com/2012/06/13/writing-prompt-road-trip/

Joe, just a note to say how much I like your photo images. You are doing a spectacular job of adding to your writing with great imagery. Love this road photo.

Thanks Cynthia. You’re too nice, though. If they’re good, though, I blame it on the flickr creative commons. I’d be lost without it.

She smirked to herself as she slid into the back seat. “This oughta be somethin’ to write home about.” Not that she would. The car turned onto the main road and the hum of the tires on the pavement was all that could be heard for the next half an hour.

A crackle and a sharp voice that sounded like it was coming from inside a tin can startled her. It was the dispatcher at the sherif’s station. The sherif picked up the receiver and mumbled a response. She straightened up and looked around.

The road lay before them like a rattlesnakes’ back, slithering silently through the hot sand. She chortled to herself. The sound of her laugh surprised her. She didn’t laugh very often. Her laugh had a different effect on the Sherif. His eyes, which were framed perfectly in the rear view mirror, narrowed. “You shut up back there” he warned.

The warning irritated her. “Why’s that Sherif?” she hissed. ” You can’t even get at me through that fence. I never been this far outta Haxton before and I will laugh about it if I damn well want to.” She felt empowered. She whispered to herself, “I’ll never tell them who did it. I promised.”

Oh, I’d like to read the rest of this. I like her already! She sounds like a hoot!

haha, thanks! I’m pretty sure she’s insane. I’m continuing it on my blog. http://www.rainybrook.org . Think I’ll work on it throughout the week. Post a new bit every evening.

I love the images and feel of the third paragraph – from rattlesnake’s back to her laugh that suprised her, to the Sherrif’s eyes in the rear-view mirror. Nice.

I love the reveal on being in the back of the Sherif’s car. I want to follow this character around as she gets into trouble.

I’m continuing this story at http://www.rainybrook.org . I would love some input, especially on grammar etc.

I was seven years old in 1970 and riding shotgun in my dad’s 1968 Camaro. We were headed home with the top down. We had just spent a terrific week in the beautiful hills of middle Tennessee. I had a lot of firsts on that trip. I got my first taste of life outside of Chicago. I met my grandparents and some of my first cousins on my Dad’s side for the first time, and got into my first fight with one of them. I saw my first cow, rode my first horse, played in my first barn, and I was the first one in our family to see our new house. And now we were on our way back to Chicago, but I couldn’t get the memories of that week out of my head.

I didn’t want it to end. I wanted my dad to turn that car around and take me back and drop me off. I argued that I could stay with my new cousins until he brought my mom and sister down in the truck with our furniture. He didn’t buy it.

I was already becoming nostalgic as the country began to give way to the city. I remember it well. We drove away from fresh country air into the familiar fragrance of Chicago. I watched in disappointment as the beautiful rolling hills and colorful trees morphed into row houses and skylines. The pastures were replaced by city streets. The reality of returning to the city was grudgingly sinking in.

When we pulled up to the curb, some of my friends met me and asked about my trip. I just smiled and pulled out my very first silver dollar my new-to-me grandmother had given me just before we pulled out. With shrieks of joy they followed me as we ran to the five and dime on the corner of that city street in Chicago.

The four of us are crammed in John’s much-to-small silver pickup, ensorceled by British accents and lightning-fast guitar spilling from the stereo. There is Nothing in every direction for miles outside the truck’s cab. On a wintery Tuesday, in the dead chill of early morning, we are the only car creeping slowly up the I-5. No cars means no cops and the truck is filled from ceiling to floor boards with pot smoke.

John is driving and I am riding co-pilot, with Pud and Sebastian stuffed into the truck’s half-assed attempt at a back seat. Wrapped in every blanket we brought, the two of them look like a giant pile of rags, hands reaching up from the cozy abyss to grasp for bowl after bowl. When John says he can hardly see anymore, we roll down the windows and I imagine we must look every bit the smoking locomotive.

“What’s the first thing you want to do when we get back?” Pud asks. He and John just got back from this very trip a few months ago and are itching to introduce Sebastian and I to all of the things they discovered the first time they trekked up to Seattle.

“Um…” John says and quickly forgets that he had said anything at all.

I watch Nothing stretch on before us and then quickly slip by to make room for more Nothing, all the while a knot twisting in my gut. The first thing I want to do is hit a handle of whiskey and explore the new world we have set out for. The first thing I should do is tell them that I’m not going back to California…

“We’re looking for a nurse to help transport a ventilator patient from Coffeeville, KS back here.”

I quickly raised my hand to get my supervisors attention.

“I’ll do it! I could really use the overtime.”

The trip from south Kansas City to Coffeeville Kansas and back would be a long one; seven hours round trip.

“Hey, what could be more glamorous than being able to tell my friends that I helped transport a critically ill patient two hundred miles?” I told myself.

Excitedly, I climbed into the ambulance. The medic was already strapped into his seat which was located right behind the wall separating the drivers cab from the box portion of the truck. I had the pleasure of sitting on the long bench. You have seen this seat before in the movies or on TV. It is where the medical professional sits and works on the patient while the ambulance is screaming down the highway headed to the hospital. It is the glamor seat, of course.

This long, bench style, seat was quite possibly the least comfortable place on earth. Imagine, if you will, trying to sit on your kitchen counter top for three-and-a-half hours while being driven down the windy, gravel covered back roads of Kansas, and every time you try to stretch your back to get comfortable, the upper cabinets gouge into the back of your neck. This is an ambulance ride across the great state of Kansas.

Trying to lie down was worse. There was no restraining belt of any kind on this seat. It was impossible to lie down on this thing. I had to keep one leg on the floor at all times to keep from being thrown clear of the edge. Every bump in the road caused the entirety of my body to bounce completely off the firm foam seat. What I hoped would be an opportunity to sleep on the way down to Coffeeville turned into an opportunity to realize that I get severely sick when riding in the back of a vehicle with no windows.

Once we arrived in Coffeeville I flung open the back door of the ambulance, and stumbled clear of the truck. I quickly grabbed the biggest container of water I could find, and slammed it down hoping to hydrate away my pounding headache and overwhelming nausea.

I followed the ambulance crew into the small hospital attempting to stand as erect as possible and not appear disabled. We found our patient, complete with portable ventilator, three bags of IV medications, an indwelling catheter and a feeding tube.

We transfered the patient onto the gurney and headed back towards the ambulance.

It did not look as glamorous this time. The rear doors looked more like the mouth of a monster that wanted to eat me.

Your description of how uncomfortable the bench was was really effective. I felt that gouge and winced.

My red-haired sister picks me up from the store early that afternoon. We head south from Fort Worth on the Cleburne highway, and the memories set in at once of all the summertime trips to the family reunions at Ben and Sarah’s place on the Brazos River, between Glen Rose and Nemo, less than a mile from the low-water bridge, site of my near-drowning and salvation at the hands of my dad at age fourteen; I always swam like a rock, and did not realize that day how swiftly the sand bottom was washing away. The land seemed unchanged by the intervening decades’ passing. Colors shone bright and vivid — deep blue big sky, stunted evergreen trees, the large flat white rocks that line the sides of two-lane country highway. We lost our way just this side of Glen Rose, then found it just by remembering carefully. “That’s our story . . .” Sis began, ” . . . and we’re stickin’ to it!” I finished. There was a good-sized group of people at the little frame house, and we all walked up the hill to the family cemetery to see our Uncle Ben laid to rest. Quiet, scholarly (and a career school-teacher), creative, artistic, he was my absolute favorite uncle because he was so different. I’m glad I have my broad-brimmed straw hat and wrap-around sunglasses on. I have dropped twenty years, and aged forty, with this road trip. I won’t be able to make my wife understand.

Fort Worth, Cleburne, Brazos, Glen Rose, all my stompin grounds. good job.

Thank you ! Absolutely love that country.

You had me at red-haired sister. I love this. The line “found it just by remembering carefully” is wonderful.

Thank you very much!

This ends with another interesting comment about time. I like how you put that. Good writing.

My father asked me what happened in the witch doctor’s hut. I said, what witch doctor? He said, you wrote a post card home, you wrote about it. What? I had no recollection. Six weeks hitchhiking around East Africa and I get home and can’t remember. How weird is that? I can only think it occured on the shores of Lake Victoria when our steamer stopped at Kisumu, giving us six hours to get into trouble. I hired a taxi to run me into the bundu for quick lookie-loo. The driver delivered me to a village where a traveling judge was presiding over an outdoor session, during which a character flaunting a pink boa and dancing to music in his own head, decided, at great embarrassment to me, to entertain me, the only muzungu. My mind goes blank. But obviously not immediately blank, because I had written home about it. I’d also written about wandering into lion country after midnight and being inticed back to town by a klatch of kids concerned for my health. They stood across the road and stopped the next vehicle, a tire truck. They unhappily put me in the back. I spent a moonlit night bouncing through Tanzania in a cage piled high with tires. I remember that. I remember getting stung by jellyfish in Mombasa. I remember getting picked up by the Tanzanian Highways minister in a cool cream Mercedez and wondering how he got the scars on the back of his hand. I remember shrimp curry in Dar es Salaam. I remember walking the Kenyan savannah country with ostriches on one side of me and zebra on the other. I remember being shit scared. But for the life of me I don’t remember that witch doctor. I reckon it’s a good thing I’m a skeptic. I don’t believe in spells. I don’t believe in much. But hitting the road…now, that’s my religion.

So much description in this piece. I got a feel for the variety of places in your words.

Wow. What great writing.

This is so great, PJ. I like how conversational and yet powerful it is.

I want to read an entire travelogue of this trip!

Joanne has a headache. And we know the only thing that will cure that. The open road.

We pile in, Snail with his leaky nose, Sammy with his fistful of chocolates and me. We squeeze in the back because Joanne needs space to allow her head to rest. Maybe in an hour or so, I’ll be bumped up to the front seat. It all depends on whether her headache is gone or not. So much of my life depends on her moods, so it makes sense to me that the tone of the roadtrip will be too.

Nobody says anything. Snail is holding his head back to stop the inevitable, and Joanne’s glaring at him through the rearview mirror, just daring him to sniff. He knows better. I look out at the industrial building, all grey and straight, and just like the one next to my house.

I want to ask her to drive way faster than the speed limit, way faster that’s safe, but I just scratch the pink nailpolish off my nails instead. Snail’s head’s waving to and fro with the pressure from staying bent out of shape so long, and it looks like he’s struggling to breathe. I realise I’m holding my breath just watching this play out. Sammy’s grabbing for a chocolate wrapper and tearing it open for dear life, and he can’t eat it fast enough.

Joanne puts her hand to her temples. ‘That’s not helping,’ she says, meaning that she doesn’t want Sammy to rustle chocolate papers in her car.

‘Can I give you a massage?’ I ask.

She shrugs her shoulders, which means OK. So I lean over Sammy and his chocolate, putting an elbow on his hairy leg, and start squeezing Joanne’s tight shoulders through her navy cardigan.

It’s then that Snail sniffs. Not just a little one, but a humongous sniff that he’s been holding onto since he got into the car. Joanne slams on the breaks. I look out and see the fir trees in the distance.

This is fantastic! I LOVE the name Snail, and your descriptions are wonderful. How many times have I chipped off nail polish when I really wanted to do something else? Did you really do this in just 15 minutes? I may be jealous.

Haha, thanks Marla! That means we’re both jealous then! 😉 Question – do you live in the South? If so, where? It sure sounds like it! 😉 I lived there for a while, though I’m in South Africa now, and find myself OFTEN writing Southern… I just LOVE the South!!

I do live in the South, Zo-Zo.  In Arkansas.  I’m the managing editor of @Urban:disqus  Magazine http://www.AtUrbanMagazine.  I’m the senior writer, so I get to do a LOT of writing, which led me to my post about the road trip.  I was juggling both stories and stopped to do this.  I love the South.  Where did you live?  (I love your writing!)

That was really good. Is Joanne their mother or there sister? It really doesn’t matter, she’s in charge and she’s mean and unstable. You really have some good characters going there.

thanks Marianne!! You’re really generous with your comments – I can’t wait to read your pieces! 🙂

Wonderful cast of characters here! Your descriptive words are excellent. I assumed they were small children when the piece started but saw a variety of ages, and genders, by the end. Very well done!

Thanks, Beth… So good to hear! 🙂

I want to know what happens next. Interesting story. I’m curious why everything depends on Joanne.

I like the ending when Snail finally sniffs. It was all great, Joanne’s tension, the kids trying to help but they’re not really helping, the description. I have only one thing (and really, it’s just me being picky as usual). At the beginning it says, “We pile in, Snail with his leaky nose, Sammy with his fistful of chocolates and me.” It sounds like Sammy has a fistful of chocolates and her. (I assume it’s a her since the person has pink nail polish on). It needs a comma. Otherwise it’s great! 😀

Ha, ALL feedback – especially picky crit – is welcome!!! Thanks! 🙂

Phew! 😀 I’m always worried about being too picky. ;P You’re welcome! 😀

Read and enjoy 🙂

The day was scorching hot. The car’s AC was broken and the windows were down. I tried leaning forward and I felt my clothes sticking to my seat with my sweat as glue. In front of me was the road—endless and vast and lonely. Above me was the sun—red and angry and was following me like big brother’s eye. I pressed harder down on the gas and the car roared in protest. I kept on driving.

I knew perfectly where I had come from, but my destination was still a mystery. I just decided I needed a drive alone. I packed light—just a few snacks, two bottles of water, and three handpicked music CD’s. An hour of driving reduced the buildings to trees. Two hours passed and the people became rocks. Eventually the other cars became ghosts and I was the only one driving on that road. The trees lost their leaves and became bare and naked and dead. I kept on driving.

I stopped and pulled the handbrake. I grabbed a bag of Cheetos and ripped it open. Maybe I wasn’t driving, not really. It was more of an escape. I needed an escape from her, from the words thrown, from the voices raised, and from her leaving. I needed, no, wanted to be alone. I needed to be moving because whenever I stopped, my mind would wander back to her. I’d remember stuff—the scent of her shampoo on her hair, the way she pursed her lips absentmindedly, the way she said that she just wasted two years of her life with me. The words felt like daggers. I lowered the handbrake and I kept on driving.

I eased on the gas and the car slowed down to 20. My right hand grabbed a random CD and I pushed it in the car’s audio system—I thanked the good lord that the radio still worked. Strumming of guitars filled my oven-hot car and I knew what song was being played. It was our favorite. The playing of harmonica followed the guitars. The voices came on last. I sang with them. I sang loud. My tuneless voice rose out of the open window and into the barren landscape. I sang until the end of the second chorus. The third chorus had a different voice—a female’s. I stopped singing, smiling, waiting for her to sing—this had always been her solo part. I waited. Then, I remembered we’re no longer together. I was driving alone. The smile dropped from my lips and the song ended in silence. I kept on driving.

That kind of points out how the end of a love affair has both it’s bad and good moments no matter how much one wants it to end. You get in the habit of having the other person around. Very well done as usual

Thanks Marianne. Yeah, especially if the two of you were together for a long time.

Well done! Sad ending.

Thanks Beth. 🙂

The sadness is tangible through all the little details you remember about her, and your description of the road. The driver’s resilience and doggedness comes through vividly – the repetition of the phrase ‘I kept on driving’ is very effective…

The story just felt so sad. Like how everything revolves around a single person when you’re together. And when things get rough and eventually break, the routine, the feeling of having someone there all the time just shatters you to a gazillion pieces.

“The higher you climb, the harder you fall.”

I loved the end where he forgets that they’re not together again. Sad and mysterious. Nice job! 😀

Thomas loved road trips. It had been quite some time since he had driven one so this would be an extra special treat.

“Tommy, I am so excited, where are we going?” Madge’s voice cut thought Thomas’s reverie, quickly grounding him in the reality that such a carefree excursion would not be so carefree. The city slugged by as they battled traffic on the wide expressway, not fast enough, thought Thomas, as that cankerous voice assaulted his right ear. “Oh, Tommy, so thoughtful of you to take me away on a trip! But for heavens sake, tell me, where are we going? You never even let me pack a bag, oh I will have to buy clothes when we get there I suppose.”

Thomas did not look away from the view over the curve of the steering wheel as he replied in a distracted monotone. He was taking Madge on a long trip. He barely heard her as she lamented about how his boss would never approve the extended leave. This whining wife of his was always thinking on the downside. If all went well, he would not have to return to work again anyway after this journey was done.

Honking horns gave way to the blissful hum of tires speeding along the freeway, and soon concrete melded into suburbia. Madge opened her window and the breeze tossed her chemical stiff hair all about. Thomas did not look at her once but he was sourly reminded of her presence as the scent of her expensive perfume permeated the tiny car.

The sun was high and the freeway thinned down to a ribbon of road that stretched for miles before them. Only a few others traveled this way now, seen only as shiny dots far ahead of them in the haze. Thomas led the car off an exit and the gentle tinging of the turn signal was barely audible above the din of the engine. For a brief moment the sun got caught in Madge’s hair. For an instant it transformed her head into some feral torch while she absentmindedly studied her top notch salon manicure that Thomas had paid for with his blood, sweat, and tears.

Flat expanse soon rose up around the little car in rolling mounds, green fields dotted with the shadows of clouds passing overhead. Thomas remembered how he used to make pictures in the clouds when he had been just a boy, back before the days of long hours at the factory, piles of bills, and the incessant company of a nagging and useless wife. What had he ever seen in her? He realized that he did not even know anymore.

The drive back home was peaceful. It would be nearly morning when the trip would finally end, but that was ok, Thomas did not plan on going into the foundry in the morning. As he looked over to the empty passenger seat to his right, he inwardly exalted the thought of never returning to that stinking place again. For years he labored away while Madge spent every dime, but now the insurance money would more than pay him back for all the trouble she had caused.

Thomas pulled into the driveway at last, and for the first time in years a genuine smile turned up the corners of his thin lips.

That’s chilling. You got a complete story done in fifteen minutes. I’m impressed

Somehow I knew Madge was destined to die the first time she opened her mouth! Excellent piece of writing. I really enjoyed this!

This sentence, “The first time since I was six­teen and only spoke six words to him the whole trip,” felt awkward to me but otherwise really enjoyed your piece. 🙂 Maybe it’s the word “since.” Seems to flow better without it.

Here’s the most basic math problem any idiot can solve: A road trip from New Jersey to California + No electronics allowed in the car + two annoying little brothers + an annoying older sister = BOREDOMVILLE. It’s every 12-year-old boy’s nightmare. So at six o’clock in the morning, everyone reluctantly began to pack the car, still yawning and still rubbing half-closed eyes. We barely fit all of the stuff into our minivan. The worst part (besides the electronic ban) was that I was stuck sitting next to my big sister Gabby who was popping bubble gum and chewing loudly. I rolled my eyes in frustration and sat down, arms crossed, on the seat. “This’ll be fun!” My mom said, giving us a huge smile and making the thumbs up sign on both of her hands. “Uh huh,” Gabby said. “Yeah, Mom, you can stop lying to us right now. We are not going to have fun.” Mom frowned slightly in her disapproving way. “Now, Gabby-.” “Why do we have to drive to see Grandma and Grandpa?” My little brother Trent inturuppted before giving a humongous yawn, showing the gaps in his mouth from the teeth that had fallen out. “Why can’t they fly on an airplane to see us? They have, like, a bazillion dollars.” “Trent, we thought it would be nice to surprise them, remember?” My dad reminded him as he put yet another bulky suitcase in the bulging trunk. “They always come visit us so we thought they’d enjoy us visiting them.” Trent stuck out his lower lip and narrowed his eyes. “Plus, this gives us a chance to spend time as a family,” Mom said, trying to stay positive. “For once I’d rather be in school,” Ben said. Ben was the second youngest kid in our family, Trent being the youngest. Mom opened her mouth to give one of her “school is wonderful and you should appreciate it and don’t you want to learn?” speeches, then closed her mouth, thinking better of it. “Time to go, kids!” Dad yelled, clapping his hands together several times. We all got in the car and buckled in. As soon as we set off down the road, Mom pointed out everything to us, whether it was a Texas license plate (“That’s not very common around here!”) or a calf drinking milk. (“Isn’t it so cute!”) Three hours later, I finally caved and pulled out one of the “Boredom Busters” Mom had packed for me. She and Dad were now singing along to a cheesy romantic duet on the radio and I was trying to figure out how to block out the screeching. I reached into the backpack labeled “Jonathon” and pulled out an item at random. It was a book. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling. I read the back. Mom had done it. She had found a book that I thought looked interesting. I read the first page. And the second. And the third. I was on Chapter 10 when it started to get dark and Mom forced me to put the book down, (she actually forced me to put a book down!) insisting that it was bad for my eyes to read in the dark. I rumaged in the backpack for a flashlight. Unfortunately, she hadn’t packed one. After a few days, we reached California and I had finished the book. As soon as we stopped for a bathroom break before going to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, I begged my mom to take me to the nearest book store so we could purchase the second Harry Potter book. She was so excited that I was interested in reading, that she agreed. Three months later, I had finished the whole series and had watched all of the movies. And that, ladies and gentleman, is how I discovered the love of reading. And that is also discovered how much I loved roadtrips. (Not that I’d ever go on one again without a good book).

A good book is essential for a long road trip! How clever of your mom to introduce you to reading that way.

LOL! 😀 Actually, this story isn’t about me. I wrote it based on people I know. 😉

I had butterflies in my stomach as I packed the car. I was driving from southern Alabama to middle Georgia with a four year old, but otherwise alone. Not a long trip by some standards. Still there were plenty of unknowns. It had been some years since I’d driven most of the day, serving as mommy, navigator, and driver. Not to mention the funeral at the end of the trip.

I checked items off my mental list. Afraid I would forget something. I like more time to prepare, but funerals wait for no one.

The first hour or so it rained. Maggie asked me, “Are we there yet,” at least 30 times. It wasn’t long though before we settled comfortably into our trip. As I left the live oaks and Spanish moss of the coastal south the familiar winding roads through pine forests felt like a memory.

As the scenery changed images from the past imposed themselves on my surroundings. I felt myself smiling as I recalled road trips to Grandma’s. Huge columned homes, mouldering in their grandeur, flashed by. Split rail fences; orange back roads; and grey outbuildings, decaying under a layer of vines, sped by as the road drew me closer to childhood.

