In this course you'll learn how to develop the skills of a travel writer. You'll learn how to translate what is seen, heard, tasted, touched, smelled and felt (intuitively and physically) into publishable articles and books. You'll understand the writing styles and methods needed to sell material in today's competitive market (including the how-to's of technical aspects of lead paragraphs, descriptive passages and the uses of interviews, quotes and facts). By the end of the course, you'll have the ability to write for the travel market. So pack your sense adventure, organize your determination and put your keyboard in a comfortable position. If you have a desire to write and a yen to travel, you're a perfect candidate to become a travel writer. Let's get going. Topics include popular styles and types of travel writing that are the friendliest to new writers. Other topics of the workshop include how to write query letters, how to produce articles, essays and books, trends in types of articles and books, grammar and writing skills refreshers, and marketing information.

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Syllabus:

All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when the lesson is released, but you must complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

A new section of each course starts on the second or third Wednesday of each month. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

Week One

Wednesday - Lesson 01

Would you like your writing to make a destination, restaurant, or festival jump off the page? Do you want your readers to long to find their passports, grab suitcases, and have the post office hold their mail? Today, you'll start finding out how. We'll cover what you need to know to get started, how to create different types of travel writing, and how to begin thinking and writing like a travel writer, even if you're only traveling around your own hometown.

Friday - Lesson 02

Do you keep notes when you visit incredible locations? Do you read about a place before you visit it? Do you gather tidbits and retell the stories of your trips, keeping family, friends, and co-workers on the edges of their chairs? If so, you're thinking like a travel writer. In this lesson, we'll focus on keeping a travel journal and cover writing techniques you'll use when capturing your travels. We'll talk about travel close to home, too. Then, I'll provide some questions to spark your travel-writer's brain and share some tips about organizing your materials.

Week Two

Wednesday - Lesson 03

The genres (categories or types) of articles and essays about travel are limited only by your own imagination. Do you want to know how to write destination pieces, food articles, round-up pieces, advice, or personal experience pieces? That's what you'll learn in this jam-packed lesson. With this information, you'll be well on your way to a career (full or part-time, mind you) as a travel writer.

Friday - Lesson 04

Are you addicted to travel books, collections of travel essays, or books such as Under the Tuscan Sun? Travel books sell so well that you'll find many bookstores devoted specifically to them. In large stores like Borders and Barnes and Noble, you'll find sections and shelves piled high with travel books. Most of them have specific sections for travel essay books, too. Today, you'll learn what it takes to write travel books that publishers snap up and that hungry armchair travelers snatch off the shelves.

Week Three

Wednesday - Lesson 05

Travel writers should never leave home without packing their sense of adventure, sense of humor, and determination to capture their travels in image-filled writing (prose, not poetry). How do they prepare? That's the focus of this lesson. Today, we'll talk about organizing materials before you go on any trip. You'll learn how to plan the trip, how to contact publications before going, and how to dig beneath the surface to find the story within the story. By learning these techniques, you'll discover tricks to capture a reader's interest.

Friday - Lesson 06

Do you ask lots of questions? Have you ever thought that simply asking can provide some of the best travel tips you could discover? This is what we'll talk about today. Yes—how to ask questions. In other words, interview to get information that will put your writing talents above other writers. Wait! There's more. We'll also talk about the need to find the perfect title for your work, how to interview to get the story beneath the surface, and how to connect with the people in the locations you're writing about.

Week Four

Wednesday - Lesson 07

By the time you've reached Lesson 7, you'll understand that there are article and book ideas everywhere. You'll see possibilities just driving around your town or city. While these ideas sound simple, some new writers pass over them thinking they're, well, too simple to be effective. In this lesson, I'll share professional tools you can use to tap into creative juices that will generate oodles of ideas. This will help you figure out exactly what readers want. It may also help you discover what editors want before other writers come to the same conclusions.

Friday - Lesson 08

Today, we'll talk about the work of being a travel writer. You'll learn about taxes and deductions, how to organize your home office, and how to select the tools that you'll need to be a writer. You probably have many of the tools already. Later, we'll go over ways to avoid, or get over, that writing bugaboo known as writer's block. Yes, there is a cure, even if you've been down in the dumps with it for weeks, months, or years.

Week Five

Wednesday - Lesson 09

Most writers have a difficult time editing their work. A few are too easy on themselves. Others are ruthless. These same writers begin to fear creative urges and what they commit to paper. This is why we haven't talked about editing before. One of my goals with this course is to get you to enjoy the feel of words before you go back to pick out the keepers. In addition to covering self-editing, today you'll get some valuable insights and information about writing query letters, the concepts of writing on spec or on assignment, manuscript production formats, and dialogue.

Friday - Lesson 10

Today, we'll talk about research and ways you can find information about a location, culture, destination, and other travel writing areas. We'll focus on how to connect with travel sources. We'll also discuss the issue of freebies, because, depending on the publication you're writing for, you may actually find yourself in a pickle if you accept something that only seems to be free.

Week Six

Wednesday - Lesson 11

Don't you just love the travel photos in magazines? I had to learn some photo tricks in order to sell the photos to accompany my writing. In this lesson, we'll cover basic camera savvy and helpful picture-taking techniques along with information on stock photos. Smart travel writers take photos to sell along with articles, making their writing more desirable to editors and publishers. Our talk today won't instantly turn you into an expert professional photographer, but it will help you take better photos.

Friday - Lesson 12

As writers, we are idea machines. And we generally have more of them circling around in our heads than there is time to jot them in our writer's journal, turn out queries, or write articles. When selecting topics to write about, you'll have to do some research to develop them into full-blown articles. Once this research is done, don't stop with just one article on a topic. Recycle your research and you'll be able to sell and resell the material, which is exactly what professional travel writers do. In this, our final lesson, we'll talk about writing spin-offs, finding creative sources for travel writing, and combining travel writing with other genres.