As I followed a print out of Googled directions another journey was being sorted out. The hours afforded me time. I gained perspective on a relationship that had become fuzzy, the edges smudged and undefined. Peace settled and gratitude accompanied me as the last miles fell away.

Some beautiful lines here! I love the nostalgia of ‘the familiar winding roads through pine forests felt like a memory’. ‘huge columned houses, mouldering in their grandeur, flashed by’ – what an image!!

Engine started. Brakes checked. Mirrors adjusted. Music playing. Camera ready. Go!

I just quit my job and my parents wouldn’t stop bickering about how life was too short to be wasted on useless dreams like being a photographer. It wasn’t stupid. It wasn’t useless.

The sky was starting to turn a nice shade of pink as I turned to the highway. A lovely mix of colors. I moved to the emergency lane and turned on the hazard lights. I opened the windows and framed the sky and the highway together.

Click. One beautiful moment captured. 

I took a couple more shots from a different angle and started to drive again.

My GPS gave me directions to the first destination I entered before leaving: a small wedding chapel.

Just in time, I thought as I saw the couple walk out of the chapel smiling happily at the crowd with hands entwined together. Happiness. Love. Trust. Everything wonderful in a single portrait.

I stared at the couple and imagined myself walking down the aisle. Tears started to flood my eyes. 

Happiness. What is happiness for me? Where can I find it?

I let myself think for a while longer but realized that this wasn’t the only way to get happiness. Marriage isn’t the only thing.

Time to get back in the car and drive, continue on the journey of life. 

Terribly bad with grammar and tenses. This is my first time writing so go easy on me please.

——————————-

I don’t remember what brought me on the road. I only know I needed to get out of that house, get out and breathe in some fresh air. So I grabbed the keys, jumped into the car and just went off.

I have no idea where I’m going and when should I stop. All I wanted to do at the point was just to keep moving. Move and not think.

I can’t remember how long I must have driven. One hour, two hours, five hours, ten hours. It’s just seemed like an endless road. A road with no destination. I can just continue driving like this forever.

But reality pulled me back. Can I really escape? Can I really let go? Forget about the years together? Ignore the existence of our kids?

So all I can do is to give up and drove back, back to the house I ran away from. And to forget that this road trip even happened at all.

I still remember the car dance that Anna, Tiffany, and I created back in October 1999. We were on our way down to Jacksonville for a football game affectionately termed as the “World’s Largest Cocktail Party.” That’s right, the Georgia versus Florida football game. We were proud fans of the Bulldog Nation and drove down clad in our red and black. We went down there (some of us in the friend group three years in a row) more so for the football and the friends than for the cocktails, but I would be lying if I said the third was not at least a minor consideration. 🙂 If you were to meet Anna, Tiffany, and I nowadays, you never would guess that we partook in this event. Anna just earned a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences and is about to have a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in England. Tiffany and I both earned master’s degrees and are now teachers. All three of us are and have been writers, at times professionally, at times as a hobby. Tiffany and Anna have baby girls who, coincidentally, will both turn a year old this July. I am an honorary aunt to both girls, and I greatly enjoy dancing and playing with them. Hopefully, they will be like the three of us and our girlfriends Jaymee and Laurie, studious girls who are career-oriented, but still like to have fun. Now, all three of us girls who created the car dance have bigger fish to fry than who wins the big game. But, I am still glad we took those college road trips. We formed friendships that would last a lifetime in the midst of screaming at football games until we were hoarse, going to “cocktail parties”, dancing in the car, and driving six to ten hours in a day to see a bunch of large college guys run into each other. I’ll definitely remember those games and road trips more than what I learned in my college classes, as much as I enjoyed reading Shakespeare.

Meet Spirit and Dance. six year old twins – they went on a road trip – a walking trip:

We call our mother “mother” because it annoys her. She would like us to address her as Sweet Divinity, the name she chose when she left home to join a commune. We found out years later she was called Mary Winifred O’Connell but we were used to mother by then and much as we would have liked to annoy her with Mary we could never remember it in time. We never really knew mother, just when we thought we understood what she was, she changed becoming more robust, or a little fragile, very political or like an earth mother. Her moods were like shifting sands, when other people were around she was always bright and shining like a beacon of hope. However when they left they snuffed out the spark of hope and we endured dark days, sometimes she didn’t cook for days or even get out of bed.

It was on one such deep black nadir, as long as we had known, lasting more than five days that we went in search of food and changed our lives forever. We could only count up to five and we had done that and eaten all the berries we could find. We weren’t sure about weeks but we knew it was autumn as the leaves were falling from trees, it was getting colder and both of us had put on shoes for the first time that year.

We dressed with care for the occasion of the big walk. Spirit was wearing orange corduroys with a yellow jumper that came down to her knees. Dance was wearing a dress that dragged along the ground made out of heavy crushed velvet. A dark blue matching cardigan two sizes too small finished her outfit.

We now know that we looked wild but back then it seemed natural to have our hair streaming down our back, unkempt with twig and leaf entwined. The clothes we wore were either too big or too small, all given by these transient caravanners as part payment for water and pitch. So on this particularly momentous day in our lives we thought we looked normal and set off down the road. We decided to walk down rather than up because when the people went for a walk in the evening they always went that way and came home cheery, loud and happy.

The first part we skipped as a new freedom descended on us, this slowly gave way to a slower pace until we were trudging. Our clothes were getting wet as rain dripped unnecessarily harshly, they hung down and got heavier and muddier as we marched our slow monotonous walk. The village started abruptly as we turned a bend, cottages on both sides gave way to terraces and eventually we saw a shop. We had brought money in mother’s purse. Although naïve about a lot of things we knew that mother gave money to get things and people sometimes gave money to her for staying with her. We pushed open the door and Dance spoke to the lady, well pointed at things; a packet of jam biscuits, a chocolate bar and bananas. Spirit opened the purse and gave it to the lady.

Honesty was thankfully well imbued in the shop lady and she only took out the £2.30 needed. We left and sat on a bench outside, each item came out of the bag, halved and stuffed unceremonially into our watering waiting mouths. We choked and spluttered our way through the food and with hiccups stood and went in search of something to quench our thirst.

As we turned a corner a group of children were coming the other way. We said hello to them but they laughed, encircling us, they pointed; at our hair, our faces now covered in chocolate and biscuit crumbs, our clothes, they said we smelled funny, we were dirty, and we were stupid. We cowered turning into each other, arm around protecting, not understanding why but aware of danger. The noise must have alerted some adults to investigate because suddenly the chanting stopped and we opened our eyes. A huge man stood over them asking who they were.

Spirit spoke, “I am Spirit. She is Dance.”

“Come on now girls, tell the truth. You have run away and stolen a lot of money. Mrs Hanrahan at the shop says you had more than fifty pounds in that purse. Tell the truth like good girls.”

Dance moved forward, facing him, she craned her neck until she could see his face, “We tell truth, me Dance and she is Spirit, we were hungry so we came for food.”

Spirit dragged her back to be with her and put her arms back around her

We were driving from California to Missouri and then from Missouri to Michigan. We would make stops when needed and see many states along the way. I was with my parents in my favorite yellow van, the one that looked like a special bus that I used to beg my parents not to pick me up from school in, but they didn’t listen. I loved the inside of that van though. The outside gave no indication of the awesomeness inside. The plush velour seats that were so comfortable and beautiful. You could write secret messages into the back of the chair and then wipe it away with one hand swipe. It was going to be a great trip.

And then I learned my stepsister and her daughter were coming as well. This meant I had to share the inside workings of the van with someone who was not only extremely selfish and vengeful, but she taught her daughter to be the same as well. As most road trips will treat small squeamish girls, I got car sick about three-quarters of the way through. I think we were in Oklahoma somewhere when my inertia couldn’t take the moving van any longer; the van where I sat claustrophobically trapped with someone who was not nice in any way, (they even looked nasty because they had a black, scrunched up soul that didn’t hold very much good inside). Her inside ugliness seeping out hour after hour, along with the trapped sensation inside a moving box, forced everything I had eaten up until that point to eject violently from wherever I sat. Apparently, I was sitting quite close to my stepsister’s pink satin blanket. Let me tell you, her heiness (or so she thought what with the pink satin) was mortified.

Although I had just given my stomach’s contents to her blanket, and obviously needed to just lay down, I’m pretty sure there was a smile there. If not an outward smile, then for sure a grin from deep within me. Nobody on the planet deserved a blanketful of 9-year old puke more than she did. There were many screams, a pull on the van door and much commotion to move my lifeless body to the side of the road where I could finish if I must. Her horrified screams proceeded as she wondered what she would do now with her blanket. I didn’t care what she did. As far as I was concerned, she could take her pink satin blanket with her and hitchhike home. Sadly, this is the memory that remains from this trip. Let’s just say it was the trip from hell.  

The day was hot and we didn’t set out as early as planned. There was always something to do at the last minute: check that all water and gas pipes were closed, set the answering machinge, leave enough food out for the cat.

Finally, we took to the road, only stopping to buy snacks and drinks. The way was long but we were excited. We put on a tape, started singing and laughing. I thought it was going to be a great rip.

We passed farmers bringing produce and flowers from the fields. There were stalls selling coconuts, mangoes and tepache (a pineapple fermented drink). We drove past archaeological sites that we had visited in school trips.

Once, we stopped in a small town because there was an old cathedral right by the side of the road and we wanted to take some pictures. It turned out it was being renovated because an earthquake (and time) had damaged it.

A little further on we saw a cutting on a mountain that was shaped like a heart. My sister loved that it seemed pink in the evening glow.

And after a few more turns, we saw it: Oaxaca. The lights were just starting to turn on and the valley seemed magical. We had been there once before, but we were very small and could barely remember the town. I felt as if we were discovering it for the first time.

I was excited about the history we were about to see, the gorgeous churches, the delicious food and incredible handcrafts. Perhaps we would even meet old friends. It was the best graduation gift my mom could give me, and Oaxaca did not disappoint.

There are certain songs that come on the radio and make me want to jump in the car and head across the Land of the Free. 

My dream is to start on the farthest east location in the United States and drive all the way across the United States and find the most Western point and then stop.

Do I take someone with me on take this  Pilgrimage– a finding myself from east to west and back again? 

Find the cutest convertible with the greatest sound system, because you will need a great stereo for that long of a drive.  Gas up and load the console with plenty of Chex mix, not the kind with m & m’s because they will melt.  A case of water which I will undoubtedly forget about and grab Coca Cola at every pee stop on the trek out west and I am ready to go. 

My only dilemma is do you drive and only stop at the great attractions like the giant ball of string. Do I stop in the tourist trap stops built for people just like me that think they are witnessing real Texas when they buy an Armadillo keychain.

Or do I spend a night here and take in a band and a meal.  Should I dance with the man who has grinned at me all night across the restaurant?  I could take the Tornado alley tours and witness what families are forced to endure every year.  I could stop at the World’s Largest Mall and the World’s smallest doorknob museum. 

I have a mental checklist in my head of things I want to find such as the best food in Texas and the Grand Canyon and spy a look at a local tribe on their reservation.  I want to peer across the cornfields of Iowa and the mountains of Montana.  I want to say I have been to Hell and back in Colorado and go and watch fish be thrown at the fish market in Seattle. 

I want to arrive on the West Coast and get out of my car and wriggle my toes in the sand of California. 

But until I can do that, I will finish dinner that is cooking on my stove.  Until I can get in that rented, red, car full of Chex Mix I will feed my family and dream of a trip on another day from sea to shining sea. 

The intent for this one wasn’t to fit with this, but it works out that the main character is (I think) the Disney Anti-Hero. This was inspired solely by James Halls’ commentary piece:

Before them, large, jagged mounds rose from the cave floor, a miniature of a landscape that belonged someplace else, where the sun was hot and scorching and the only fools who crossed it were adorned in thick soled hiking boots. Cella eyed the boy’s flimsy, tattered sneakers (if they could still be called that) piteously and wiggled her toes in her boots. Ah well.

“Take these, boy, quickly now.” She toed off her comfortable, well-worn shoes and handed them to him, almost bitterly. From the light of the lamp Cella carried, he observed her barefooted-ness.

“And what will you wear?” His little voice was expectant, as though he truly expected her to whip out an extra pair of shoes from inside her pant pocket.

Annoyed, she hissed, “Do you want them or not, prat?”

Silently, he took the shoes, and she felt a sting of bitterness, at herself, and at the boy. Feeling mutinous, she touched the tough pad of her big toe against the edge of the limestone landscape. At first it wasn’t so bad, but after a while her optimism faded, as her feet were assaulted from all sides by the brittle rock. She was sinisterly reminding herself that the boy hasn’t even tanked her for the shoes when she first heard it—an echoing far above them. She looked up.

Before, the roof of the cave felt oppressive and intrusive, and stirred within her feelings of claustrophobia previously unobserved by her. Yet now, as Cella gazed up with wonder and awe, her feelings of suppression dissipated, to be replaced by a sudden loneliness that conjured fear. Above her, the darkness moved in an endless abyss, a sky where no stars dwelled.

She stumbled as the rock broke beneath her and another piece fell on her left foot, digging, burrowing itself into the skin there, and when she lifted it, hissing, her skin oozed interlocking webs of blood. She threw the rock aside, where the shadows swayed mournfully and jeered at her beyond the broken bubble of light. The boy stood watching her, healthy and normal, and had just enough decency to look guilty as they trudged on, although perhaps his hanging head was just to watch his footing.

Z.C.S. July 10, 2013

Advice and such are strongly appreciated and encouraged. =)

“Above her, the darkness moved in an endless abyss, a sky where no stars dwelled.” I like this, but I think “moved” is a poor verb choice. This suggestion that something is moving above them. But, at least in this excerpt, you don’t show that.

Nice job of showing tension between the characters. I don’t think I did that well with my characters.

This is the beginning of something I’ve wanted to start for a long time. It is still pretty rough….

The call came unexpectedly. A jarring sound that pulled him into his bed and out of the darkness of slumber. He realized that his time of rest was over and rolled over to grab the phone without opening his eyes. The high pitched voice on the other end had a pinched quality to it, as though the back of the throat were cutting off the words despite her best efforts to create them. breathily, she asked, “Aaron Jade? Are you still doing detective work?”

He wondered briefly weather to answer or ask who was calling. Before he could do either, the raspy voice continued, “I need someone with your skills who can be counted on to be discreet, at least until my issue has been resolved to my satisfacation.”

It was obvious she was used to getting her way, what she wanted, and she wanted him, or rather his detective skills.

“Who is this?” He tried to sound harsh and demanding, “ I haven’t done a job in years. How did you get my number? No-one has access to this number unless I know about I what.”

“Who gave it to me isn’t important.” The breathiness had left her voice, and a commanding, I know-what-I-want-and-I’m-going-to-get-it tone had completely replaced any sign of fear. “I need someone who knows his way around, and will do whatever it takes to complete the job. I hear that you’ve done business with those that have needed the utmost discretion, and have gotten results.”

Jade’s inner radar had kicked in, his attention fully engaged, he recognized the old back-in business feeling. It began as a slight, nearly imperceptible tingle in the middle of his body, as if a clock had been set to ticking.

Your dialog comes across as a bit fake. I’m not sure what has caused it though. Things are not quite said right, probably a little too long winded. Dialog is a little more snappy.

More creepiness or something in the woman’s dialog would up the tension needed in the piece. The “I’m a woman who knows how to get what she wants” cliche just doesn’t cut it, in my opinion. At this point, you want the reader thinking “What is UP with this crazy woman calling?”

On the other hand, you did say it was rough. I didn’t have to struggle with the ideas, it was easy to read. You get your point across.

Keep Practicing and you’ll get there!

I don’t really know what kind of anti-hero Lindy is, but we can let her speak for herself. ——– “Today’s the day!” Tinder was grinning from ear to ear when Lindy opened the hostel door. “Our grand adventure. We’re going to save the town and bring settlers back to the North. It’s going to be a raging success, I can feel it!” Lindy rubbed the knuckles on her right hand absently. Tinder still bore the purplish blotch on his cheek from their row a few days ago. When Lindy had still insisted that she would return to her homestead alone and leave the colonies to their own fate. The scabs on her knuckles itched where the split skin threatened to open up again. “You’re not going to hit me again are you?” Tinder asked cheerfully eyeing her clenched fist. “If you keep grinning like that, I might. There’s no room for blind optimism out there. If you want to have a gleeful adventure, try the hologarden. We’ll be very lucky if we don’t freeze to death before we’ve reached the first outpost. And you better hope there’s fuel and shelter there. Nobody’s restocked the place in 10 years.” Lindy hoisted her pack onto her back and carried her heavy green parka over her arm. “Let’s get on with it.” A small crowd had gathered at the east gate. Tinder’s father handed him an oiled leather packet. “Pemmican, for the journey. Should keep you when everything else has frozen solid.” He handed a similar packet to Lindy, along with a second, smaller pouch. “Try not to lose my boy down a crevasse” he said. “No promises” Lindy said as she gingerly opened the pouch. It contained heavy twine made of horse hair, long cords made of sinew and an oiled length of catgut. “I know old Pete taught you how to trap, let’s hope you still remember some of it.” He rested a hand uneasily on her shoulder and gave it an awkward pat. She turned to Tinder to break the man’s touch and placed the pouch into the tall boy’s pack. The townspeople were quiet as they loaded their saviors down with gifts of fuel, provisions and tools. The headman presented Lindy with a map that looked more like it had been drawn for a child’s scavenger hunt. Their destination and the various outposts were scrawled on it with vague directional markers, landmarks and distances measured in ox legs. It wasn’t much to go on and more likely than not they would be blown off course by summer storms and never reach their destination. There were so many things that could go wrong. It was no wonder that, while everyone wished them well, no one spoke of their return. Hope had long deserted this settlement. It probably died just after her grandfather did, Lindy thought bitterly. Served them all right, sending their most valuable ally on a fool’s errand. Now it was Lindy’s turn to be sent off into the arctic night. Except no one here would mourn the loss of her skills. As for Tinder, the town already had a butcher and he would not long be needed once the herders’ dome collapsed entirely. Soon this town dome would empty and the people would go out and die in whatever way seemed best to them. Lindy and Tinder would have only one ox for their journey. Lindy’s own ox was left to the care of the herdmistress and a fresh one, Petri was gifted to them. Lindy preferred her own ox, but was relieved that her Snowball at least wouldn’t die on this foolish errand. “All right, let’s go.” Lindy donned her parka and mittens and fitted her goggles to her face. When Tinder was similarly bundled and masked, the townspeople retreated to the cafés. The east gate squealed in its tracks. The wide open air was before them. At least Lindy would be nearer to her Lights again. The first morning passed in silence. They took turns riding Petri and walking alongside her. On the ground, the large animal’s bulk blocked the majority of the wind. As the day grew old, both Tinder and Lindy walked on the leeward side of the ox, trying to regain the warmth in their hands and keep the sharp winds from biting the coddled dome skin around their masks. “How much further to the outpost?” Tinder asked. “Didn’t the map say three ox legs? We should have seen the first landmark a leg ago.” “I imagine the landmark is long gone, it was only a signpost or shack. Any number of storms could have ripped it down and buried it under snow by now.” They marched on, their eyes burning in the bright light of unfiltered sun on snow. As the sun met them direct in the eyes, Lindy knew they wouldn’t reach shelter by dark. “We have to make camp” she said. “Don’t argue” she said as Tinder opened his mouth. “If Petri freezes in the twilight cold, we won’t be saving any domes this lifetime.” She scanned the land around them for any geographic features that might block the wind and give their ox a respite from the cold. “There” she said, pointing at a strip of pale blue on the snow a hundred yards from them. “Looks like a mound or a hill or something, we can make camp next to it.” She strode off with lead rein in hand, not waiting for Tinder’s response. As they approached the strip of blue, she found it didn’t rise up from the snow as she had expected. It grew larger to be sure, but it should have blocked out the sky or something. At the very edge of it, Lindy stopped abruptly, and pushed Petri back. “It’s a hole!” she shouted to Tinder who had been looking at sky and landscape and snow. Everywhere but at his own feet where the crevasse yawned wide.

5 Types of Anti-Heroes, there’s something more to talk about this anymore.

Um, my anti-hero isn’t in this list? What do you call an anti-hero who is a complete screw-up in crisis and knows it, but can’t seem to stop doing hurtful things despite wanting to do the right thing, until he finally realizes the truth he needs to in order to live differently?

How are you? I had fun with the Prompt. *** A Road-Trip; 278 tunnels; seeing snow for the first time & learning to ski – on the spur of the moment.

I know all about road trips, good ones and bad ones, boring and exciting ones. Road trips in thirty-two US States, South Africa, France, Italy, Spain, Ballearic Islands, Jamaica, Bahamas, Switzerland, England, Scotland, Belgium, Luxembourg…

Our road trips are never planned. We don’t own a car because we own a boat. For road-trips we rent a car, dust off the worn map and go, wherever the road takes us. We love to drive on smaller roads and mostly they are not marked on the big scale maps that is why we argue a lot too, because we get lost al lot.

But we also have amazing experiences and seen amazing places. A few years ago, in March 2010, we were in Pretoria, South Africa and our son had two days to get to Viareggio in Italy for a job. Airline tickets booked and the morning of our flight they emailed us saying we can fly to London but no further because of airline personnel strikes. The brave or stupid or both, Storbecks made a plan. Landing at Heathrow we had 18 hours left to arrive in Italy. We rented a car at the airport. After much hassle because we needed one with an EU number plate, Avis had no road maps and no GPS for us either. Ok, we knew we had to drive south-east to the Mediterranean. On the A20 to the Euro Channel, arriving in Calais, France we followed signs south-east. Riems, Troyes, sleeping late that night somewhere near Chaumont in an motel. The next day we drove to Dijon, Geneva, through the Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, tunnel. An amazing tunnel, 18 miles in length. Arriving in Italy we drove like a bat out of hell to Genoa and arrived with a few hours to spare in Viareggio.

Tired, hungry and Peter very happy because the new job on a stunning super yacht, a dream come true. A few days later, knowing he was settled we made a quick detour in Tuscany, near the Italian Swiss border I saw Zermatt on the map. I remembered a friend said they go skiing there every year. That the Zermatt looked like those pictures you see on chocolate boxes. We are from South Africa and have never seen snow! ‘Let’s go skiing” we said, funny right? We drove to Zermatt, a resort below the Matterhorn, booked into a hotel, rented gear and an instructor and skied for 4 days.

That was the most fun I have ever had on any road trip. Snow…and more snow… hiking in snow, getting lost in the dark, on the mountain, following voices to town, sliding down a steep plowed slope on our behinds, it was to steep to walk. Then the trip back to the UK. All in all we drove 2700 miles in 14 days, through 278 tunnels.

My 15 minutes is up

It was the crack of dawn at Laguna Seca Speedway in the summer of 1988, the Sunday after a weekend concert. I had to be back in Portland Oregon for class on Monday morning. I was in grad school then and swore I would never miss another class for a Dead Show again. I hadn’t slept that night though everyone else in my friend’s converted school bus had managed to sleep. My shoes were somewhere under someone’s head. Did I dare wake them to say goodbye and look for my shoes? No. It was time to go; shoes be damned. I wrote a quick goodbye note with something about butterflies and headed for the freeway North. About fifteen minutes into the drive I saw a hitchhiker and picked him up. He lived not too much out of my way so I decided to drive him back to his house somewhere in Marin County. When we got to his house, I went in to use the bathroom and get a bite to eat. We sat on his living room floor and he cried in my arms because he could never see the Dead again; the memories were too painful. He and his wife had met at a show and she had just left him for another man. I held him; stroked his hair; gave him a bear hug and left on my journey, never to see or hear from him again. I then had twenty hours left to make a fifteen hour drive. No problem. However, my detour to his house got me off the highway and so I had to trek through the back roads of Northern California. Several hours later I came across another hitchhiker and picked him up. He was an older man, perhaps in his forties as I was in my twenties. When he got into the car he said, “Thanks for picking me up. I just got out of the hospital.” To which I immediately thought, “Oh no. Here’s the one I should never have stopped for. Here’s the serial killer I thought I’d never be unlucky enough to meet.” But it turned out someone rear-ended him and he had been in the hospital for a few days and when released he had no way to get home; his car had been totaled.

We talked of his family, his wife and Elvis. She named one son Elvis and the other Russell after Kurt Russell because he played Elvis in a movie once. I drove him home too; met the wife, and the two tributes to The King and off I went once again with now 15 hours to make a 12 hour drive. No problem. I turned on the radio in nowheresville and up popped Jerry singing Sugaree, a very good sign. All was well. I was the angel of hitchhiker-mercy endorsed by synchronicity. I passed through Marysville and as I passed the town limit sign, The Wind Cries Mary came on. I stopped to get gas. The wind did feel a bit moist as if washing us in light tears. I noticed on my map I was near Oroville and a commune one Deahead boyfriend from long had moved to: Con Cow. The gas attended gave me directions to the commune and I showed up asking around for Rich. I found him and the woman he’d left me for living in a dome next to a pond. We skinny-dipped and milked his goats. I cried in his arms at life in general. He said his dome often got people to cry. I gave Jezebel a bear hug and took him with me to Chico where he was spending the night with some friends. It was midnight when I dropped him off. I said hello to his friend’s drank some coffee and was off again. I had to be inclass at ten am. I drove all night not having slept in over 24 hours. I pulled into Lewis and Clark College at 10:05 and ran to class, barefoot, in a ripped hippie skirt. The class gave me a standing ovation.

The violent weather is treacherous on the tarmac tonight, a lonely deserted road in the desert accompanied by a raging storm lights up the night sky, lightning stretches & appears to crawl across the distant blackness. This weather doesn’t deter this type of man who’s brain is wired indifferent to most others of his own kind, with no thought of consequence of personal well being. A psychopathic assassin has no need for normal thought processes or common sense, out here alone in this situation he is right at home.

Speeding through the treacherous conditions the car is bombarded by dense rain where it appears nails are tearing through the sky to bombard this crazy’s man vehicle.

This black hot rod engine wanes and punches through the weather wanting more.

Finally our killer known as Magnolia reaches an intersection, the hot rod screams to a halt, this moment will be used to light up a cigarette. As He lights his smoke he see’s a wolf pounce onto a nearby rock on the side of the road. The headlights shine in the wolfs eyes. Magnolia gazes at the wolf when he begins to show his teeth and snarl at the car in confusion. Magnolia smiles and nods to the wolf to deliver fellow acknowledgement between predators.

The hot rod suddenly speeds off and the road trip is underway again, there is not a lot of distance left to cover to reach this designated city of black smoke and hatred.

An industrial erected man made monstrosity of abandoned structures have now become canvases for the local kids to characterize and graffiti. The sun is powerless to beings there.

The car speeds on and on, in the revision mirror Magnolia sees red and blue lights closing in on his position. he slows down to enable these highway patrol pawns to get closer to the hot rod, that is just what Magnolia wants.

The Police car eventually pulls alongside the perused car of Magnolias, The Police pa instructs the hot rod to pull to the side of the road as Magnolia increases his speed, The passenger highway cop draws his gun and flashes it out the window as a warning, Magnolia begins to also wind down his window. when the officer flashes a torch to see the suspects face, he sees a pale white scared face accompanied with slick long black hair.

Magnolia begins to slow the chase right down, enough so he can draw his silver plated pistol and shoot the back passenger window, he appears to miss the squad drivers but this is part of his plan. The car speeds back up, the cops pull alongside to shine a light on Magnolia to fix a target to shoot, as the light shines on Magnolia they spot his yellowing teeth grip and pull out two pins of a couple of grenades, he then tosses them in the back seat through the shot window of the police car, One officer frantically turns around to collect and discard the grenades when he is stopped by the prisoners back seat protection grill, the grenades are trapped bouncing around on the seat.

The police car pulls over but it is too late, the car explodes and it is all over.

Magnolia turn around to pull over and marvel at this event, he exits his car and smiles and approaches the car, he rubs his hands together and lights up a smoke using the burnt out wreckage.

He turns and faces what remains of the open road, in the distance he sees the city lights

It is not long to go now until this road trip is at an end and Magnolia is home.

By Luke Stanley [email protected]

Roadtrips. Truth be told, I’ve never had a memorable one. Well I have few images of a roadtrip I once had one with my family, but seeing as I was about five years old, I don’t remember it in details. I only know that that day was memorable, even if I did forget most of it. I just remember us being happy, my family and I. It was one of the last times we were all in one car. And that’s why I plan on going on plenty of roadtrips as soon as I’m old enough to drive. Not with anyone. With the people I love. We would listen to good music, take pictures, walk in old markets, watch the sunrise, have heart-to-heart conversations, and simply pour our hearts out and soak up all the beauty in this world. I know this idea of a perfect roadtrip is a bit utopian, but the slightest prospect of having such a roadtrip makes my heart flutter and fills me up with hope. The possibility that, in time of hardships, a simple car trip with a true friend might renew my vision of life and love, makes me have a hopeful look on the future. So, to me, a roadtrip is more than just a long car ride. It’s a ride towards a new perspective. It’s a way to show me the good in the world when I’ve lost sight. I truly hope I won’t be not disappointed when I actually go on a roadtrip. I’m almost sure that i won’t be, because I am confident in the faithfulness of my friends, no matter how little I’ve experienced.

The move from California to Texas was both exhilarating and terrifying. I used to think that there would be no new adventures for me as I aged. After all I was a part of the generation that loudly proclaimed “Trust no on over 30.” That of course changed as the years flew past and 30 something became the new 20 and 60 the new 40 and so on and so on. Will death become the new life? Numerical options become somewhat limited at this point in the game. I honestly have no answers but I have made a deal with myself to stop counting and just be present for this chapter of my life. The only thing I’m currently certain about is that at this point anything other than living each day to it’s fullest and on my own terms is a waste of precious time. With that in mind each day becomes it’s own new adventure.

The icy winds blew in through the windows, the frozen path straining on the car. A heavy mist had surrounded us and my vision was restricted to just the front of the vehicle. I heard Mal and An shivering and comforting each other as I tried to plow ahead. Heather was rubbing her hands together, an attempt to keep the escaping heat in her body. She kept trying to toy with the heating systems but everything had broken down an hour ago.

I cursed myself for plunging my family into this disaster, all holiday plans melting away. I had promised them an adventurous get-away but had never fathomed it turning into this.

Heather was holding on to my arm and tried to soothe me. Suddenly, her eyes lit up and she looked up at me. Someone was coming behind us and we all knew that they could be our saving grace.

I clambered out of the car, making sure to buckle myself up, ready to brace the chills. My feet; having made contact with the snow-laiden road; froze instantly and my voice struggled to escape my throat. I signalled for the driver to stop and come to our assisstance but, to my utmost panic, the car never stopped. The jet black Jeep just speeded past me and left me stranded. I was lost in thought, as to why I wasn’t offered any help when the loud honk of a horn woke me up. Heather was staring up at me and gave me a confused and questioning glance, mirroring my expression.

I peered into the fog, hoping for anyone to come but I was just greeted by a silvery haze and an increasingly cold and fast wind threatening to trap us in a whirlwind of disasters. The only thing I could do was wait…This was turning out to be a never-ending road trip for us all!

No mountains, no lakes, no greenery, no waterfall…no beautiful brook is flowing parallel to the road in which I am travelling….so what you think .. I am in a monotonous journey you do not long for…. The dust clearly strewn visible in black bituminous road crossing which appears to be a eternity.My black Scorpio has turned white due to patches. I am in a stretch surrounded by large dunes of sand on two sides… I cannot add .#beautiful# adjective to these dunes, they are dry and nothing else and I have turned drier. I occasionally wet my lips with tounges lubricating the cracks… Casting my eyes sideways I find a herd of camels traversing the desert in peace somewhere near the horizon … I am calm too but not in peace, for my senses which are not used to this silence start keeping me busy with distractions of past and future , worries and griefs maybe this is the most rewarding time for introspection.. Yes THAR triggers the philosophical side of me…… When I had planned this trip , I had mentally imagined this scene quite numerous times but this was catalyzed by the traditional tune of KESARIYA BALAM AAVO JI MAARHE DESH…..( you are welcome to my country … The grace of lord may bequeath upon you) … But now in this very moment I am feeling so much thirsty that the depression ahead of me which appears to be filled with water makes me joyous only to make me sad when I reach there ..all my water bottles have drained and so the knowledge of miraje which I has read in my science books…………

The best type of road trip is one where I am not driving. When I get to look out the window and allow my mind to paint over the vast expanse of the land around me. Boy, do I love the days where I can make up catchy song-lyrics in my head, pretending that I can play an instrument, while the car speeds along the highway at ten miles-per-hour over the speed limit. Those are the days that I can devote to doing nothing, answering to nobody, and still see everything. I can see the earth itself, polka-dotted with trees, cars and uniform houses. I can see the occasional hitch-hiker as we tumble past him, the thought never crossing our minds to pick him up. I see the world as it is, a bastion of infinite artistry. I can visualize the creation of something far greater than myself, the colors that humans have forged. And from the cars we pass and those that pass us, I can see their hues and I can rest assured that each one is inherently unique, each one portrays a new gradient. Because of these observations, my mind can rest easy, letting the car hurl me forward into a flurry of colors. Sometimes though, when the sun becomes consumed by mountains and the radiance of the daytime becomes nothing more than a muddled shadow, I start to think of myself. I don’t like it when I think of myself. It starts with the faces. Always the faces. Faces of people whose voices I refuse to recall because they are faces of people whom I have deemed unworthy of my time, my dreams, or my thoughts. And while they have never done anything to deserve my condemnation, I have still chosen to shun them. Then come those who have wronged me, people whose hearts I have invested my own in and yet they chose to do the same thing to me that I have done to others. They chose condemnation over recognition. I hate them for it, and if I hate them for their ugliness, then others must hate me in the same way. The only color I see now in the evening light is not a color at all, it’s more like a feeling. It cannot be explained, our language does not denote the existence of this color; it simply is. I peer into the side-view mirror from the backseat of the car, the sun almost finished banishing itself into the abyss of western mountains, and I can no longer see myself. All I see is the ever-elusive color, and a crowd of faces in front of mine.

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21 Road Trip Writing Prompts

The article 21 Road Trip Writing Prompts appeared first on The Write Practice .

Summer is the season for road trips. Whether you are on the road yourself or only dreaming of a vacation, today we have some road trip writing prompts to make the time fly. Try one out today!

This prompt was originally posted in June, 2012. Today, I’m traveling overseas and thought a few of you might also be on the road! We’ve added twenty prompts to the original one, but I kept my own practice from 2012 at the end. Enjoy!

Road trips yield great stories. Why? Because a road trip forces you, your family, your friends, or your characters into uncomfortable and new situations. Add to that the potential for various complications and conflict, and you have all the ingredients for a terrific story. 

Whether you want to write the story of a road trip you took, or one you’re planning, or a scene from your work in progress that involves a road trip, you can use the elements of plot to help you. (See our full guide here.)

Start with a character who has a goal, and then let the complications and conflict ensue. Bring their actions to a crescendo of crisis (will they make the best bad choice to get what they want?) and deliver the climax and denouement .

A road trip has a built in external goal: you want to get to your destination, usually in a specific way for a specific purpose. But all those details can get hijacked by internal conflict, car trouble, wild roadside stops, and any other complication you can dream up. Give it a try!

Twenty-one Road Trip Writing Prompts 

• My original prompt was simple: Write about a road trip.

You can still do that one. But here are twenty more to take for a drive. (See what I did there?)

2. A parent and adult child have to take a road trip to sort out important family business. What happens?

3. Two co-workers have to drive to a work event one state away, but the trip goes terribly wrong.

4. A group of college seniors embark on a final road trip before graduation, but at the beginning of the second day, they pick up a hitchhiker who looks a lot like one of their professors who died the year before. 

5. A newlywed couple borrows a travel trailer and sets off on a cross-country roadtrip, when…

6. A young twenty-something trying to get home makes the mistake of stopping at…

7. An older couple has to move closer to family and takes a route that has some unusual memories.

8. A multi-family caravan road trip is derailed when a sink hole drops them into another dimension.

9. A motorcycle road trip through the Rocky Mountains turns deadly when…

10. A photographer sets out to capture pictures of the last five family-owned motels along a historic route when they discover…

11. A child convinces their grandparent to drive a thousand miles to return to a family home, but when they arrive, they are shocked to find…

Ten more road trip prompts for journaling

12. Tell about a time you took a wrong turn on a road trip.

13. Describe your dream road trip. Be sure to include details about the vehicle and riders along with the route and sights along the way. 

14. What was the best thing you ever ate on a road trip? The worst?

15. If you could only take a single route to a single destination for a road trip every summer for the rest of your life, which would it be and why?

16. Describe a time you learned something new on a road trip. 

17. Create your dream road trip playlist. Which artists and albums would you include and why?

18. Write about the characteristics that would describe your worst-case-scenario road trip buddy. (You can approach this either way: the person who would be best in a crisis OR the worst person to ride with.)

19. Find pictures of the open road in your favorite region and describe how it feels to be in that setting. 

20. What is your favorite book or film that includes a road trip and why?

21. Write about your favorite season or time of day to be on the road and describe it. 

For this writing practice, choose one of the prompts above. Set your timer for fifteen minutes . When you finish, post your practice in the Pro Practice Workshop here . 

If  you post, please read and comment on a few posts by other writers. Share the love 🙂 

Here’s my practice from 2012:

We’re driving from California to Georgia this week, my dad and me. The first time since I was sixteen and only spoke six words to him the whole trip. We drove to Big Sur and then to Cambria where we stopped and listened to jazz in a little club along the road. It was the first time I had really listened to jazz. The piano player was blind. He could play well, the whole band could play well, but all I remember is feeling sad and alone and observant.

This time we’re driving to Georgia through New Orleans where we’ll sit in a smoky bar on Canal Street and listen to jazz. We drove through Texas today. Texas is normally a two day state, but for us it’s a three day state. He wants to take it slow and relaxing so we’ll stop in San Antonio and then Houston before making it the Mississippi Delta. I’m impatient to go faster and farther, a flaw of youth I suppose.

In El Paso we ate the worst Texas barbecued brisket either of us have ever had. Me, because it’s the first Texas barbecued brisket I’ve ever had so it was both the best and worst. And he, because it was so dry and tasteless he had to chase it with shots of BBQ sauce just to get it down.

After El Paso we drove along Texas roads so long and flat you stop seeing road entirely and completely disappear into the black asphalt, the golden land, and the blue eternal sky that seems to dissolve the land itself.

The article 21 Road Trip Writing Prompts appeared first on The Write Practice . The Write Practice – Transforming Aspiring Writers into Published Authors

Go to Source Author: Joe Bunting

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100 Travel Journal Prompts Get You Inspired

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You just got a brand new travel journal but have no idea what to write! Prepare to be inspired with these creative travel journal prompts to help you document your travel memories and keep them alive long after you get home! These 100+ creative writing prompts for travel will get you inspired to write in no time!

Get our Printable Travel Journal Prompt Bundle with 100+ prompts

Sometimes we need something more than just the beautiful vacation photos and videos to really helps us preserve those precious travel memories we created with family and friends.

This is why travel journaling is perfect, with written words to help jog your memory and recall those little moments that might otherwise have gotten lost.

But what happens when you have writer’s block and don’t know where to start? Those fresh journal pages can be overwhelming if journaling is a new habit for you.

With this in mind, we have compiled some creative travel journal ideas that could be used while abroad or when you’re exploring a new place closer to home.

GET THE PRINTABLE TRAVEL JOURNAL PROMPT BUNDLE IN OUR STORE

The following prompts can help you think about your experiences and feelings, taking your travel writing well beyond a daily list of what you did.

But first, let’s cover the basics of travel journals!

Getting Started With Travel Journaling

Journaling can be a very therapeutic way to practice mindfulness on your travels, taking time out of your day to stop and reflect on the things you’ve done and the thoughts you’ve had during your life-changing journeys.

There are many ways to document your travels, from sketches and photos to blog posts (you can learn how to start your own travel blog like this).

Choosing a Journal

To find the best travel journal for you, it may take a little time to work out the best option for you.

Check out our travel journal examples with these comprehensive travel journaling ideas to help you choose the right type of journal and explore a few options you might not have considered before.

Knowing preferences like hard cover or soft cover, blank pages or lined pages will also help you choose.

The best part of using travel journal prompts like the ones we share below is the fact that even a simple notebook will work! No fancy travel journal is necessary.

You can also get travel journals with prompts already printed. Some of these are great if you are looking for a mindful travel journal, although they don’t allow you to be as creative as you would if using your own travel journal prompts.

In case you want a done for you version , here are some great picks:

Creative Travel Journal Prompts For Every Occasion

Creative writing prompts for travel journals can provide you with an outlet as well as help make those memories last a lifetime!

Using creative ideas for your own personal travel memoir can be used while abroad or when you’re exploring new places closer to home.

Here is some writing prompts to get the creative juices flowing in your own personal travel journal:

Story And Experience Prompts

Vacation writing prompts that explore your feelings and get deep into the story behind your adventures are what most people think of when they think about journalling. This is an incredible way to jog the memory when you read back through your travel journal in future.

Get started with simple stories such as a fun experience you had or more complex stories, like how you felt when you were almost mugged on the streets of London. (Let’s hope not…).

Travel stories can be both positive and negative experiences. Try to include at least one travel story for each travel destination.

Here are some story and feelings travel prompts to get you started:

• Share a travel story
• What was the first thing you noticed when you arrived?
• Describe someone who you met on your trip
• Document a difficult moment and how it made you feel
• What are your expectations of the destination or experience?
• What made you choose this destination?
• Is there anything about this trip that did not meet the hype?
• Is there an experience that deserves more hype?
• What is your favourite Souvenir from your trip and why?
• Is there anything you would do differently next time you visit?
• What are you most excited about doing or seeing?
• What is something you new you learnt?
• What is something you did that you are proud of?
• What is something you regret not doing or trying?
• What local traditions resonated with you most?
• Who travels with you – is it a partner, a family member or friend?
• How do they influence your travel experience and what impact does that have on who you are when travel?
• What are you most grateful for about this trip?
• What advice do you have for others who are visiting here?
• Is there something you find yourself doing every time you travel somewhere new?
• Is there an activity that impacted you on a deeper level than expected?
• Is there a travel destination you are dying to travel to but have not had the opportunity yet?
• Describe your day in the format of a letter to a best friend back home
• What things did you notice when you first arrived?
• What is your favourite memory of the entire trip?
• What was your least favourite moment of the trip?
• Would you visit here again?
• Describe the inside of your accommodation
• Think about the most beautiful place you visited and describe it with all 5 senses
• How did you feel about yourself when there?
• Were you more or less confident than usual?
• What is the one reason that makes this place special for you?
• Write about an adventure from your past
• How is the landscape different from where you live?
• Imagine you had an extra day on your vacation. How would you spend it?
• What was your most embarrassing travel moment?
• How did you travel to your destination (what kind of transport)
• What is the most memorable meal from the trip?
• What was the highlight of your trip?
• What is a place you’ve always wanted to go but haven’t been yet?
• What was the worst thing that happened on your travel trip?
• What do you miss most from home?
• What is something special to do or see here that isn’t on every tourist itinerary?
• How has visiting this place changed your perspective?
• If you could travel anywhere tomorrow, where would you go?
• What were your biggest fears before starting this trip?
• Late night out or early rise for sightseeing – which option do you choose?
• Write a creative entry from the perspective of an object, such as your camera, your backpack or your car and how their trip experience would be were they alive.
• What new experiences made you feel most outside of your comfort zone?
• What is the biggest misconception you had about this destination before you visited?

Travel List Prompts

Not every entry in your trip journal needs to be set out in sentences or in a travel diary format. List journal prompts are an easy and fun way to document your trip in a skimmable way.

They are also very easy to write when you feel that dreaded writer’s block sneaking up on you.

You can write a list about almost anything. In fact, you could write only lists in your travel journal, such as using a bullet journal for travel or a simple lined notebook.

There are a few travel listicle journals you can buy, or use these prompts to make it your own.

Here are some simple travel listography ideas to include in your journal:

• What is on your bucket list for the destination?
• What foods have been your favourite?
• What things did you do today?
• Favourite attractions in a country or city
• Foods you want to try
• Drinks you want to try
• The places you stayed (hotels, campgrounds, resorts)
• Things you noticed outside your window
• Facts about the destination
• Road trip stops (or tour stops)
• Cost of common items i.e. cup of coffee, milk, burger etc
• Souvenirs you plan to buy and for who
• A this or that list i.e. Relaxing or adventure, budget or luxury etc
• Books about your destination
• Films about your destination
• Famous people from your destination
• Places or experiences you missed on this trip to try next time
• Words that you know or learnt in the local language
• All the items you purchased during your trip
• Plan your perfect road trip playlist

Travel Planning Journal Prompts

If you want to document the full picture of your trip, right down to what, where, when, who and how, you can add in some travel planning writing prompts to add in those little details.

This can be anything from your itinerary and bookings to your packing list. This is similar to the list journal prompts but specifically focused on your travel plans.

The first time I travelled overseas I documented every meal I ate and every movie I watched on the long haul flight over there. And I don’t regret that level of detail one bit!

Here are some travel planning journal prompt ideas:

• Your packing list
• Your travel itinerary
• Your flight details
• The accommodation you have booked
• Tours and experiences you have planned
• People you are meeting and when

Personal Growth Travel Journal Writing Prompts

Documenting growth is one of the most beautiful parts of journaling and a travel journal should be no different.

Not every journal entry must be about the day to day experiences you have while you are travelling.

Some of your entries can be reflections on the bigger picture – who you’ve become as a person, what growth you’ve experienced and how your perspective on the world has changed beyond just this trip.

Here are some reflective personal growth travel prompt ideas:

• Give your future self a piece of advice
• What is something you’ve learnt about yourself recently?
• What type of travel do you prefer?
• What is something you want to do but it scares you?
• How can you make a difference in the world once you are home?
• How have you changed since the last time you travelled?
• Do you think travel changes your life for the better?
• What have you learnt about travel that will impact how you travel next and how?
• If you could live in any country in the world, where would you live? Why?
• What is something you will never travel without again?
• How would have your friends described you from before you started travelling compared to today?
• What travel means to me
• What is the biggest lesson your travels have taught you?
• What has been the most rewarding travel experience of your life so far? What about it made it that way for you?
• What travel advice would you like to give your 20-year-old self?
• Write a letter of gratitude to someone who impacted your life greatly

GET OUR PRINTABLE JOURNAL PROMPTS & BONUS TRAVEL PLANNER PAGES

Travel journal prompts for kids.

Why should you have all the fun during your family vacations ?

33 Easy Hiking Lunches & Snack Ideas For Day Hikes

These fun travel journal prompts for kids are a fun way to have younger members of the family practice their writing skills and share their own unique perspectives.

Most kids have no idea what to write about when you give them their first travel journal and you may find yourself disappointed when the pages remain blank.

By adding travel prompts to each page or giving them a list of easy prompts they can use if they need help can be a great way to get them writing about their family travel.

Having their own travel journal is also a great way to keep kids entertained while in transit and travel journal questions can help them remember their travel experiences better.

These travel journal prompts for kids are perfect for younger travellers:

• What was your favourite activity?
• Where was your favourite place?
• What did you like best about this place?
• What food did you like most?
• Where do you want to go next?
• What is something you can’t wait to tell your friends about when you get back home?
• What do you know about this place?
• What was the coolest thing you saw?
• What can you see out the window of your plane/hotel/train?
• Who do you wish you could bring on your next trip?
• What is something different here that you do not have back home?
• What is something you miss from home?
• Would you visit this place again?
• What is your best memory of your whole trip?
• Describe where you are staying?
• What will you miss once you go home?

Travel Journal Prompts That Aren’t Writing

You don’t always have to write about your experiences for each day.

Sometimes there are better ways to describe what you did and what you saw than just words alone. Have you ever considered non-writing journal entries?

Instead of writing what you can see outside your window, draw it. Stick a photo in the spot. Add a postcard or a brochure from your day. Ticket stubs and coasters.

Non-written entries are a great way to fill in blank pages of your journal. There are many ways you can do new entries in your journal that aren’t creative writing.

Here are some non-writing travel journal prompt ideas:

• Draw a famous landmark you saw
• Sketch the inside of your hotel room or the view out the window
• Do a leaf rubbing
• Create your own mini comic strip that tells a travel story
• Do a travel collage that tells a story
• Hand draw a map of your journey or of the town you are staying in
• Share a private voice recording or upload a video online and create a QR code for your journal so you can scan and watch or listen in future

You might also like to include some quotes in your journal. Here are some quotes to inspire you:

• 150 inspirational quotes about travel
• 90 Camping quotes and captions
• 100 road trip quotes and captions
• 80 adventure quotes for kids
• 70 travel with kids quotes

These fun journal prompts for travel help document those little moments in life. What makes them so special is how they transport us back to where we were during that moment. We hope these travel journal prompts have inspired you to start a travel journal for your next global (or local) adventure! If you have any other ideas that could be used as travel writing prompts please share them in the comments below.

And if you need more help getting started with travel journaling, make sure you check out our journal ideas to inspire you beyond your journal entry ideas.

Time to start writing in that blank journal! Do you always take a travel journal on your adventures?

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94+ ‘Road’ Writing Prompts

Transcontinental Wanderings

Write a story of a cross-country road trip during the Roaring Twenties.

Fork in the Road

Rewind to the moment in your past when you had to make a significant decision.

Road Less Travelled

Reflect on a personal crossroad in your life, describing the two options and the choice you made.

Irish Road Bowling Excitement

Write a personal narrative about participating in a game of Irish Road Bowling, detailing the incredible highs and lows of…

Journey into the Frozen Unknown

Write a story about a perilous expedition into the uncharted Arctic wilderness.

Villainous Redemption

Craft a story where a villain tries to redeem themselves but is misunderstood or rejected by society.

The Road to Humanity

Write about a vampire who embarks on a grueling path to regain his human nature.

Road to Redemption

Craft a story revolving around an ex-criminal who stumbles upon his old murder weapon while renovating his house.

Driving the Dream Car

Describe the best road trip ever in your dream car. Where would you go, who would you take, and what…

Journey of Lifelines

Write about your most unforgettable journey across the world.

The Comedy of Errors

Write a narrative about a series of misfortunes that turn out comedic.

Journey to Emmaus

Write a dialogue that might have occurred between the two disciples on the road to Emmaus before Jesus revealed himself.

Road Less Traveled

Detail a decision where you had to let go of the popular choice to pursue your dreams.

Exploring Anakin’s Transformation

Write about the transformation of Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader, focusing on the psychological factors that influence his character shift.

Trade Routes of the Empire

Depict the life of a merchant navigating the famous Silk Road during the Ottoman Empire.

Legends: The Unknown Jedi

Write about an unknown Jedi who took the road less traveled and formed his/her own beliefs about the Force.

Road to Recovery

Write about the stages of healing you’ve gone through after your heartache.

Summer Adventure

Describe your ideal summer adventure.

Roads of Winter

Write about a journey, real or imagined, that takes place on an icy, salt-and-grit covered road.

Unexpected Sanctuary

Find an unlikely sanctuary amid the zombie devastation during a road trip.

Abandoned Gas Stations

In a world overrun by zombies, you find an old gas station that might have precious resources.

The Silk Road Caravaner

Narrate the journey of a caravan trader traversing the legendary Silk Road in the Middle Ages.

Down the Road Less Traveled

Create a travelogue about a place you’ve imagined, untouched and unspoiled by humans.

Nightmare Travels

A couple embarks on a cross-country road trip, but each night brings them terrifying nightmares that begin to spill into…

Fragile Silk Threads

Craft a narrative involving the discovery of silk during the Han Dynasty and its impact on society.

Draft a poem from the perspective of a tired traveler who took the road less traveled.

Desert Roadtrip

Write about a desert road trip you have taken or would love to take.

Road to Self-Discovery

Write about a moment or experience that has greatly shaped the person you are today.

Summer’s Descent

Write about an exceptionally intense summer day and how it affects your routine.

Map out the steps you think you need to take in order to heal heartbreak and move on with your…

Modern Frog Prince

Write a modern take on The Frog Prince, focusing on appearance versus reality.

Radios and Road Trips

Write about a song or music album that instantly snaps you back to a certain phase or moment in life.

Fading Footprints

Describe a summer trip that left a significant impact on you and discuss the lingering traces it has left behind.

The Road Less Traveled

Write about a unique, off-beat location you chose to spend your Spring Break.

The Rise to Power

Consider a well-loved character who slowly descends into villainy due to power or circumstance.

A Journey into the Future

Imagine yourself five years into the future and describe what you see.

Road Trip Adventure

As a group, plan an epic road trip, beginning to end.

Journey of Self-Discovery

Write about a time in your life when you embarked on a journey of self-discovery.

The Road to Courage

Write an inspiring story of a time when you faced fear and overcame it.

Shapes Of The City

Sketch an urban landscape using only basic shapes, then describe how each shape contributes to the city.

Redemption Road

Craft a story about a remorseful killer attempting to atone for their past.

Create a villain who goes through significant character development and ends up seeking redemption.

The Reluctant Villain

Conceive a villain who hates what they do but feels compelled to continue. Why do they find it necessary?

Journey with Marco Polo

Travel alongside Marco Polo on his journey along Silk Road, narrating your experiences and the people you meet.

Guardian of Destiny

Imagine a guardian figure who defends a prophecy from coming true.

Whiskers on Wheels

Imagine if your pet could suddenly drive a car.

Road to Hell Paved with Good Intentions

Pen a narrative about a visionary whose noble intentions eventually lead them into becoming a feared dictator.

Road to Healing

Describe a therapeutic activity you engaged in to heal your heartaches.

Journey via the Tokaido Road

Narrate the journey of a merchant traveling along the Tokaido Road.

Roaming the Ring of Kerry

Write about a hypothetical road trip around the Ring of Kerry and describe the breathtaking coastal scenery you encounter.

The Road Not Taken

Write about a career path you once considered but didn’t pursue.

The Road of Regrets

Write about a choice you regret and how it has impacted your life.

The Road Less Travelled

Imagine you took a different path in life at a key decision-making point.

Narrating Nature

Describe a natural wonder you encountered during your summer road trip.

Travel Soundtrack

Create a playlist for your summer road trip and write about the significance of each song.

Backroads and Detours

Write about a time during your summer road trip where you deliberately chose to take a detour or use backroads.

Journey through Tastes

Recount a memorable meal or food experience from your summer road trip.

Write about a significant turning point in your life and the decision that swung the pendulum.

Road to Forgiveness

Explore a narrative where the protagonist unintentionally betrays their closest ally, leading to deep wounds on both sides.

Road Trip Disaster

The Winchester brothers undertake a road trip, only to stumble upon a haunted town.

Yearning Yellow Brick Road

In an alternate “Wizard of Oz”, Dorothy never wants to leave Oz; write her story.

Quest for the Lost Oracle

Your characters are chosen or compelled by fate to go on a quest to find a legendary oracle.

Rogue Redemption

Detail the story of your rogue character who repents and seeks redemption.

Narrate a mistake you have made, then converse an action plan on how you intend to make things right.

Self-Comfort Playlist

Compose a list of feelings or situations and choose a song that comforts during each.

Decade Down the Road

Detail your life’s landscape a decade from now, covering aspects like family, career, lifestyle, etc.

The Fork in the Road

Reflect on a life-changing decision you once made, describe its impact and how it has shaped you.

Mapping Milestones

Reflect and write about significant markers of your personal growth in the past year.

Road Map to Recovery

Reflect on a time of personal healing and describe your roadmap to recovery.

The Road Ahead

Describe where you see yourself five years from now, detailing the person you want to be, and the steps you…

Stages of Self-Reflection

Write a letter to your past, present, and future self.

Road to Apology

Consider someone you feel you have wronged and have never apologized to. Write an apology letter to that person.

Write about a time when you first recognized the need for recovery.

Exploring Roadblocks

Write about challenges you have faced or are facing on your physical improvement journey.

Noteworthy Progress

Evaluate an area of personal growth and write about a moment of noticeable improvement.

The Apology Letter

Write an apology letter to someone you feel you may have wronged in the past.

Patching Heart Scars

Write about a time when you felt deep pain, where you are now, and how you have healed.

Map of Resilience

Draw a road map of your life and mark out points where you’ve faced significant challenges.

Road Trip Fantasia

Create your fantasy road trip, including your companions, the destinations, the roadside attractions, and the events.

Write about the measures, paths, and strategies you’ve adopted to cope with depression.

Write a narrative where a character dealing with depressive thoughts begins their journey towards self-care and healing.

Road to Resilience

Reflect on a time you overcame fear or anxiety, and what strategies you adopted to conquer it.

Journey of Discovery

Write about a time you embarked on a trip that significantly changed your life.

The Cost of Greatness

Explore a sacrifice or loss the hero must suffer on their course to becoming legendary.

Companions on The Road

Write about an interesting person you met during your journeys, and how they influenced your travel experience.

The Life Not Lived

Write a story about a character reflecting on a life they could have had if they had taken a different…

Pen down a poem narrating your journey towards discovering who you really are.

The Solar Road Trip

Write an adventure that follows a group traveling across the solar system trying to find a legendary lost planet.

Road to Acceptance

Describe the journey of accepting your mental health condition.

Alternate Reality

Write a letter to yourself in an alternate universe, where a significant personal decision led to a completely different life.

Imagine an alternate trip where you visited the places you initially planned to skip.

A Fork in the Road

Ponder over a decision you made in the past that significantly influenced your present.

Laughter Lines

Pick a famous joke and build a story around it.

The Journey, Not the Destination

Write about a particularly memorable journey or transfer during your travels.

9 Creative Writing Tactics to Enrich Your Travel Writing

My Top Travel Writing Secrets I Probably Shouldn’t Share

I have been writing about travel for two years now four years now ( update 2022 ). When I started this blog, I wrote about personal growth and life inspiration. But because I travel constantly and I relish writing about nature, people, and experiences, I began writing travel articles on On My Canvas. ( I’m an itinerant writer now.)

When I first ventured into travel writing, I panicked every time I put down my solo excursion tales and travel guides. I didn’t know how to write about traveling. I didn’t have the right tools. I remember telling my partner it would be a long time before I write good, relatable travel stories readers will enjoy. ( my ideas about good writing .)

But even as a beginner travel writer, I wrote subjective articles such as  why I travel  and how can we stop ourselves from turning into the worst dictators (inspired by Cambodia). I have always preferred penning down personal travel memoirs rather than writing about the five things to do.

Some of my travel writings turned out to be good and some bad. So while this piece on  the love and hate relationship with India  won accolades, I’m still ashamed of this  Vietnam photo essay .

I continued writing about trips to Southeast Asia and South America . As I published frequently, I started getting a hang of  travel writing.

Now instead of fumbling with how to write a travelogue or a guide, I was rejoicing at heartwarming comments and emails from readers.

A beginner travel writer messaged, “Probably your blog is the most useful one I have come across. Most of your posts are stories and experiences rather than what you see in usual blogs. It helps the readers connect.” 

So many writers loved my 11 best tips for bloggers I was overwhelmed. I pitched guest posts to many travel websites. All of them accepted my articles as soon as they read my travel stories. I got the Best Travel Writer award on Medium (which expired as I have stopped publishing on Medium). After reading my blog, editors and freelance clients reached out to me. Some editors said, to quote, “No doubt you’re an excellent storyteller.”

When anyone compliments my travel writing or says I have immense writing talent, I quietly remember the nights and days I spent bent on my computer writing, editing, reading aloud, deleting, rewriting, poring through writing tips for beginners , and so on. I want to stand on a rooftop and scream that writing is less of an inborn talent and more of a muscle that strengthens as we exercise it more.

I would be lying if I say I didn’t write before starting a travel blog. I began my writing career as a fiction writer. The first-ever rules I learned about writing were creative writing tactics. So to say, I launched into the travel writing world on a creative writing broomstick. 

Now I’m not Stephen King or  Ruskin Bond , but I write short stories, personal essays (like this one ), and poetry , too. Some of my work is published .

Within a few months of writing about traveling, I heard many times that I was not doing travel blog writing.

A reader’s comment read , “Beautiful written, your prose is lyrical that reads less like a blog and more like a novel.” That reader has a Ph.D. in literature.

I was writing travel stories and memoirs using my creative writing skills. And travel writing and blogging about travel are all about storytelling — at least they should be.

In this writing guide, I am sharing the indispensable creative writing techniques that have helped me write engaging travel stories.

In a storytelling workshop recently, the six attendants said I should have added more exercises to the class. I took the advice to heart. I have included a writing exercise with all the travel writing tips. Complete the exercises while reading or bookmark the article and get to them later. But remember, you can only master these travel writing tactics if you practice. 

Travel writers, fasten your seatbelts as I am going to take you on a ride. 

1. Write about travel, but don’t forget to Tell a Story

Stories hold words together.  Without a story, words are black noise on paper.

Do you know why we don’t look forward to academic texts and instructional blogs? Why do we enjoy reading Sapiens even though it is a non-fiction book about our entire history?

The former don’t have a story and the latter has.

Expecting your readers to enjoy your story-less writing is like expecting them to enjoy bland food.

Travel blogging needs more storytelling (as I keep repeating and even Jodi from the popular Legal Nomads travel blog started emphasizing a decade ahead of me) . To blog doesn’t mean to give information only. To blog implies to weave our experience in a tale that readers not only can’t keep down but believe in (since the beginning humans have got others to join them for a cause by telling stories).

A story arc goes like this:

• a scene or an event introducing the story and the characters (exposition)
• a buildup on the scene using the characters and their background (the rising action)
• a high-tension point (climax)
• arriving at the end while resolving those tensions or providing (and refusing) the characters’ desires (the falling action)

This video by Chungdahm Learning explains the story arc well.

For example, m y travel narrative of climbing the Volcano Villarrica begins with these lines: “The alarm rang at 3:30 am. In the dark hostel dormitory, I peeked out of my blanket and cursed myself for signing up to hike the 2,800-meter active volcano.” 

By opening the travelogue with a hint of the oncoming adventure, I make readers curious.

Then I share why I was climbing the volcano and that the hike was challenging — I lay the background.

Bringing the travel memoir to a middle point I say, “A thought that I might not be able to complete the hike knocked my head.” — This is a high-tension point because from here on either I will give up or achieve my goal.

I make the characters clash — “After a few hours of trudging up the volcano, I wanted to give up. So when Alejandro and Alison told me I had gone too far to quit, I didn’t relate with their relentlessness. Why couldn’t I watch the summit from a lower altitude and enjoy the majestic vista bordered by icy volcanoes?” — Though the character conflicts are subtle, this much tension is usually enough to drive a travel story.

I take the travelogue further by talking about how the guide and my friend cheered me — the falling actions. The story ends with me making it to the summit.

“ Every story is about something bigger than ourselves,” Neil Gaiman says, and I concur. The main point of the story was not trekking the volcano. It was about conquering my greatest fears and pushing myself to climb despite them. Ask yourself why do you want to write your story. Remember the reason while writing the travel tale.

One of the loveliest comments I received on the travelogue says, “I really enjoyed reading your story. It made me want to hike the volcano but it also made me slightly terrified of it.”

My purpose was achieved. I wanted to inspire people to climb the thing for I knew what an incredible experience they would miss if they gave in to their fears.

We have to narrate our travel guides like stories or a collection of many anecdotes. And for every travel article that cannot be a continuous story — such as logistical pieces like how to get a visa to Malaysia, things to do in Dharamshala et cetera — I begin by telling a related incident and then write down the information strewing many more tales throughout.

Writing Exercise —  Look at your drafts or a published piece. Or write about traveling to a place you loved. Write/rewrite as if you were telling the story to your best friend.

How cool would be to tell this story! The Sleeping Gypsy and The Lion, by Henri Rousseau / Public domain

2. Show, Don’t Tell

Show, don’t tell was one of the first writing advices I got. 

What does “show, not tell” means?

When you “tell” (not show), you dictate information to the reader, rather than letting her deduce it. 

When you show, you paint a picture of the scene rather than throwing all the facts at the reader .

In the  travel blog on Manikaran, Himachal, I could have written — The Gurudwara is white. The Parvati river flows by its side .

But I wrote — The milky gurudwara complements the white froth of the unstoppable Parvati bellowing by its side.

A few more travel writing examples on telling and showing :

If we tell, the story feels less like a story and more like a boring monologue spilled out on the page. But when we show, the reader watches the scene unfold in front of her, becomes a part of the journey, and draws her own conclusions.

To show what is happening, write using your senses. See, smell, hear, touch, and taste. Now write what you find.

Writing Exercise  —  Pick up an existing work or continue working on the travel piece from the first bullet. Or write about what you see now. Don’t tell, show. You cannot use the words sad, angry, hungry et cetera. Use your senses.

When you are writing about a trip, describe not just the people but also the mountains and the lakes. The Lone Lake by Franklin Carmichael / Public domain

3. Be Descriptive – One of my most important rules while writing a travelogue

This point is a continuation of the above tip on showing, not telling. 

To create a story, we need to give details about the setting, the scene, and the action.

In the  travel blog on Manikaran, Himachal I could have written — Tourists were getting photographed. It was a beautiful place with narrow streets. Shops lined the roadsides. People were shopping. Sikhs were visiting the Gurudwara. Mothers were taking their children to the hot water springs to bathe them.

But here’s what I wrote: 

“ Young girls dressed up in traditional bright Kullu dresses and Himachali topis waited to be clicked. Streets were lined with kitschy souvenir shops flaunting neon plastic toys, rudraksha malas, and brass bracelets.

Devoted Sikhs with their  Kirpans  hanging around their waist walked swiftly towards the Manikaran Sahib Gurudwara. Hindu families strode to the Shiva and Ram temple to bathe their young ones. The children trailed behind eyeing the hot jalebis and crispy samosas displayed at the roadside sweetmeats’ shop. “

In the first method, the writing reads boring, incomplete, and doesn’t help us see the place. I could be describing any religious site.

In the second method, I have added colors. I have not only used my senses to show, but I have focused on the little details that make Manikaran the place it is.

Zoom in and then use the five senses to show what is happening. 

Writing Exercise   —  Pick the story or the paragraphs from the above exercise. Edit the piece while filling in the details. So now you want to draw more lines, more leaves, more grass, and pour in some more color.

Traveling 160 years ago. The Traveling Companions by Augustus Egg / Public domain

Inspirational Read: How to Keep Going When Writing Seems Hard

4. Be specific

Specificity adds nuance and makes the scene real. Ditch common nouns and use proper nouns. 

She kept her copy of ( a book ) The Color Pur ple on the table. 

Celebrations were spent huddled around the barbecue with  ( a drink ) terremotos in hand. 

When I got tired, I walked back to the homestay and listened to ( music ) Anoushka Shankar fill the treehouse. 

There was ( a car ) a white ambassador with a broken headlight on the road.

Writing Exercise  — Take any travel article and replace all the common nouns with proper nouns wherever it makes sense.

To help the reader relate, talk about your fears and apprehensions often. Franklin Carmichael / Public domain

5. Tell what you care about, but don’t ignore others

Consider this paragraph: “I arrived in Manikaran at noon. I wanted to take a long hot bath in the thermal pools so I walked to the temple. But as families and their children had already crowded the bath, I got out early. After the bath, I was hungry so I ate a samosa. The rudraksha males were beautiful so I went to one shop to buy. “

A lot of travel blogs read like the above. 

Why would anyone be interested in my monologue? People would rather binge-watch Netflix.

Virginia Woolf said ,

“Your entire devotion is due to your story. You cannot leave it to attend to some personal grievance. Let not anger tug at our imagination or devotion and deflect it from its path.”

We only read when we can relate with the writing while getting entertained (I will talk about entertainment in another point). And readers would only relate to our writing if they can imagine themselves in our shoes.

If our writing is relatable, it will be enjoyable, too. The reader would laugh along and would be embarrassed when we fall flat on our faces at the crowded Andheri railway station. 

To make the writing relatable, we show what is happening with us, but we don’t skip the world. So the floodlight is on us, but the rest of the stage isn’t dark either. And in this space the reader can scooch in wherever she likes.

Rewriting the above lines:

“ When I arrived in Manikaran at noon, the town was bustling with activity. Tired from the journey, I headed to the temple to bathe in the natural hot springs. Some twenty children were playing in and around the temple pool. The mothers yelled to get the children out of the water.

Postponing my desire to take a long bath I was out of the water in a few minutes. Soon I was on the street. The thick fragrance of the freshly fried samosas pulled me towards the sweetmeat shop. There was a long queue, but I got my samosa. Right opposite the shop, an old man sold rudraksha malas. The sunlight seemed perfect to click the ruddy necklaces. so I walked to him. Who knows, I might buy one this time. “

I’m still talking about myself, but while describing the people, places, and scenes I come across.

Writing Exercise   —  Read what you have written. Do you hear “I,” “me,” “I,” “me,” or does the story care about others, too? Make a friend read the draft. Ask her what she thinks.

Quiet a landscape, eh? How will you describe it in words? Karl Paul Themistokles von Eckenbrecher / Public domain

6. Weave the facts throughout the story 

Fiction writers never give all the facts and data in the first paragraph of the story. Travel writers shouldn’t stuff all the logistics and information at once either. Otherwise, the piece will become a read-before-sleep rather than a read-because-you-can’t-stop concoction.

Read this: “ The museum was opened in 1871. With the ticket, we got an audio tour of the museum. The museum had four walls, all painted white, and four galleries. The first gallery is of the realism paintings. Then comes the second gallery with oil paintings. The third gallery is of natural paintings. By the fourth gallery, the writer d..o..z…e..s.s. off… The reader d.o.z…z…e.s off…   “

Now consider this :

“ The ticket to the museum said it opened to the public in 1871. Out of the four museum galleries, I first walked towards the realism paintings gallery.

…Journey in the realism paintings gallery…

After half an hour, I exited the realism to enter the world of oil paintings, the second gallery. The audio tour was so helpful I haven’t had to look up anything on Google, yet. Et cetera. Et cetera. “

As travel writers, we have to share information and facts. But we can’t burden the reader with all the information in one go. Unfurl the truths of the place slowly. When you write about a trip, weave the dates and the data in your narrative.

Writing Exercise   —  Check your piece for facts. Weave them subtly in the article.

7. Show more than you are comfortable with – Writing travel articles would need you to open up.

Personal essays and travel stories read real when we share how we feel. Of course, it is hard to open up on a public platform. Nor do we feel comfortable knowing others can see into our personal lives.

But to become a travel writer, you have to compromise on privacy. You have to let people inside your head. Else you will not be writing books but would only be protecting your identity. 

Here is something personal I wrote about my first solo travel in Thailand : “One morning in Chiang Mai, I was walking in the middle of a street. Clutching my bag, I was trying to read menus written in Thai. Just then, on a phone call back home, my mother said she would never forgive me and hung up. She wanted me to return home immediately but I wanted to travel more. “

I wasn’t comfortable sharing the entire conversation. But to progress the narrative and give context to my subsequent feelings and actions, I shared a less dramatic version of the phone call.

If we are not writing about a travel experience from a personal point of view, the piece would just read like a report on the destination. 

Don’t be shy. Share how you feel so that people can relate. After all, you are not the only one struggling with angry mothers and Thai menu cards. 

Readers want you to hook them from the beginning. Christen Dalsgaard / Public domain

8. Don’t bore the reader. Make her laugh. Make her cry. But never bore her.

We read to get entertained.  We read to forget ourselves for a while and get lost somewhere else. Reading is another form of meditation.

Recently in a storytelling workshop, I asked the six attendants why they read.  Their reasons ringed close to entertainment though they never used the word.

There is nothing wrong with reading for fun. Even though we might be learning alongside, growing as a person, getting out of the mundane, and venturing into different worlds, we wouldn’t read unless we were having fun.  ( these 21 books changed how I look at life .)

By enjoying a book, a story, or an article, I do not mean the reader would always be rolling on the floor laughing. She might cry. Her heart might get broken. She may miss her family. She might regret something she did ten years ago. 

As writers, our job is to make a reader feel all those emotions she was hiding from — that is the entertainment.  At the end of the read, the reader should feel as if she has just come out of another world (the one we will serve on a plate).

How would you make sure your travel writing isn’t boring? 

Read your work aloud. Cut every redundant and dull word and line. Be more frugal than the Michelin star chefs.

Laugh upon yourself if you have to. Talk about your fat nose. Tell us about how you were blown away by the wind. Open up about that embarrassing morning when the hostel bathroom was occupied and you had eaten too much salsa picante . 

Use metaphors. They will be a hit and miss in the beginning but you will soon make sense. 

In an essay on changing my career to become a writer , I wrote — Parents didn’t allow their children, especially girls, to go out and play with friends, and Voldemort wasn’t the reason. Men ogled women on the streets freely, and I was grabbed a few times even in crowded places as soon as I hit puberty.

I talked about why children weren’t allowed to go out by sharing a dark reality but putting in a little punch of Voldemort laughter there. 

Here’s another example of travel writing from an essay on being clueless in Chile when people spoke in Spanish :

Suddenly, I was the toothpaste cover girl: silent and vacuously smiling. Like the referee in a tennis match, I turned my head from one speaker to another to understand the expressions. I was the excluded newcomer in the class; rarely asked for advice or answer unless directly involved. Avoiding conversations was a new skill that I was assimilating. The quick cat who used to jump at everyone (literally with words) was out of breath and was watching silently from under the bed .

Unless my piece entertains me, I keep editing it. When you can’t enjoy your writing how would anyone else enjoy it? 

The scene could be soft and slow. But you have to write it such that people don’t get bored. On the Desert by Jean-Léon Gérôme / Public domain

9. Read like a Writer

As I am writing more, I am reading more, too. I have talked about the importance of reading in my 27 tips on improving writing skills , too. (my best non-fiction books from 2020 and best fiction books from the same year.)

Not just reading, but reading as a writer is one of the most important practices for any writer.

When I started reading travel blogs, I was overwhelmed. They were so many. How could I ever finish? But I realized I could read only some of those blogs. The rest were either boring or too short or just talked about how the writer enjoyed the place and didn’t give enough information, and so on (no offense to anyone for I am just sharing my reading experience).

I picked up the dos and the don’ts of good travel writing from my own experience as a reader.

While reading, notice what made you laugh or which part of the travelogue made you put the article aside. Was there an awkward word? Was the information weaved into the story? Would you read more of this writer? Why?

Learn from other writers. 

Here are books that have helped me progress as a writer (or at times have helped me write at all),

• Sapiens: a Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari — I’ve included this one because Sapiens establishes how humans could (cognitively and otherwise) evolve by telling stories to each other
• Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl — One of the best non-fiction memoirs I’ve ever read by such a young author
• Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life — for inspiration to write, and also to let go in the avalanche of warmth that flows out of this book
• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft  by Stephen King — Learn from the best. King always knows how to cut the noise.
• Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke — Another book which suffuses me with strength, courage, and belief all writers so badly need. 
• A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf — Inspired by A Room of One’s Own, I even have a meditation on Woolf’s advice on writing and life . Virginia’s essay is a must read for all writers (and those aspiring to write).
• The Letters of Vincent van Gogh by Vincent van Gogh — In these priceless letters to his brother Theo, Vincent inspired everyone to pursue their art with utmost devotion. I read the letters frequently to fill myself with courage, focus, and belief.
• Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life by Natalie Goldberg — The title says it all. But this one stays with me wherever I go.
• The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Junior and E.B. White — for learning the basics of grammar and, literally, how to write
• Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers’ Guide from the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University — another must have on non-fiction. I’m always reading this one yet I have so much more to learn 
• On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser — a must have in my opinion
• Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind (99U) — a brilliant book from the creatives around the world on how to manifest the creativity inside us in our work

Now go get them.

for as Vincent said , what is more artistic, doing it or not going it?

Writing Exercise   —  Pick up any travel story. Maybe take one from my blog  (could be this BR Hills piece ) or any other blog you love. Print it out. Now keeping the tips for travel writing discussed here in mind, read the story. Underline the descriptive words. Circle the boring parts. Mark the sentences that tell instead of show. Understand where you got bored or what kept you going. Now do it with one of your pieces. Rewrite the things that don’t feel right.

I hope these ideas on how to write about travel help you write better. Word by word, my friend, word by word.

Follow Up Reads: My best Blogging Tips from 2 years of blogging , Creative Routines for everyone , and an inspiration on pursuing our dreams

Are you writing about traveling, too? Do you now have a better idea on how to write a travel article? Let me know in the comments.

Like this post? Please pin it so that others can find it on Pinterest. Thank you. 

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6 thoughts on “9 Creative Writing Tactics to Enrich Your Travel Writing”

very informative

नमस्कार क्या आप मुझे बता सकते कि कहानी को लिखने का सही तरीका क्या है क्योंकि मैं बहुत दिनों से ट्राई कर रहा हूं पर लिख नहीं पा रहा हूं।

Hey priyanka, It was a great blog. I liked the whole blog specially the second point of Showing instead of telling. Keep going

Very good information blog! it is useful to me to write a Travel blog and thank you for posting.

Hi Priyanka, This is a wonderful article. Congratulations! I have just completed a travel book called ‘The Last Train Through the Heart of the Americas,’ for which I am trying to find a publisher, so I can very much relate to the travel tips you give in the above post, as I had to learn most of them the hard way. My book has been 30 years in the making and still isn’t published…. And I too worked in investment banking before setting off on travels to India, South-East Asia and South America. Although you are in India and I am in Canada, we have some things in common. You have used lovely illustrations in the blog post too, which added to the pleasure I got from reading it. And that’s how I write my pieces as well, keep rewriting and rewriting until it amuses me, and hence the reader. All the best, Ian Birch

Hi Ian, thanks a lot for your lovely message. We have so much in common it surprises me. And I have some many good friends from Canada. Your book will soon get published 🙂

Also, appreciate your feedback on the pictures. I take some time to find good images and paintings that would complement the piece. Here are some old paintings that are getting dust on Wikipedia so I thought to share them with all.

Good luck. Stay in touch, Priyanka

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31 Travel Journal Prompts + Creative Travel Journal Ideas

Looking for travel journal prompts and creative travel journal ideas ?

Then you’re in the right place! 

Especially right now as travel is limited and people are searching for ways to travel at home, such as through relaxing staycations , keeping a travel journal can be a great way to relive your favorite trip memories. 

Moreover, it can keep travel alive, allow you to explore the world from home, and help you stay curious. 

Keep reading for a list of fun journal writing prompts related to travel as well as tips for creating something tangible that truly helps you feel inspired. 

Table of Contents

Downloadable Travel Journal PDF

Before we dive into the post, though, I want to offer you the chance to grab my free printable travel journal . 

The trip journal includes 56 prompts in total. 

This inspiring printable and fillable journal is great for exercising your creativity while traveling from home as you remember your favorite trips. 

Grab it, and then feel free to message me on Instagram ( @jessieonajourney ) to let me know which travel journal writing prompts were your favorite and why.

I plan to update the journal in the future — and you’ll get any revisions I make — so your feedback is appreciated!

What Is A Travel Journal?

A travel journal is a place where you can document your trip memories, whether you’re spending 7 days in Cancun , going on a solo USA road trip , off completing the world’s best hiking trails , or something else.

These can be paper or digital, bound or looseleaf, thin or thick. And— when it comes to how to write in a travel journal — it can include just text or a variety of mediums.

The point is, it offers a way to record what happens to you on the road — though you’re welcome to take your entries and give them a fictional twist for fun! 

Choosing Your Travel Journal

I may be a little biased, but if you’re looking for the best travel journal with prompts, I recommend grabbing my free printable journal here . 

Because I made it fillable, you can also use it as a travel journal online!

Additionally, there are loads of inspiring options online if you’d prefer to purchase one. A quick note that the below journal links are affiliate links. 

On Amazon, I love this vegan leather option as well as this mindful travel journal .

Additionally, I’m a huge fan of the travel journals at Modcloth. Click here and search “journals” to view their latest collection.

Creative Travel Journal Ideas

Wondering how to be creative in your journal?

First of all, remember that a journal doesn’t just have to be writing. Use markers, paints, stickers, glitter, and even momentos from your travels to really bring the text to life. 

Of course, don’t forget about travel-themed accents, too, like stamps, tickets, postcards, and maps — you can even cut out sections of a map to showcase your favorite destinations. 

If you’re artistic, you might also consider bullet journaling and other techniques to make your journal more visual. 

In terms of keeping your travel writing fresh, having details to pull from can be a huge help.

When possible, try to experience a place with all five senses so you have more to draw from later. I personally like to take notes right after any experience I think I may write about later. 

Keep in mind, being fully present in this way is also just an overall healthy practice. 

If you’re having trouble remembering details, try to sit in silence and do a visualization. Personally, when I do this exercise I aim to not only see myself in a place, but to put myself back in the place so that I am seeing the scene through my own eyes. 

Feeling writer’s block?

Sometimes all that it takes is a change of scenery to get inspired again. Try going for a walk or trying a new cafe to see if that helps.

If not, put the journal away, give yourself some mental space, and pick it back up tomorrow. 

And if you’re proud of what you’ve written, feel free to post it on social media, share it in an email with friends or, of course, keep it to yourself. 

How To Keep A Travel Journal: Quick Tips 

As an avid journaler myself, these are some of my personal tips for having fun, feeling creative, and staying inspired while writing.

As with travel tips and trip styles, everyone has their own process when it comes to journaling, and something that works for me may not work for you. Feel free to try out this advice, keep what works, and let go of what doesn’t.

Overall, the goal is that you get something beneficial out of these pages.

Tip #1: Journal when you feel most creative.

For instance, you might choose some mindful ways to start your day and have completing daily journal prompts be one of your morning rituals. 

However, if you find you feel more creative in the afternoon or evening, plan your writing for then.

Tip #2: Don’t edit as you write.

Allow your first draft to be all about getting your ideas and thoughts down onto the paper and getting into a creative flow state.

You can always tweak things later.

Tip #3: Remember the power of lists.

This is one of my favorite trip journal ideas!

Writing in lists can be helpful when you’re:

• having trouble getting started
• wondering what things to put in a travel journal
• feeling like your sentences just aren’t flowing together

This way, you can at least get your ideas down and edit them together in a cohesive manner later on.

Tip #4: Write stories.

While this isn’t mandatory, those who are curious how to write a travel journal that’s worth reading should consider writing your thoughts as stories instead of in a stream-of-conscious fashion. 

To write a story, make sure you have a beginning, middle, and end. Actually, if you really want to do it right, you should also consider character, plot, setting, and tension.

For a lesson in storytelling, make sure to check out this video on how to improve your creative storytelling skills for more engaging writing:

Tip #5: Go beyond text.

Wondering what to put in a travel journal?

Realize there is no right or wrong answer to this question!

Keep it text-based, or add paintings, drawings, stickers, momentos from your trip, and more. 

Personally, I’ve started writing out my journal entries and then drawing them to add some additional creativity and really bring the pages to life. 

The Best Travel Journal Apps

Prefer a digital journal option over paper? 

There is an app for that! 

I’ve talked about my favorite travel safety apps before, but here are a few of my favorite apps for keeping a travel journal:

Travel Diaries .  This free app allows you to create both public and private journals. The layouts are customizable, and you can easily add text, photos, and even maps. 

One really neat feature of this app:

You can turn your travel diary into a physical creation to be shipped to your home!

Day One Journal . This is another great travel journal app that makes it simple to record your memories using photos, videos, drawings, and even audio recordings. 

The “On This Day” feature allows you to go back in time to revisit your favorite trip moments, while automatic backups ensure your content never gets lost. 

Unique app feature:

You can handwrite in your journal using your finger or Apple Pencil. 

This travel app has both free and paid premium versions. 

Polarsteps . Dubbed “the personal travel log in your pocket,” Polarsteps is an app that helps you plan your trips as well as record them along the way in a visually-appealing manner.

In fact, this app puts an emphasis on adding experiences to maps and using video to document, so you can really bring your trips back to life later on. 

A feature I love:

You can turn your travel memories into a stunning hardcover book to keep!

Unique Travel Journal Examples

Looking for some travel journal inspiration?

Here are some mood boards with journal examples to help get your creative juices flowing.

These are also helpful if you’re wanting to learn how to make a travel journal.

By the way:

Check out the bottom right photo in the top collage if you’re looking for travel journal layout ideas.

Travel Writing Prompts – Quick Picker 

If you’re like me and often feel indecisive when choosing a prompt, I’ve got a fun little tool that can help:

The above video moves through the list of writing prompts quickly.

To use it as a quick picker, press play, turn your gaze down, and then stop the video at a random moment.

Then, voilà , you’ve got your travel writing prompt chosen for you! 

31 Travel Journal Prompts

Whether you’re physically traveling or at home dreaming of the road, use these travel prompts for your journal.

I love these prompts for when I’m feeling stuck and am searching for things to write in a travel journal:

1. Remember a time when you met people while traveling that felt like family. Describe your time with them in great detail.

2. Write a postcard to a friend from a place you’ve loved visiting.

3. Think about a problem that exists in travel. Now, invent a solution to the problem. Hey, could this journal help you come up with your next million-dollar idea?

4. If you could go on a trip with anyone, dead or alive, who would you go with? Where would you go and what would you do?

5. Share a time you were lost or that you lost something while traveling. 

6. How has travel changed or shaped you? Note: This is one of my favorite self-discovery journal prompts!

7. Start your travel story with the following: “It was a dark and stormy night…”

8. What is the first vacation memory that comes to mind? Come up with your memory in 10 seconds or less!

9. Think back to the most beautiful place you’ve ever been to. Now, describe it using all five senses.

10. Write about a multi-destination trip — from the perspective of your backpack.

11. What is a sticky situation you’ve gotten out of on the road? Hint: Allow this to also be a reminder of your strength!

12. What is a fear you’ve overcome while traveling? How?

13. Take your story from the previous prompt about overcoming a fear while traveling and rewrite it from the perspective of an onlooker.

14. What has been your craziest transportation experience?

15. Write a review of the best hotel you’ve ever stayed in.

16. Write a review of the worst hotel you’ve ever stayed in using humor.

17. Write a letter of gratitude to someone who showed you an act of kindness on the road .

18. Write about the last trip you took — from the perspective of yourself in the year 2600.

19. Write about a hike you loved doing using all five senses.

20. “Travel makes me feel _____.” Why?

21. Write about a trip you took last year from the perspective of your favorite book or movie character.

22. What is the biggest lesson that travel has taught you? Share a story that brings this to life.

23. Pretend that you were given an extra day on a trip you loved. What would that day have looked like?

24. Choose a trip you haven’t written about yet. Now choose a different time period, and write about the trip as if it happened in that time period.

25. In your opinion, what is the biggest misconception about travel?

26. Think back to an interesting conversation you’ve had while traveling and begin your story with that dialogue.

27. Transport yourself to a beautiful beach you’ve visited. Suddenly, a message in a bottle washes up onto the shore. What does it say? How do you react?

28. Here is a road trip journal idea! Write about a road trip you went on, but have someone else from the trip be the narrator. Hint: If you traveled solo, have the car or an onlooker be the narrator.

29. Think of a time you went on a trip that took you out of your comfort zone. Write the end of the story, then the middle, then the beginning.

30. What is one piece of advice you’ve been told by a local while traveling? Have you applied it to your life? Why/why not?

31. If you were to write a travel memoir, what would the first chapter look like?

Bonus: Pair Your Journal Prompts With Self-Care

In my opinion, the best way to enjoy time spent journaling is by pairing it with other self-care activities.

In the video above, I share my top 10 favorite self-care tips and rituals for travelers — though they can also be enjoyed at home!

My recommendation:

Make a day of it! Use the journal prompts and the self-care rituals to create your own DIY retreat .

Want more travel-themed prompts?

Don’t forget to grab my free downloadable Inspired Storyteller Travel Journal — featuring inspiring quotes, writing tips, and 56 fun prompts to help you recount your favorite trip memories and write creatively. 

Do you have any travel journal prompts to add?

What are your favorite creative travel journal ideas.

Related posts:

About jessie festa.

Jessie Festa is an New York-based travel content creator who is passionate about empowering her audience to experience new places and live a life of adventure. She is the founder of the solo female travel blog, Jessie on a Journey, and is editor-in-chief of Epicure & Culture , an online conscious tourism magazine. Along with writing, Jessie is a professional photographer and is the owner of NYC Photo Journeys , which offers New York photo tours, photo shoots, and wedding photography. Her work has appeared in publications like USA Today, CNN, Business Insider, Thrillist, and WestJet Magazine.

Hi, I’m Jessie on a journey!

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These prompts are just the inspiration I needed to capture my thoughts about travel. Not only do they tap into my travel memories, but they feed my creative spirit. Who says you have to actually go anywhere to be well-traveled? 😉

I have trouble keeping a journal, but have always want too – these are such good prompts ill have to give it another try!

Wow, what an incredible article! I’m so grateful to have come across this treasure trove of travel journal prompts and ideas. The suggestions provided here are truly inspiring and have sparked my wanderlust even more. From capturing the sensory details to reflecting on personal growth, these prompts cover every aspect of a fulfilling travel journal. The beautiful descriptions and practical tips have motivated me to start documenting my adventures with a renewed passion. Thank you for sharing such a valuable resource that will undoubtedly enhance my future travel experiences. Keep up the fantastic work!

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38 Travel Writing Prompts for Travel Writers

Whether you’re experiencing writer’s block or stressing about the headline for your next travel writing pitch, we’ve got your back!

You should always check out the publication’s you’re pitching to get a feel for the style of their headlines for your best chance at success (and do some SEO research if it’s your own site), but here are some ideas to get the creative juices flowing…

Itineraries

[3] Days in [City] for [Nature] Lovers

The Perfect Long Weekend for a Romantic Trip to [City]

Itineraries for Kids of Every Age in [City]

How to See the Best of [City] in [2] Days

[7] [Movie] Filming Locations to Visit in [City]

1st Person Narratives

How I [Found Myself Again After Divorce] in [City]

How I [Explored My Roots] in [City]

Exploring my Hometown as a Travel Writer

My Search for [the Perfect Beach] in [City]

The Quest to Save [the Oneida Language] in [City]

Searching for [The Wolves of Nearly Extinct Fruit Dove]

Off the Beaten Path

[7] Restaurants Only Locals Know in [City]

Live Like a Local in [City]

Get Lost: Why I Ditched the Map in [City]

The Longest-Operating [Hotel] in [City]

Packing Lists

[12] Must-Pack Items for a Trip to [City]

The Carry-On Capsule Wardrobe for [City]

Packing for [3] Climates in One Carry-on

[9] Summertime Packing Must-Haves

Where to Find Black History in [City/State]

Where to Find the Best Coffee in [City]

Summer Arts Guide to [City/State]

The 5 Best Things to do in [City] When It’s Snowing

Anniversaries/Debuts

New [Art]-Themed Hotel Opens in [City]

See the [Exhibit Name] at [Museum Name] Before it Closes

[City] Celebrates It’s Centennial with Fun-Packed Weekend

Annual Festivals/Events

Don’t Miss This Year’s [Festival/Event Name] in [City]

How to Attend the [Festival/Event Name] on a Budget

5 Hotels That Put You Near the Action at the [Festival/Event Name]

Holidays/Seasonal

Travel Hacks for Making the Most of Christmas in [City]

Experience [Holiday] in [City]

Celebrate New Year’s in Style in [City]

A Black History Road Trip Across [State]

It’s Leaf-Peeping Season in [State]! Where to Find the Best Colors

Summer Fun in [City]

An Inside Look at [City/Resort/Activity]

Live Like [a Celebrity] at [Resort]

[7] Cities Where Vegans Eat Like Kings

Ready to take your travel writing to the next level? Join our Travel Writers Café for weekly calls-for-submission from editors, trainings, travel writing retreats , networking with other writers and more.

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Five Compelling Ways to Start a Great Travel Story

Wondering how to start your story with a bang professional writer, and travel writing scholarship judge lola akinmade åkerström shares her tips to instantly hook readers from the very first line..

Begin with a stressful situation

Begin with something simple, begin by placing the reader at the heart of the scene, begin with an assertion, begin with an active character.

The best  travel stories often start with strong opening sequences that skillfully pull the reader right into the story. To kick your travel writing skills up a notch, here are five powerful ways you can start your narratives. I am also including examples from my own work to help guide your learning experience.

Example 1 - “The sound of tiny spikes on our wheels crunching through snow was the only sound we heard for miles.” 

In this piece titled “ Racing on Thin Ice ”, I talk about my first time going ice-racing in a beat-up Volvo on a frozen lake in Swedish Lapland.

Example 2 - “ The eerie crackling of breaking ice. The crushing sound of iceberg meeting iceberg, slow-moving giants the size of five-story buildings. The howling of sled dogs piercing through the silent night. Greenland awakens all your senses…”

In this piece, I immediately take the reader on a sensory journey to Ilulissat, Greenland, which is known as the iceberg capital of the world. By transporting the reader to the middle of a stressful situation, it immediately heightens the tension they will feel as they start reading through the story. They become invested in seeing how you overcome or succumb to the situation you find yourself in.

Making a simple declarative sentence is one way of piquing interest. What does the writer know that the reader doesn’t yet? This can encourage the reader to stick with the story to figure out why the writer made such a bold statement. Example 1 – “ I know what’s coming.”

In My Little Green Book , I talk about what the world was like for me when I traveled on my Nigerian passport. That declarative statement was about what I knew I would encounter – yet again – at different foreign passport control stations.

Example 2 – “By the time I realized my mistake, it was too late.”

I wrote about the hidden dangers of selfies while traveling and I start with a personal experience of mine.

Are you an aspiring travel writer?  Learn more about our Travel Writing Scholarships.

Like travel photography, travel writing is also about capturing a sense of place as well through words and descriptions. By transporting the readers through showing and not telling. You can use the present or past tense, as long as you start right in the middle of the action.

Example 1 – “I have never seen an animal with such stamina. Three kilometers down a dusty dirt road and the hyena in front of us is still running. Our jeep slowly follows the scavenger, as quietly as heavy tires crushing pebbles allow. It is barely dawn, and we are heading towards Gurumeti River, the launch site of our hot-air balloon ride.”

Here, I bring the reader right into our jeep, and the middle of the action, as I make my way to an early morning hot-air balloon ride in the Serengeti.

Example 2 – “ My friends and I lay sprawled along the rocky narrow trail, utterly exhausted. With daypacks as pillows and sunhats half-covering our eyes, we had completely succumbed to fatigue. Our legs were failing us, muscles tensed from such unfamiliar, grueling exercise. My chest kept expanding wildly, trying to swallow as much of the thin air as it could. I’d done everything I was told to do, from drinking coca tea to chewing the plant’s leaves to help with the high altitude. But even time-tested remedies wane as one’s psyche takes over. Forging on was impossible at this point. I had mentally collapsed.”

In From Manicures to Machu Picchu , I talk about hiking the  Inca trail and, even though I’d physically prepared, I wasn’t as mentally prepared to tackle it as I’d initially thought. I bring the reader right to the point where I’d mentally given up.

Unlike the previous tip of a simple declarative statement, which is often based on strong past experiences (both negative and positive), this tip feels more like musings. Here, you are asserting observations or sharing a general anecdote about an experience.

Example 1 – “ Whale meat. Blubber. Seal. Eider (sea duck) … The first time I dug into these was in Greenland’s pint-sized capital  Nuuk (population 17,000), and it initially felt like checking off items from an endangered species list.” In a piece that explored Greenlandic Inuit cuisine , my opening assertion isn’t a declarative statement but rather, a casual observation.

Example 2 – “ It’s so easy to take Italy for granted. So easy to stroll across its centuries-old cobblestone piazzas, look past frescoes older than the United States of America, rush by history-laden buildings, intricate details, corners, nooks, and crannies.”

Here, I am making a casual statement about just how beautiful Italy and its historic Renaissance architecture truly is.

Another way of getting right into the story is by introducing key characters at the beginning. They can either be doing something, interacting, or speaking, and this can help frame your narrative.

Example 1 – “ My Portuguese seatmate, a small-framed man, with sunken cheeks and blond highlights streaked through thinning black hair, asks me a question 15 minutes before touchdown. Our only other interaction had been a quick acknowledging nod shared four hours ago while boarding in Frankfurt.”

This opening sequence can shed a lot of light on a character just by describing what they are doing or saying. In this case, my seatmate is about to ask me a question after ignoring me for four hours.

Example 2 – “ You need warmer clothes,” Nils tells me at our very first meeting.”

In Life Lessons from Sweden’s Reindeer Herders , I begin the piece with a key person, Nils Nutti, telling me that the winter gear I was already donning wasn’t enough to survive double-digit temperatures below zero.

So, there you have it. These five opening tips can help you capture the attention of your readers in an engaging and intriguing way. However, sustaining that attention for the rest of your narrative is another story .

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All good ideas. I only have one comment. Example 2 in the stressful situation category only mentions one sense, that of hearing. It might also have included sight (white light?), smell and taste (a comment on the fact that they’re non-existent? ) , feel (air on face?).

I love all the ideas. You are literally a Travel guru :) I specifically like the first one the most ie begin it with a problematic or stressful situation because that immediately caught the attention of the reader. Thank you for all the lovely ideas I am planning to start a travel blog of mine, good thing is I now know I can always look up to your blogs and writing style and learn so much

SEO would dictate that your first words are your chosen keywords. I find this so frustrating! The rule does not lend itself well to imaginative writing. Sometimes I don't want to tell my readers what my post is about right away. I want to keep them intrigued, in suspense, for a little while. SEO is a bully!

Hey, Nicely done and written. Loved your article. Traveling is the thing that expands our knowledge and experience. We get to know about more new things, people, countries, food, culture, and many more things.

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40 Creative Travel Journal Ideas & Writing Prompts to Save Your Best Travel Memories

Keeping a travel journal is even more rewarding when you can make it personal with mementos (and other travel journal ideas I’m sharing below!)

And if you’re just here for the prompts, you can jump to the bottom of the post or download the free ‘Where She Goes’ Travel Journal Prompts list from The Travel Library .

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All About Travel Journaling: What It Is, How To Do It, & Should You Keep A Travel Journal?

Keeping a travel journal is simply about recording memories from a trip. You can even keep track of and plan future trips in a travel journal (which I, as someone in love with lists, do often!)

While we travel, there are so many highs, lows, emotions, funny moments and more that we say we will never forget. But to really never forget them, we have to reflect on them and document them! That’s where keeping a travel journal comes in handy.

The Best Travel Journals

Two travel journals that are both cute and interactive are the Wander Always Journal and the Page A Day Journal . These have prompts and activities within them, so there’s a bit less room for creativity. But, it also makes the process easier and faster with these bonuses.

Travel Journal Apps

There’s also a sweet app called Journi, where you can create photo albums with diary entries and track your trip on a map. Then you can print or share these mini albums! You can group your photos while traveling or after so that they are easy to find. This way won’t be lost in your camera roll!

Creative Travel Journal Ideas

Photo pocket.

The first travel journal idea is to add a photo pocket to the back or front of your journal. This is a super simple way to create a little storage of your photos without having to spend time doing a complete album!

Scrapbook Layout

In your travel journal, you can either leave space on the pages as you write or write and layout photos at the same time to create a commemorative mini travel scrapbook.

Here are some of my favorites for an aesthetic travel journal cover and pages!

Add Your Own Art

Preserving tickets, passes, & other mundane mementos.

Tape these small papers to page corners, stuff them in the photo pocket, or even use them as little bookmarks to organize your journal.

Choose Something to Collect

Travel journal prompts for reflection & memory-keeping.

Travel journal prompts are ways to combat writer’s block and inspire creativity. To make these prompts easier to reference, you can download the free printable of ‘Where She Goes’ Travel Journal Prompts from The Travel Library, where you’ll also have access to resources like my girl’s packing list and Lightroom photo presets.

The Journey

The destination, general memory-keeping, final tips for travel journaling.

Save this guide to Pinterest for later reference!

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• AI, Your Side Hustle Hero to Make Money from Home

Think AI is just for super-smart scientists? Nope! There are tons of ways you can use AI to make some serious cash from home.

Ready to turn your tech-love into a side hustle? Here are some amazing ideas:

The Content Creation Powerhouse

1. ai, your writing buddy.

Imagine having a writing assistant that never gets tired, bored, or has writer’s block! AI tools like Jasper and Rytr help you crank out blog posts, website copy, product descriptions, and even creative stuff like poems or short stories.

You can write paid articles for websites or companies, or use AI to make your own online business shine with tons of fresh content. AI can even help you find ideas and make sure your writing is on point!

Read : 5 ChatGPT Prompts to Drive Business Growth and Innovation

2. Pics in a Flash

Ever wish you could draw anything you imagine? AI image generators like DALL-E and Midjourney let you do just that!

Just type in what you want to see – like “a cat flying a spaceship” or “a watercolor landscape of a hidden waterfall” – and the AI will create it.

You can sell your images on stock photo sites, use them to make your blog posts stand out, or turn them into cool digital art pieces you can sell online.

3. Movie Magician

AI can help you become the next editing superstar! Services can cut and paste video clips, add background music, and even turn your dialogue into subtitles for different languages.

Imagine helping YouTubers make their videos snappier, or editing short videos for businesses– it’s a skill you could even be paid for!

AI Expert Services

1. the global chat champ.

If you know another language (or more!), AI translation tools become your BFFs. Instead of taking forever on translations, AI does the basic work, and you fine-tune it for accuracy and style.

Get gigs translating websites so they reach worldwide markets, translating important documents, or even adding subtitles so movies and videos can be enjoyed by everyone!

2. Meet Your Robot Assistant

Businesses want to offer help 24/7, but that’s impossible for humans! That’s where chatbots come in.

Platforms like Dialogflow let you “train” little AI assistants to answer common questions, take orders, or gather information from potential customers even when everyone’s asleep.

It’s like coding and customer service rolled into one cool job.

3. Data Detective

AI is amazing at spotting patterns way too huge for humans to see alone. You can offer services by using AI to analyze mountains of social media chatter to see what people really think about products or brands.

Investors might pay you to use AI to spot stock market trends. Businesses might want you to use AI to track their rivals and see what sneaky plans they might be hatching!

Affiliate Marketing with a Techy Twist

1. ai reviewer: the ultimate comparison tool.

Imagine being able to gather tons of information on different products in a flash! That’s what AI lets you do. Let’s say you want to review the best robot vacuums.

AI tools can help you scrape customer reviews, compare features across different brands, and even summarize the pros and cons. You write awesome reviews, include your special affiliate links, and whenever someone clicks your link and buys, you earn cash.

It’s like being a super-helpful shopping guide and getting paid for it!

2. Super-Niche Websites: Your Secret Weapon

Sometimes the biggest money isn’t in the broadest topics, but the super-focused ones. Imagine a website not about pets, but all about the cutest outfits for teacup poodles! AI tools help you find these “micro-niches” – topics huge groups of people are obsessed with but might have fewer websites dedicated to them.

Once you’ve picked your niche, AI can help with everything else. It can find keywords that help people find your site, suggest tons of article ideas, and even help you write some of the content.

AI can also help you find products related to your niche to promote with affiliate links, making your awesome website into a money-making machine.

Build Your AI Empire

1. tool time: coding for cash.

If you have some coding skills, you can build super-useful, bite-sized AI tools that people will happily pay for. Think of common problems people have: resizing a ton of images is a pain, long articles can be a drag to read, and catching every single grammar error is tough.

You could build simple tools that offer AI-powered solutions – a quick image resizer, an article summarizer, or an extra-smart grammar checker. Sell these tools on online marketplaces, and suddenly you’re not just using AI, you’re selling it!

2. Plugin Power: Supercharge Popular Programs

Do you know your way around popular software like Photoshop, Excel, or even game design programs? You can become a plugin superstar! Create little add-ons that use AI to do cool new things.

Maybe your plugin adds AI filters to Photoshop, or teaches Excel to predict future patterns based on the data. Find platforms that allow developers to sell plugins for their software, and your creations could make you money while helping others work smarter.

AI Business Sensei: The Ultimate Consultant

If you get really good with AI, and understand how businesses work, you could make serious money as a consultant. Companies often have no idea how to start using AI to their advantage.

You could be the expert that helps them! Teach them how AI can find them new customers, help them analyze huge amounts of data to make better decisions, or even automate some parts of their business to save them time and money.

As AI gets more important, companies will be desperate for consultants like you!

Things to Remember:

Humans still needed: the ai hype is real, but….

AI is a powerful tool, but it’s still just that – a tool. It can mess up, make stuff that’s just plain weird, or even be used for harmful things if we’re not careful. That’s where you come in!

Your job is to double-check AI’s work, make sure it sounds natural and makes sense, add your own creative spark, and be the one to make sure the AI is doing good, not harm.

Find Your Thing: Be the Specialist

Trying to be an expert in everything AI-related is a recipe for a headache. Instead, become known as THE person for something specific.

Are you the best AI product reviewer for tech gadgets? The go-to person for building customer service chatbots? The genius who finds hidden stock market patterns using AI?

Specializing makes it easier for clients to find you and know exactly what you can do for them.

Never Stop Learning: The AI Train Keeps Rolling

AI technology changes at lightning speed! New tools, techniques, and updates are happening all the time. To stay ahead of the game, you’ve got to be curious and willing to learn.

Subscribe to tech newsletters, mess around with new AI programs as they come out, and take online courses. The more you know about cutting-edge AI, the more valuable your skills become!

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The art of travel writing: How to turn your notes into a story

Travel writing is one of the most misunderstood, and romanticised, jobs on the planet. That’s where this three-part Masterclass series comes in. To shine a light into its dimly lit corners, correct a few misconceptions about travel writing (and writers) and hopefully inspire you to write about your travels.

As I see it, travel writing is the lovechild of journalism and creative writing. Of course there are as many ways to write as there are travel writers, but the best stories have a spark that makes you just want to keep reading.

Before we get onto crafting a travel story, remember that great travel writing is great writing, period (as they say in America). It’s clear, every word pulls its weight and it takes you somewhere (and not just to a destination).

The “Big Five” of travel writing

Hanging out on Lord Howe Island.

There are five common kinds of travel story that can help you make sense of your travel notes, each with a built-in structure:

• Lists and “roundups”. These showcase a selection of experiences or destinations sharing a common theme. Quirky, odd-numbered lists such as “21 reasons you should live in Berlin” and “29 Insta-worthy places to go” are increasingly popular, particularly online, but the Top 10 is a classic that never goes out of style.
• City guides and hotel reviews. These stories are usually short and written to a template set by the publication such as “48 hours in…” or a “Three-minute guide to…”.
• Journey stories. If your trip takes you from A to B, whether by road or camel train, on foot or by cargo ship, the journey is your structure. That is, you can write about it roughly from start to finish, condensing some bits and expanding on others to create interest. A word of warning: diary-style stories are generally easy to write, but can be boring to read unless there’s a reason you’re writing in a day-by-day format.
• Stories with sub-heads. Sub-headings help you structure a longer feature, organising your ideas into clusters. Breakout boxes are also handy, a good place for information that might otherwise break the flow of the main story.
• How-to stories: Don’t forget destination-less travel stories such as “How to” and stories based on issues or travel trends.

RELATED: MUCH MORE THAN A DESERT – A TRIP INTO THE SAHARA

Finding story angles

The sixth kind of travel story is a feature, which requires an angle or theme. That is, you have to know what the story is about . Finding good angles comes with practice, but here are a few ways to nose them out:

• Know who you’re writing for . Getting to know the publication and its readers can help you know what they want to know. What interests them? What can you tell them about this destination?
• “How was your trip?” What’s the first thing you told your friends and family members, or posted on Facebook, after your last trip? It could be something that surprised you, something you loved, something that happened to you, even something you know people back home might find interesting. Whatever it is, it could become the backbone of your story or at the very least the hook you start it with.
• Just write. Sometimes the best way to find out what your story is about is to start writing and see where that takes you. Other times it helps to write down all the main ideas you want to include in a kind of mind-map. Different stories often require different strategies.
• Mind-travel back. Read through your notes, look at your photos, take some time to think about the trip and jot down any themes or highlights you might be able to string together into a story.
• Narrow your focus. Don’t try to cover too much in one story. Instead of writing about the San Francisco food scene, for instance, write about the foods unique to San Francisco (like fortune cookies; who knew they were invented in San Francisco’s Chinatown?).

Once upon a time: The hook

Hiking in the Sierra Nevada.

The next most important part of the story is how it starts. This is where you “hook” the reader and make her want to keep reading, so it pays to spend more time crafting that first sentence or two.

Fortunately, travel writing has a few road-tested hooks. The most common way to start a story is to drop the reader in the middle of the action: “I’m standing naked on the rooftop of a Bangkok hotel with no idea how I got here” (or something).

The hook can also introduce the main idea of your story or make an observation about the place or about travel, or life, in general. It can be controversial or confessional. You can even ask a question or start with a quote. Or find some totally new way to start a story that no one has ever tried before.

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From travel diary to travel story

Now for the main course: building a story. To do this, you need a structure, a framework on which to hang the various points and ideas you want to share about the place. Do this successfully and you create a story that’s bigger than the sum of its parts, one that will take your reader on a ride.

Travel diaries are a fantastic raw material, but a travel story requires you to do more than say what you did each day. Otherwise it’s like giving someone some flour, sugar and butter and a couple of eggs and saying, “Here’s a cake”.

You need to group things together and lift out details, make decisions about what to focus on and what to leave out, to make your story glimmer with interest.

A few tips to help you organise your story into a cohesive whole:

• Be selective. You can’t write about everything that happened, everything you saw, every fascinating person you met. You need to be selective, and be brutal: include only the highlights, the most memorable experiences, the best encounters and leave out the rest –or put those into other stories later.
• More ideas, less description . A popular misconception about travel writing is that it has to be full of adjectives and colourful descriptions. It’s really about ideas and insights, well communicated. One of my favourite writing quotes is: “Words are the carriage, not the queen.”
• “ Up-down” writing. Too much detail gets claustrophobic, but too much overview makes a story feel distant. The trick is to alternate between the two, zooming in on details or a moment in time, then zooming out to the big picture, to keep the story moving.
• Avoid clichés. Travel writing has more than its fair share of phases that have worn out their welcome. You know the ones, but two to avoid at all costs are “paradise” and “a land of contrasts”.
• Be yourself. One of the trickiest balancing acts in writing is knowing how much of yourself to put into a story. Too little and the story is soul-less. Too much and it can sound self-indulgent. As in life, aim for the middle way…

RELATED: IT TAKES A VILLAGE. THE CHANGING FACE OF TOURISM IN RURAL VIETNAM

Bring it home

Canoeing in Canada.

A good story ending ensures you don’t leave your readers dangling at the cliff-edge of the second last paragraph. You’ve brought them this far, after all.

A few ways to end your story:

• Refer back to the beginning; this neatly completes the loop or narrative
• Sum up the main points, in a way you haven’t yet used in the story
• Mention something you’ve learned from the trip: a conclusion or insight that came from your experiences
• Share a “moment in time” as you did in the hook, only this time your intention is not to lead the reader into the story but to leave her with a lasting image or feeling.

Remember that all writing is a process and good writing takes practise, discipline and time. Be prepared to write bad drafts; we all do. The secret to good writing is good rewriting, as American essayist EB White once said; that is, knowing what doesn’t work and fixing it, again and again, until it does.

The best travel stories aren’t just about what you, the travel writer, did or what a place looked like. They take us to the heart of that place, to its true essence. They make us feel something and inspire us to travel and to look at the world, and life, differently.

In the words of Pico Iyer, one of my favourite travel writers, “Writing of every kind is a way to wake oneself up and keep as alive as when one has just fallen in love.”

Some of the best stories come from the road. Make your own on a small group adventure with Intrepid – explore our range of trips now . 

All photos by Louise Southerden. 

Feeling inspired?

Louise Southerden

Louise Southerden has been a professional travel writer and author for more than 20 years and is passionate about travel that makes the world a better place. She’s also an author and award-winner; in fact, in 2019 she won the Australian Society of Travel Writers’ Travel Writer of the Year award – for the fifth time. To follow her adventures in simple, sustainable living, see No Impact Girl .

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College Magazine

College Life, Colleges, Career & Campus Advice

Top 10 Inspirational Road Trips for Writers

Whether you are a creative writing major immersing yourself in your craft, an English major with a knack for words or a biology major who somehow became the anomaly that is good at both science and languages, you might wonder what the necessary ingredients for good writing are. Many experts pinpoint the need for a daily discipline of writing or the necessity of reading vastly, but what writer can do without a dash of inspiration from the world around them? Take William Wordsworth whose most famous poems often stemmed from what he took in around him including his famous poem, “Tintern Abbey.”

Therefore, I present to you 10 inspirational places you mustn’t miss out on if you call yourself a writer. 

1. barnes & noble, union square park, manhattan, new york.

What writer doesn’t have a penchant for bookstores, especially a good Barnes & Noble? Well, the largest Barnes & Noble is nothing to scoff off at nestled in Union Square Park in Manhattan. Composed of four floors, it is a writer’s paradise for inspiration . Not only does it host mountains of books to stir the imagination, but it also boasts a café. Writers can take that inspiration and turn it into action right away.

“Now it is the one spot I dream about being for every writing session. The view of the park to my left and the bookstore encompassing me on the right. There is nothing quite like writing a novel in a place where they bloom,” Florida State University senior Olivia Brooks said.

Barnes & Noble in Union Square Park is a must visit for writers both looking for inspiration and looking to put that inspiration on the page. The combination of literature and a place to create it is lovely. So compile that TBR list and grab all the glorious books that will fill up that writer’s tank of imagination . But don’t forget to bring along your laptop, snag a coffee and get that writing flowing. And who knows, maybe one day you’ll see your own novel on those shelves.

2. Broadway

While in New York, a writer simply must visit Broadway to see what writers can produce with script writing and how that work plays out so beautifully in tandem with other artists. Productions rife with the creativity and ingenuity of writers parade the streets of Broadway and the nearby theatres. Musicals such as “Lion King,” “Wicked,” “Hamilton” and more not only show writers just how far they can fly but also inspire their creative instincts through the moving emotions , catchy songs and the thrumming atmosphere that only a live performance can bring. It just may inspire you to be a script writer!

3. Gatlinburg, Tennessee, Smoky Mountains

Moving out of the city, a writer may find inspiration from nature. Booking a cabin is a necessity for enjoying the breathtaking beauty of the forest-lined mountains. A writer can take in the solitude and listen to the chickadees’ songs as they perch on an evergreen or take in the cool breezes of an early morning. But just maybe, a writer’s retreat may be in order, inviting several fellow writers to your cabin to engage in community in their literary pursuits . One of the biggest complaints that writers often face is the lack of community in their craft, so writers would do well to take advantage of a writer’s retreat to bond with fellow classmates and cement bonds that last far beyond college. And what better place to form those relationships than in the Smoky Mountains?

4. Orchard House, Concord, Massachusetts

A writer may gain inspiration by visiting places where others wrote great works before them. Nestled in a town with a rich, literary history lies Orchard House where Louisa May Alcott wrote and set one of the most well-remembered books of all time, Little Women . A book based on Alcott’s own family, a tour at Orchard House allows Little Women to feel even more alive. Seeing a place where a renowned author found her own claim to fame is sure to spark seeds of reminiscence and imagination . And if Louisa May Alcott could find inspiration here, maybe you can too! Plus, if you visit, make sure you take advantage of their student discount.

5. Boston, Massachusetts

One does not need to leave Massachusetts to discover another city ridden with beauty and history. For the writer who craves trips packed with history, this place is a wonder for inspiration. Whether visiting the Paul Revere House or the Old North Church, this city is extraordinary for stirring a writer’s curiosity and passion. But even more than the history, the beauty of abutting the Atlantic is enough to draw the writer. Even the alleyways seem enchanting as you glimpse blue through the passageways of the city, hinting at the sea. After this trip, who would blame you for the historical fiction rolling from your fingertips!

6. Fern Canyon, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, California

If the west coast is more accessible for you, Fern Canyon is a must. Residing in the Redwoods of California, it is a stunning sight. An amazing hiking opportunity, green ferns crawl up the rocks to the left and right of you with a stream running through the canyon. It is glorious and sure to be the seed of any good story .

On the Visit Redwoods site, they even remark, “On a sunny day, thousands of tiny drops of moisture make the canyon walls sparkle.”

And you wouldn’t be the first to gain inspiration from this paradise. The film The Lost World: Jurassic Park amongst others also utilized this scenery in their set list. They were inspired by this captivating canyon. Odds are you would be too. It is a place truly meant to inspire.

7. AWP Conference, Kansas City

If community and connections inspire you as a writer more than anything, you should consider a writer’s conference where you can mingle and make connections . Conferences give you a space to learn from experienced writers, get feedback and attend workshops. The largest conference in the US for writers is the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference. While it is held in a different city every year, in 2024, it will be held in Kansas City, Missouri. A must experience for a writer, plus with significant student discounts, it is truly wise to attend while a student. Don’t forget to snag some barbecue while in Kansas City, the city of barbecue.

8. Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

For writers, there is something to be said about being seated closer to the heavens that brings inspiration. For that reason, being seated on a peak in Colorado is an excellent choice. The views from the top are phenomenal with the blue skies seeming vast and expansive. Plus, peace as you gaze out on the world below really helps you contemplate being a piece of a world of humanity. The beauty and vantage point bring ideal conditions for a writer lacking inspiration.

“I fell in love with Colorado’s nature and hiking and found myself pulling inspiration from different parts of my time there. The unique people, quirky shops and history of the land left me with a new outlook on how I could make my writing reflect just how diverse the human experience can be, ” Houston Christian University senior Sarah Ginnette Molina said.

Colorado is an excellent place to get a fresh perspective. What a wonderous place for any writer, but especially a poet. For certainly the viewpoint from Colorado is enough to reverse any writer’s block and compel a slew of new poems. Remember to take a small notebook with you that you can carry from the cities beneath to the peak up above. And don’t forget a jacket since a snowy wonderland can often be found cradled in the mountains, despite warm conditions below!

9. Lido Beach, Sarasota, Florida   

While some writers thrive in the mountains, others are restored and enlivened by the hotter weather and nearness to the beach. Lido Beach in Florida is a great spot for this. You can play in the sand, swim in the water and people watch among the diverse people who are lounging on the shore. You might even hear a snippet of different languages floating across the waters. So take in the vignettes of individuals playing and maybe use a few people you encounter as character inspiration for stories. Plus, while you’re at it, develop a great tan and maybe catch up on a good book for further inspiration!

10. Lake Jackson, Texas

Entering more of the south, a writer mustn’t neglect Texas. Especially because a special spot lies in the southeast of Texas that stirs the creative juices: Lake Jackson. The town is bestowed with tropical humid air, scented with flowers. It is a place thriving with a feeling of community and boasting a charming downtown. A lovely place for writers to discover.

It is a charming, hidden gem that writers might escape to in order to get that deep, irresistible urge to write that stems out of a small place of profound wonder and beauty . A place sprouting out of a need to provide housing for workers of a chemical plant, undeniable loveliness now sprouts as the dominant feeling. There are some spots that not many know about, but many more should. This is one of those places.

“It is something a person must experience himself— to be the one absorbing the natural beauty thriving everywhere; to be the one standing on the sands, just a few miles away, gazing into the salty horizon; to be the one ordering donuts from the shop everyone knows is the best around; to be the one getting to breath in the air and wonder just how God could have crammed this much heaven into one little spot on earth,” Thomas Edison State University senior Callie Sullivan said. “I am sure that whoever decides to come pause in their everyday life will also find it endearing. And maybe-just maybe-they, too, hear the stories the trees have been whispering. Maybe they, too, will be inspired to write…”

It is a spot that could almost make a writer out of anyone . For there are just some spots that fill you with the desire to do something with the wonder all around you. The atmosphere tugs as your heart. The beauty calls you to action. It demands a response.

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About Madison Clark

Madison is a 2022 creative writing graduate from Oklahoma Baptist University. She enjoys a cup of black tea, a good snow and an old musical.

Travel Journal Prompts: 120 Ideas to Help You Document Your Next Trip

By: Author Valerie Forgeard

Posted on Published: September 21, 2022  - Last updated: December 26, 2023

Categories Travel , Inspiration , Writing

It’s always a good idea to keep a travel journal. It’s a way to document your trip and ensure you don’t forget it later. But it’s also a good way to remember what you saw, who you met, and how you felt.

Take a travel journal with you when you travel, and use these travel journal prompts to guide your writing:

Travel Reflections and Experiences

Preparing for travel.

• How often do you go away?
• What do you want to accomplish while you’re away?
• When was the last time you took a trip, where did you go, and why did you choose that destination?
• Did it meet your expectations? If not, how could it have been better? If so, what made the trip an enjoyable travel experience for you?
• Did this trip help bring about other changes in your life (new job, new friends, etc.)? In what way?
• What would you like to do or see on your trip?
• How do you prepare for a trip?
• How do you prefer to spend your time on the plane or train?
• What’s your favorite way to pass the time on a bus or car ride?

During the Journey

• What’s the best thing about traveling?
• What’s the most exciting thing about traveling to another country?
• What do you like to do when you travel?
• What would make this trip perfect for you?
• Do you’ve any fears about going on this trip?
• How do you feel about taking risks when traveling?
• What are your expectations for the trip?
• What would be the worst thing that could happen to you on this trip?
• How long do you plan to stay in each place you visit?
• Are there any rules or guidelines to ensure your trip is safe and fun?
• What was the first word that came to your mind when you exited the plane?

Cultural Observations and Encounters

• What interesting facts did you find out about your destination?
• How are the people different from those in your home country?
• Describe a typical day of your life here.
• Describe the weather.
• Describe the first person you met on your trip.
• Describe the people in this country (or city) compared to your home country (or country). In what ways are they different/the same? Do they seem open or closed to foreign travelers?
• What do you think of the food culture here – are there dishes that are particularly interesting (or less so)? Or the other way around – do they all seem pretty much the same to you?
• What’s something you don’t understand about people from other cultures?
• Describe a place you’ve visited that wasn’t what you expected
• Describe something you saw in nature that made you stop and wonder
• Describe a place that makes your heart happy when you think of it
• Describe the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen in person (not online)
• Describe a time when you felt safe.
• Describe a time when you were scared on a trip.

Personal Feelings and Experiences

• Do you miss home at all? If so, how do you feel about home (and why)?
• What’s one place you’d recommend visiting?
• What did you learn from a stranger on your trip?
• Did anything go wrong on your trip? If so, how did it affect your travel experience, and how did you feel about it?
• What are your favorite travel destinations?
• Who travels with you? Is it a partner, family member, or friend?
• What do you discover about your travel companion(s) as you travel together?
• Do you prefer to travel alone or with friends/family? And why?
• Do you prefer public transportation or renting a car when traveling between cities? And why?
• What makes the place you traveled to similar or different from home?
• What’s the strangest thing that happened to you on your trip?
• How would you describe this place to a friend or family member?
• What songs did you hear along the way remind you of this trip?
• When did you step out of your comfort zone on a trip?
• What are the top three things that made this trip memorable for you?
• In what ways did this trip change your life?
• What was the biggest challenge during the trip, and how did you overcome it?
• What was the most surprising thing about the trip?
• What did you find out about yourself during the trip?
• What do you wish you’d done differently on this trip?
• What would it be and why if you could return to one specific trip moment?
• What was your favorite day on this trip, and why?
• Who or what inspired you the most on this trip? Why do they inspire you so much? (This could be a person or an object).
• What activities, sights, sounds, and smells do you experience when you travel?
• Do you feel relaxed, tense, or somewhere in between?
• What would the first chapter look like if you wrote a travel memoir?
• Describe a place you’ve visited that wasn’t what you expected.
• Describe something you saw in nature that made you stop and wonder.
• Describe a place that makes your heart happy when you think of it.
• Describe the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen in person (not online).

You can use any of the travel journal prompts for your travel journal. You can choose one journal prompt or more travel writing prompts for your travel journal. The best travel journal prompts are the ones you choose for yourself.

Why You Should Keep a Travel Journal

A travel journal is a great way to record what you saw and did, your experiences, and the people you met. It’s also an excellent way to remind yourself of the times in your life that are important to you.

Writing down events in your journal helps you remember them later. When you write something down, it solidifies in your travel memory so that later, when someone asks you about your road trip or you want to relive some of those memories, you’ve all those moments fresh in your mind. And if you write down how you felt during those experiences, you can better frame things for future trips!

Keeping a journal during your trip abroad can also be helpful when you need to explain things to friends or family back home. You may not always have time to write an email explaining what happened while they were away! But if they read your journal after returning from their travels, they can understand all the details immediately.

Creative Travel Journal Ideas

Your travel journal can be anything you want it to be.

One of the best things about a travel journal is that it can be as creative as you want. For example, if you’re going on a trip and want to add something special to your journal entry , you can get some bus tickets and receipts.

You can also include business cards from hotels or restaurants. Anything that helps it feel like a natural part of your trip is excellent!

That’s not all – you can also use postcards or other souvenirs to decorate your page. If you’re feeling particularly creative, you can also draw a picture of what you saw or scribble between the lines of your letters. Don’t overdo it, though – you don’t want anything to distract you from being able to read what you’ve written! If there’s one thing we’ve learned from our travels (and from observing the journals of others), it’s that when traveling, it’s best to keep things simple!

Kids Travel Journal

When you travel with your children, they’ll probably be grateful if you get them to keep their travel diary early on. Even if they can’t write yet, they can use some of the travel journal writing prompts above and draw creative travel journal ideas instead of writing.

This way, they can record their favorite trip memories, and you’ll be amazed at how many little details they can remember compared to adults. Children are very efficient at turning a simple prompt into an excellent journal idea.

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21 Creative Travel Journal Ideas & Prompts for Your Next Trip

February 29, 2024

Journaling is a great way to make the most of any trip. Here are some of our favourite creative travel journal ideas.

Travel Journal Ideas

Photos and videos aren’t the only ways to capture your travels. A travel diary can help you enjoy the trip you’re on and help you relive all those memories once you’re home. After all, how often do you look back through your phone’s photos?

I’ll be honest. Completing a travel bullet journal is something I often dream about more than I manage to complete, particularly when travelling with young children. But over the years, the travel journals I have managed to complete have brought me great joy and prompted my ageing brain to remember sights, smells and tastes more vividly than ever.

So, don’t get hung up on making it pretty and perfect. Just concentrate on enjoying your trip and use these travel journal ideas to deepen that enjoyment. Don’t let them turn into one more burden or chore to complete!

What is a Travel Journal?

A travel journal is whatever you want it to be, baby! Or in more standard talk:

A travel journal is a personal, written account that documents an individual’s experiences, observations, and emotions during their journeys. It serves as a dedicated space for recording details such as daily activities, cultural encounters, and reflections on the places visited.

Typically, travel journals include a mix of narratives, anecdotes, and practical information. Whether handwritten or digital, a travel journal is a valuable tool for preserving travel memories, fostering self-reflection, and creating a tangible record of one’s explorations and discoveries around the world.

Although, don’t think you need to write reams. We’ve plenty of creative travel journal ideas if writing doesn’t happen to be your thing. We’re all about the easy way to fill those travel journal pages.

Where to Find the Perfect Travel Journal

The romantic in me says that the best travel journal is found on the road. But the practical side of me knows that it’s easier if you pick one up before you go.

In my experience, you want a book that will stay flat when you fold it open and ideally have a tie or piece of elastic to hold it together again, to stop things falling out.

I also like travel journals with a space for a pen as that makes it more likely that you will actually have a pen with you when the time comes to write. In my experience, the best way to make sure that something happens is to remove as many obstacles as possible.

Personally, I prefer blank pages but I know that many prefer grids or lines. And I’ve never got to grips with a digital journal but if they work for you, then great!

A hard cover can protect from the bumps and bruises of life on the road but, then again, a soft cover is lighter to carry around.

Here are some lovely travel journal examples you can find on Amazon:

• Vegan Leather Beechmore Travel Journal
• Adventure Travel Journal with Prompts
• Moleskine Hardcover Travel Journal

Note: if you buy through any of the links on this page, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Why Bother Keeping a Travel Journal in the First Place?

Firstly, because it’s fun! However, keeping a travel journal also has a number of other benefits.

Such as…

Memory Enhancement:

• According to a study published in the journal Memory, the act of writing helps to consolidate and enhance memory. By documenting your experiences, in your own travel journal, you’re more likely to remember details of your journey. And that fits with what I learned when I was studying Neuroscience at Cambridge.

Stress Reduction:

• A study by the American Psychological Association suggests that expressive writing can help reduce stress and promote overall well-being. Journaling about your travel experiences allows you to process emotions and relive positive moments.

Increased Cultural Awareness:

• Research conducted by the Cultural Intelligence Center indicates that keeping a travel journal can contribute to the development of cultural intelligence. Writing about local customs, traditions, and interactions with residents fosters a deeper understanding of different cultures.

Reflection and Personal Growth:

• Psychologist James W. Pennebaker’s research on expressive writing reveals that reflecting on experiences through writing can lead to personal growth and self-discovery. A travel journal provides a space for introspection and learning.

Enhanced Creativity:

• Again, the busy American Psychological Association suggests that engaging in creative activities, such as writing, can boost cognitive function and creativity. Documenting your travels in a journal encourages creative expression.

Capturing Details:

• Studies on eyewitness testimony indicate that people tend to forget details over time. Keeping a travel journal helps in preserving the specifics of your experiences, ensuring a more accurate recollection later on. Not that we hope you’ll end up in court. More, that we hope you’ll remember the highlights of your trip.

Improved Communication Skills:

• Journaling encourages the practice of effective communication. Documenting your thoughts and experiences helps refine your ability to articulate ideas and stories.

Digital Detox and Mindfulness:

• A study by the Pew Research Center found that 85% of adults in the United States use the internet. Keeping a physical travel journal offers a break from screens, fostering mindfulness and a deeper connection with your surroundings. Little details can bring about a big sense of calm.

Goal Setting and Achievement:

• Again, the good old American Psychological Association notes that setting and achieving small goals, such as completing a journal entry each day, can boost motivation and self-esteem. A travel journal provides a structured way to set and accomplish writing goals.

Legacy and Sharing:

• According to a study by Ancestry.com, 77% of adults believe it’s important to preserve their family history. A travel journal can serve as a legacy, allowing future generations to gain insights into your experiences and perspectives.

So, how about that? Not just a pretty page after all.

21 Gorgeous and Creative Travel Journal Ideas

OK, let’s get to the fun part! Creative travel journal ideas!

Collect Ticket Stubs

Ticket stubs may not seem so glamorous at the time but they’re one of those travel journal ideas that’s quick and easy to do, with great rewards later on. If you find yourself too busy on the trip, just shove (ahem, collect) them as you go along in one envelope. Once you’re home, you can then arrange them in a scrapbook or bullet journal along with notes and photos.

Carry Some Lightweight Supplies

It’s easier to keep up with your travel diary if you have the right tools with you. No-one needs to carry about an entire artist’s briefcase but a few pens, pencils and a roll or two of washi tape can help make it manageable.

Not sure what washi tape is? It’s like sellotape only comes with a pattern and is much more forgiving when unrolling and using it. You can pick up some washi tape here . It’s a great option to make sure things don’t always fall out along the way.

Brush up on Some Writing Tips

A travel diary shouldn’t feel like homework. But it will be more rewarding to write and definitely more pleasurable to read if you brush up on some writing techniques before you go.

We run a range of writing courses to get you started, including:

• Freelance Writing Masterclass
• Write Better, Write Now
• The Writing Boost

So, whether it’s a quick weekend away or a road trip journal that spans several months, you’ll feel more confident about what goes into your own travel log.

Pick up Some Postcards

This is one of my favourite creative travel journal ideas.

Now, we’re not talking about standard tourist postcards here (although, obviously, that’s fine if that’s what you want to do. It’s your travel diary, right?!)

We’re talking about flyers and postcards for art galleries, live music, exhibitions and special events. Business cards from cafes. Anything you saw and enjoyed and which gave you a taste of the place.

Collect the Cash

Spend more than a few days in a destination and the local money soon becomes a background event that you stop noticing. But when you’re back home, it’s a connection to the place.

So, if you can spare some of the lower denomination notes, it’s a great idea to tape a few into your travel journal.

Keep the Maps

You know those maps that are folded back and forth, torn, soggy and scribbled over? Keep them! It’s amazing how quickly you forget the detail of a place but a scribbled note and the white fluff along a folded map seam brings it back right away. New places, new maps.

Make the Food to Go

At the risk of sounding like a hoarder, look out for sweet wrapper, chopstick wrappers, beer labels and more that really fit the local food you had in a destination.

I always look out for local flavours in particular, so this method of scrapbooking (sounds better than hoarding) works well for me.

Flower Press Stress

Sometimes, pressing flowers or leaves works wonders. And, sometimes, it just makes a mess. This is one of those travel journal ideas that you need to do just right: ideally with a big patch of sellophane rather than just a strip of washi tape.

Be careful, though. Some countries, most notably New Zealand and Australia, are very strict about flowers and seeds crossing their borders. Probably best to avoid this if you plan on heading there.

Sketch Skills

Small sketches and beautiful drawings can really bring a travel diary to life. If you can draw, that is.

If not, never fear. While we can’t all be the best at everything, we can all master a few basic techniques.

It’s a good idea to just relax and have a go.

Learn the Lingo

As everyone knows, with a few local phrases, you’ll get a better reception wherever you go. Yet, with age, it’s alarming how quickly that knowledge fades.

Write down those phrases while they’re fresh! It’s a fun way to nurture those brain cells.

Stick in Those Lists

Have you used a packing list? A leaving the house checklist? A bucket list? To-do list? If so, stick them in! They’ll be surprisingly interesting to look at come the end of your trip. Don’t let your trip planning go to waste!

And if you don’t? Check out our collection of packing lists and pre-travel checklists here .

Use Some Travel Journal Writing Prompts

When inspiration fails, fall back on these. Don’t worry if you feel cheesy. No-one has to read this but you.

Travel Journal Prompts Before You Go

• Outline your expectations and goals for the upcoming journey. What do you hope to achieve or experience during this trip?
• Share your pre-trip excitement and any pre-travel rituals or preparations you engage in before embarking on a new adventure.
• Detail the research you’ve conducted about the destination, including its culture, history, and notable attractions. What aspects are you most eager to explore?
• Reflect on any pre-trip concerns or uncertainties. How do you plan to address them or prepare for potential challenges?
• Describe the anticipation you feel about trying the local cuisine. Are there specific dishes you’re looking forward to sampling?
• Outline your itinerary and the key activities you have planned for each day. What landmarks or attractions are a must-see for you?
• Consider the local customs and etiquette of the destination. How do you plan to respect and engage with the local culture?
• Share your thoughts on the packing process. What essentials are you making sure to bring, and what strategies are you using to pack efficiently?
• Reflect on any language barriers you might encounter. Have you learned a few basic phrases or expressions in the local language to enhance your experience?
• Write about your overall mindset and emotions as you approach the trip. What are your hopes, fears, and anticipations for the upcoming adventure?

Travel Journal Prompts For on the Road

1. Describe your initial impressions upon arriving at your destination. 2. What local cuisine or dish did you sample, and how would you rate your experience? 3. Reflect on a memorable encounter with a local resident or fellow traveller. 4. Share a moment when you stepped out of your comfort zone during your journey. 5. Detail the sights, sounds, and scents of a particular place that left a lasting impression on you. 6. Write about a unique cultural tradition or festival you experienced during your travels. 7. Describe a hidden gem or off-the-beaten-track location you discovered. 8. Share a humorous or unexpected anecdote from your trip. 9. Reflect on a challenging situation you encountered and how you overcame it. 10. Write about a place that surpassed your expectations and why. 11. Document a day spent exploring nature, whether it’s a hike, day at the beach, or wildlife encounter. 12. Discuss the impact of local art, music, or architecture on your overall experience. 13. Capture the essence of a local market or shopping district you visited. 14. Reflect on how the local history and heritage influenced your perception of the destination. 15. Write about a moment of tranquillity or relaxation during your journey. 16. Share your thoughts on the transportation methods you used and any interesting experiences. 17. Describe a sunrise or sunset that left you in awe. 18. Document a day focused on immersive cultural experiences, such as workshops or language classes. 19. Write about a place you’d love to revisit and explore further in the future. 20. Reflect on the personal growth or insights gained from your travel experiences.

Travel Journal Prompts for Once You Get Back

• Reflect on the overall experience of your journey. Did it meet, exceed, or differ from your initial expectations?
• Capture the emotions you feel upon returning home. What aspects of your routine are you excited to resume, and what do you miss from your travels?
• Share your favourite moments from the trip and how they contributed to your overall satisfaction.
• Write about any unexpected discoveries or surprises that occurred during your travels.
• Reflect on the impact of the journey on your perspective and personal growth. In what ways do you feel changed or enriched?
• Describe the local cuisine that left a lasting impression on you. Are there any dishes you wish you could recreate at home?
• Outline any challenges you faced during the trip and how you successfully navigated them.
• Consider how the cultural experiences have influenced your worldview. What lessons or insights will you carry forward from your travels?
• Share your thoughts on the souvenirs or mementoes you brought back. Do they hold special meaning or memories?
• Write about your plans for future travels. Are there destinations you’re now eager to explore based on this recent experience?

We hope you’ve enjoyed this collection of creative ways to catalogue different places and, more importantly, what they meant to you.

For all we’ve talked about the benefits of travel journaling, the important thing is that it’s fun. Don’t let your travel journal become a chore. Like all goals and tools, it’s just a way to help you fall even more in love with life.

Journal entries should make you think or make you smile. And that’s enough.

Why not bookmark this article on creative travel journal ideas on Pinterest for later?

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Your 29-word “road trip” stories

Australian Writers' Centre Team

• May 5, 2021

Flash fiction is big right now, but what about micro-fiction? This tiny format almost borders on poetry at times and seeks to make the biggest impact in the fewest words – something all too familiar to the ‘Twitter’ generation. Last week, we asked our community to create for us a story with no more than 29 words – on the theme of “ROAD TRIP”. And in just one day we received almost a thousand entries! 

We have read them all and discovered that most seem to fit into three loose categories – happy or nostalgic road trips, hated or uncomfortable road trips, and well, downright DARK tales where people are either killed or about to be! So, on that cheery note, here is a selection of our favourites – enjoy!

Packed into the car like they themselves were luggage, the Fosters bickered. The broken air conditioner gave Mary a headache, and the permanently silent radio drove the rest mad. 

– Artie Kuyper

I never saw it coming. A road trip is normally brilliant, but not this one. If I’d have seen the stone I wouldn’t have fallen flat on my face!

– Mikey Mike

Dusty feet, dusty swag, dusty heart. Left or Right. Return to those left behind or keep right on going. Damn the road, damn the dust, damn my heart. Right.

– Simon Lewis

Pink Cadillac Sitting in the back My cousin and I laughing Not moving There is no engine in this car But we are driving fast To a place unknown

The car was a prison. I had waited months for this; now I wanted out. How can something be romantic when you don’t have a choice?

‘Smile,’ he said.

Freedom. Feeling the warmth of the sun. Fresh breeze tickling my cheeks. I’m alive. I don’t want to go back. I’ve lost everyone. I have to keep moving.

– Brigitta Hegyi

The endless, winding road. The smell of her hair on the wind. The warmth of her hand. ‘No better place,' I smile, tilting the urn out the drivers window.

– Fionna Cosgrove

I studied the Mexican map. “We’re in Progreso.” Mom looked confused. “Near the ocean?” I shook my head. “The Gulf.” Her mouth fell open. “We took a wrong turn.”

– Leah Mueller

Zip through the fresh air. Trash by the road? Dinner. Yum. Sun on my wings. Eyes close. Air rushes. Uh oh. Wind sucking. Truck coming. Windshield too close! Splat.

We heard a clunk and saw a part of the engine roll down the steep hill in Scotland. “Do we need that?” he asked. “I’m not sure,” she replied.

– Catherine Sheridan

“33” “40” Slap “Mommmmeeeeeee! Hayden hit me!!!” “Those were cows. You lose.” “They WEREN’T” “They’re Cows.” “Horses” “Stop it” “Mom, she…” “Girls, QUIET!” “But She…” “Cows!” “ENOUGH!!!!!”

Car chewing up long roads scenery a constant blur. My mind wandering the lanes of memory. For one last kiss before your soul travels roads beyond this life.

– Melly Farek

Palms are sweaty on the wheel. It’s pitch black on the road. I pull over and lock the doors. A scared voice asks “why have we stopped?” I smile.

– Madison Paull

I squint, attempting to decipher the lines on the map. The Grim Reaper, one hand on the wheel, looks over. “Don’t worry”, he smiles, “I know the way home.”

– Belinda Saville

Up at dawn, car packed, cat kenneled, coffee in a sippy cup, tires checked, GPS on, open road beckons, but hark! Covid restrictions. Back to bed.

– Susan DeSandoli

“Are we nearly there yet?” Just twenty minutes into the journey shortly followed by, “I really need a wee.” “Oh Dad, cross your legs and concentrate on your driving!”

– Michael Wright

“Can you find a red car?” “How many cows are there?” “You all have enough biscuits.” “Don’t kick my seat!” “Don’t pinch your brother!” We need a bigger car.

– Meg Warrington

Three kids crammed in the backseat fighting and parents half arguing in the front. What I would give for that time back? I miss the closeness of it all.

– Nadya Sotnychuk

“Help! Let me out!” the mumbled voice came from the boot. “Be there soon!” Annie yelled out in her sweetest voice from behind the wheel. Best road trip ever.

– Natalie Coleiro

Years saving, months planning, routes debated, hotels booked. Car serviced, clothes packed, windows checked, doors locked – we’re off! Rain falling, wipers wiping, hours driving, seconds dozing… …blue lights flashing.

– James Dunford

It was just perfect, finally, she was on a trip down the coast with the man she loved. The wind in her hair, her gun in his ribs. Perfect.

– Melissa Brown

My ankle dangles out the window playfully. I catch him looking and smile. He smiles back. I'll do it soon. He should know better than to pick up hitchhikers.

– Tarik Bacchus

blurry green blurry green house cow cow cow house blurry green horse cow horse horse cow windmill house screech kangaroo carcass blurry green

– Bruna Gomes

A list of forgotten items, remembered during the road trip. My drink bottle. Kids iPads. Baby’s dummy. Dog’s lead. Husband’s shoes. Enough booze to last the holiday.

–Dayle Fogarty

Your hands. One on the steering wheel, the other caressing my thigh. A white circle of skin on your wedding finger. In the rearview, I watch the past disappear.

– Selina Hill

Freshly licensed, she was excited about the drive. She never saw the Semi in her blindspot. She made it, just barely. Now she's got a new set of wheels.

– Rajko Bacchus

Dad yells “ROAD TRIP!” We grab our bags and hop in the car. We are so happy, yes we are! A year of adventure … I wonder how far?

– Hamo (11 years old)

The Irish backroads had enough of rain and recessions. Feeling neglected, unloved and wet, they tripped off, leaving pot-holed, grassy byways behind. I hope they're somewhere nice and dry.

– Mary Sheehan

Did I turn the iron off? Did I turn the iron off? Did I turn the iron off? Did I turn the iron off? Turn the car around.

– Kristy Schirmer

We all like to travel. We love to see all the places in Australia.

– Leo (8 years old)

Yellow car spotting game. Road trip Melbourne to Sydney. First yellow car just south of Gundagai. Road trip Sydney to Orange. Thirteen yellow cars. No kidding.

– Diane Wilson

Stacking, packing, listing, tracking. You need to be prepared when you're backpacking. Time to go, let's get cracking. Stop the car! there is something lacking. You forgot the kids!

– Chris Hall

Regret. Such a gnawing feeling of your insides, particularly when it could've been avoided. Why did I do it? No one needs to watch Road Trip a second time.

– Samuel Foster

The road to Jindabyne was long and winding, interrupted only by a thump from the boot. “What’s that,” asked Jerome. “A cliche,” answered Denise.

– Lynette Minucos

Gumtrees coalesce against the lip of the highway, our car hosting stained glass windows of green and sky. My brother sees only hours of bore in their bearings, slouching.

“We are going on a road trip.” I said. I couldn't understand what she was trying to say but, I guess her muffled screams meant she was excited too.

– Asian_Panda

Reaching the lookout, she got out of the car and walked to the seashore, inhaling deeply. The fresh, tangy sea breeze and the waves' crashing sounds replenishing her soul.

611 kilometres. Comfortable silence. Grey tarmac. Red dust. The odd tree, standing lonely. It was the return journey she was dreading. Alone herself. After she’d said goodbye.

– Louise McNee

“What’s a bastard, Mum?” Six-year old Lily’s voice filled the void after the engine stalled yet again. “Your father!” Mum replied bitterly, “for taking us on this road trip.”

– Helen Manias

A mist rose like ghosts in a cemetery, obscuring my view. Missing the sign, my car left the road and floated momentarily. The weightlessness before the plunge was unbearable.

– Rita Riebel Mitchell

Mum nudged me awake. It was early, before dawn. I shivered in excitement. Outside, the car already packed. Dad liked to be on the road before the morning traffic.

– Tiffany Plummer

I had never seen this man in my life. I didn't even know who he was. But yet, he had promised me candy.

The radio weather report painted a picture of blue skies and bright sunshine with amazing surf. Through the windscreen the kilometres of cars not moving was not as scenic.

The “quick drink down the pub” somehow became beers in Ballarat, then bourbons in Bordertown. John never remembered reaching Adelaide, but when he awoke he was unemployed and single.

– Marc Howard

We give up. What do you spy, with your little eye, beginning with “L”?' ‘Lectric pylon.' ‘That's it! I'm turning this car around right now!'

– Andrew R. Krey

About the journey not the destination. Every day a new location Bellyaches, spills, service stations Rattles bumps, aggravation Tyres now needing inflation Not about the journey, where's our destination?

Life's road trip endures many bumps, hurdles, bends and dead-ends. Friends come and go, careers fumble, partnerships waver and finances struggle. Life's road trip is what you make it.

– Alison Miller

Mum, why is there poo in shampoo? Mum, do birds wee when they tweet? Mum, why does father sound like fart? Family roads trips. Measured in questions. Not hours.

– Janine Robertson

Dawn, sky shimmering, road winding up between marching sugarcane. At the summit, in fog and shivery air, we watch the slow-sliding green river, searching. Finally, platypus splashing delight

– Danielle Baldock

The engine is rumbling beneath us as the radio begins to crackle. I reach my hand out for the dial. He does too. Our fingers touch and we smile.

– Ellen Milankovic

Breathless, I dismount at the summit, a panorama of beauty in front of me – marred only by one thought: Look what we took from the people of this land. 

– Bernice Shepherd

It's the art of going nowhere and everywhere, with someone or no one, in the here, then, when? It's a hair in wind, music tongue, time numb, road ode.

– Tracie Lark

No number of paper plate wheels stopped the cardboard folding inward. The road trip ended before it had begun, triggering a tremendous tantrum that rumbled throughout the house.

– Rachel Cartledge

‘That bank teller was quite lovely.’ Clarence gripped the steering wheel. ‘We’re going to make it. Just me, you, and the open road.’ A police siren blared, closing in.

– E. S. Sibbald

Pass me those chips. How good’s this song? We’re almost there. Maybe two hours. No, you can’t see electricity. Look, cows! Did we just miss the bloody exit?

– Gem Hathaway

‘There’s one.’ ‘There’s two!’ ‘Oh, and another one!’ ‘Mum you have to say spotto!’ ‘Fine! Spotto then.’ Spotto the dead kangaroo was definitely easier than spotto the yellow car.

– Amy Stapleton

Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? NO!

– Sue Brown

The hearse on the freeway seems out of place. A road trip taken after the journey has already ended.

– E.G. Nesbitt

Here? Nah, too close to civilization. Another eighty clicks. Here? Nope. Dry riverbed. Could get washed up come the rains. Sunset. Here? Perfect. Open boot. Shovel. Body bag Dig.

– Graham Yates

“We’re lost!” “Don’t be ridiculous. You’ve got the GPS.” “It’s telling me Perth in WA, not Hobart.” “Well, which way’s North? We’ll hit water eventually.”

– Wendy Barrett

The mountains and ocean warmly greeted us today, like they really knew us. We drove around those beautiful bends and this time we weren’t just visiting, we were home.

– Doll Quinn

Windows down, zephyrs throw our curls and slice our laughter. We can fall apart later: hurl spite; compare sins borne of chaos. For now, salty air, innocence and invincibility.

– Hayley Young

I drive the long way round, through my childhood and teenage years. Visiting hours: 2-4. I arrive on time. Maybe today will be a day you remember my name.

– Fiona McKay

Looking through the window at the landmarks of yet another town, I began to wonder if I’d ever find a home like the one I found in his arms.

Mother was atypically chatty today. I tried, unsuccessfully, to ignore her 100-mile kvetch about my job, my life. Strange. She hardly ever spoke to me when she was alive.

– Michael Seese

A road is not always the shortest distance between two points. Crows fly while we twist and turn. Answers are never straight forward. Crows missed whatever point there was.

– Thomas M Brooks

I write a letter every day and post it home. People I’ve met on the road, landscapes traversed. So that when I return, the story of a lifetime awaits.

– Bianca Millroy

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Write A Road Trip To Help You Plot A Book

Are you struggling to write a book? Do you have an idea that seems to go nowhere? In this post, we suggest you write a road trip to help you plot a book .

Are you struggling to write a book? Do you need help?

I have a great suggestion for you. Write about a road trip.

Writing a book is a lot like going on a journey.

Like a road trip, a novel has a destination. It also has a cast of characters, a timeline, obstacles, and potential for conflict.

Travel changes us. Often, a road trip teaches us something about ourselves. In a good novel, your character learns something or changes along the way.

You can use this formula to help you plot a book.

Why A Road Trip?

When you travel, you are forced to think about a destination. You need to plan, which is good for plotting. You usually have other people in the car with you. You may like these people or you may hate them, but their proximity allows lots of opportunity for the conflict you need in a plot.

How To Write A Road Trip

• Choose a character ( protagonist ).
• Choose a destination.
• Give the character a reason for getting there. ( inciting moment )
• Tell us why they are motivated to get there. ( story goal )
• Put the antagonist in the car with your hero. Or get them to follow your protagonist. (Their story goal should be to prevent the protagonist from reaching the destination.)
• Allow the conflict to develop from this arrangement.
• Choose a friend and/or a love interest to accompany your main character.
• Write down three BIG things ( 3 Surprises ) that will potentially prevent this character from getting to the destination. Examples: Accident, Car breaks down, Falling asleep at the wheel, Getting lost, Motel is full. (The antagonist should be the cause of the big surprises.)
• Add smaller hindrances. Examples: Run out of fuel, Argument with love interest, Sidetracked along the way, Thinking about the past, Credit card is declined.
• Create a world in the car ( setting ). Other settings along the way will be secondary.
• Draw a map of the journey.
• Create a timeline .
• Break the journey up into scenes  and  sequels .
• Reach the destination. Or not. ( ending )
• Write the story.

Why not try it? You may be surprised at how much you learn about plotting.

You can use this formula for any genre. If you are writing fantasy , change the car into a carriage or a dragon or people travelling on foot. If you are writing a science fiction novel, change the car into a space ship. If you are writing crime, let the detective chase the criminal or put them in the same car.

When you write a road trip to help you plot a book , you confine your opposition characters in a space and give them a destination. Ironically, going on a journey prevents you from straying off the plotting track.

Try to stick to the formula if you’re struggling with plotting in general.

Once you understand the basics of how a plot works, you can tweak it and change it. You can even create your own plotting formula.

Top Tip : Find out more about our  workbooks  and  online courses  in our  shop .

© Amanda Patterson

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Write a Good Travel Essay. Please.

Kathleen Boardman

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Editor’s Note: We know that many of you are looking for help writing travel experience essays for school or simply writing about a trip for your friends or family. To inspire you and help you write your next trip essay—whether it’s an essay about a trip with family or simply a way to remember your best trip ever (so far)—we enlisted the help of Professor Kathleen Boardman, whose decades of teaching have helped many college students learn the fine art of autobiography and life writing. Here’s advice on how to turn a simple “my best trip” essay into a story that will inspire others to explore the world.

Welcome home! Now that you’re back from your trip, you’d like to share it with others in a travel essay. You’re a good writer and a good editor of your work, but you’ve never tried travel writing before. As your potential reader, I have some advice and some requests for you as you write your travel experience essay.

Trip Essays: What to Avoid

Please don’t tell me everything about your trip. I don’t want to know your travel schedule or the names of all the castles or restaurants you visited. I don’t care about the plane trip that got you there (unless, of course, that trip is the story).

I have a friend who, when I return from a trip, never asks me, “How was your trip?” She knows that I would give her a long, rambling answer: “… and then … and then … and then.” So instead, she says, “Tell me about one thing that really stood out for you.” That’s what I’d like you to do in this travel essay you’re writing.

The Power of Compelling Scenes

One or two “snapshots” are enough—but make them great. Many good writers jump right into the middle of their account with a vivid written “snapshot” of an important scene. Then, having aroused their readers’ interest or curiosity, they fill in the story or background. I think this technique works great for travel writing; at least, I would rather enjoy a vivid snapshot than read through a day-to-day summary of somebody’s travel journal.

Write About a Trip Using Vivid Descriptions

Take your time. Tell a story. So what if you saw things that were “incredible,” did things that were “amazing,” observed actions that you thought “weird”? These words don’t mean anything to me unless you show me, in a story or a vivid description, the experience that made you want to use those adjectives.

I’d like to see the place, the people, or the journey through your eyes, not someone else’s. Please don’t rewrite someone else’s account of visiting the place. Please don’t try to imitate a travel guide or travelogue or someone’s blog or Facebook entry. You are not writing a real travel essay unless you are describing, as clearly and honestly as possible, yourself in the place you visited. What did you see, hear, taste, say? Don’t worry if your “take” on your experience doesn’t match what everyone else says about it. (I’ve already read what THEY have to say.)

The Importance of Self-Editing Your Trip Essay

Don’t give me your first draft to read. Instead, set it aside and then reread it. Reread it again. Where might I need more explanation? What parts of your account are likely to confuse me? (After all, I wasn’t there.) Where might you be wasting my time by repeating or rambling on about something you’ve already told me?

Make me feel, make me laugh, help me learn something. But don’t overdo it: Please don’t preach to me about broadening my horizons or understanding other cultures. Instead, let me in on your feelings, your change of heart and mind, even your fear and uncertainty, as you confronted something you’d never experienced before. If you can, surprise me with something I didn’t know or couldn’t have suspected.

You Can Do It: Turning Your Trip into a Great Travel Experience Essay

I hope you will take yourself seriously as a traveler and as a writer. Through what—and how—you write about just a small portion of your travel experience, show me that you are an interesting, thoughtful, observant person. I will come back to you, begging for more of your travel essays.

Take Notes in a Cute Journal

Keep track of all the crucial details- and even the ones you might forget, in a durable and refillable journal.

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