This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be Eva Shaw.

Eva Shaw, Ph.D. is a full-time working writer of 1000 articles, essays and short stories. She’s the ghost or author of 70 books including: Ghostwriting for Fun & Profit, Writeriffic: Creativity Training for Writers, Write Your Book in 20 Minutes (a DVD), Shovel It: Nature’s Health Plan, What to Do When a Loved One Dies, The Successful Writer’s Guide to Publishing Magazine Articles, Writing the Nonfiction Book, Insider’s Guide to San Diego, The Sun Never Sets, and more. Eva's work has been featured in USA Today, San Diego Union Tribune, Shape, Woman’s World, Country Living, Costco Connection, Publisher’s Weekly, Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and others. She has won several awards, including the Book of the Year Award from the American Journal of Nursing, the Benjamin Franklin Award, and the Woman of Merit Award. An expert on time management for writers, Eva stays on top of market trends to sell her own work and to help emerging writers focus on quality writing and publication.

Requirements:

Internet access, e-mail, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins (two free and simple downloads you obtain at http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and Get Adobe Reader).

Student Reviews:

"Because of this course, I finally have a framework for how to put the experiences together--before it was just a series of ideas and not as concrete as the assignment's "book review" portrays. It seems this exercise gives us permission to turn vague dreams into reality. I will probably need some assistance to make this happen, but I'm on my way. Thanks for your encouragement."

"Eva: I received my first "yes" from Focus on the Family magazine back in March! My first paying article (in the Oct. issue)! It is the most amazing feeling when someone wants to pay your for your thoughts. I can't wait for my first paying travel article!"

"Eva is highly skilled and extremely encouraging. Her course offered practical advice and realistic goals. She nudged us to higher levels of creativity. The course was exactly what I needed at this time. She's a wonderful instructor!"

"Eva is very interactive. The course was a lot of fun."

"Eva Shaw brought fun and learning together with intense interest and inspiration. I look forward to feeling her NUDGES as my explorations in writing continue. She weaves into the writer's heart with layers of enthusiasm."

"Eva Shaw is a great instructor. She teaches and motivates the students from and experienced based position, instilling confidence, encouraging the student to take positive steps toward their goals."

"Eva Shaw is an excellent teacher who has mastered on line teaching."

"Eva Shaw is a super instructor. Her lessons are easy to follow and full of practical advice. Her comments on assignments were always encouraging. The assignments were very creative and fun, leading little by little to writing an article."

"Eva Shaw's instruction gets right to the point. Her ideas on creative thinking are very helpful. The discussion area was also helpful and 'talking' to others in the class in that way made the course more interesting."

"Eva was great. Her suggestions were very helpful. I really enjoyed this class."

"Eva, you were brilliant and inspirational! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us. I really enjoyed the supplementary section of each lesson, I never realized just how many resources were at my fingertips! You've definately pointed me in the right direction. Many Thanks!"

"Great practical advice abouthow to get off your chair and get going as a travel writer. Eva's encouragement plus helpful comments by fellow classmates truly inspire one to take the plunge. Thank you!"

"Hi…I have taken other writing courses taught by Eva, and thanks to her great instruction, I now have 14 continuing education courses published for nurses."

"I am glad I signed up for this course. I now have the basic tools to get started in something I always wanted to do. Thank you Eva!"

"I am really excited. My query letter regarding camp hosting jobs has been accepted. I am even going to get paid. Thanks to all for your encouragement. It pays to actually put the letter in the mail. See you in the next class."

"I believe I have a good handle on the sequence of steps I need to take to research, write, and submit my work. Before this course, this all seemed very overwhelming. I am thinking in even broader terms, ie. what other markets, or interests do I have that I can write about and submit to various magazines. A worthwhile course, I looked forward to each new class chapter!!!"

"I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed this class. I feel inspired and motivated to pursue and area that I would never have thought of before. Isn't that the purpose of learning - to expand our horizons. This has certainly done that."

"I enjoyed the course and many of the discussions. I enjoyed reading other writer's work."

"If coming away inspired to write the book that's been dormant in me for so many years is the measure of an instructor, Eva is the best!!!"

"I had taken an online course from [another school] before and received no answer to my questions. This class was so different. Eva checked our assignments and answered questions daily. With other feedback from classmates, this felt like a real classroom."

"I have already referred a friend to your class, as she loves to write as well. I have taken several online classes, and by far I have enjoyed yours the most. You treat us all with respect, and the comments are so helpful. I learned so much from you, and you have ignited a spark in me to write, you taught me that I can do this with more practice, and for that I am grateful, thank you. I will see you in the Writeriffic class."

"I have made reservations to go and visit my friend in Portugal in September and will do a lot of homework between now and then. Thank you for you insights."

"I have taken 5 of your courses and 1 on writing for children. I have decided travel writing is the way I want to go. I enjoy visiting different places and finding out interesting facts about the places - both historical and legend. Thanks for everything."

"I just want to say how thankful I am that I have taken this course! I finally believe I have some foundational knowledge to do travel writing, and I most surely have a thirst for learning even more. Eva, this class has been so enjoyable; I love how the lessons are written, and the assignments have been challenging, yet rewarding! I am looking into your other classes for sure!"

"I still have to go back and catch up on my assignments, but I wanted to take a moment and thank you Eva. You have given me the confidence and courage to move from the dreams of being a writer, to the reality of being a writer. It's like being in line for your first ride on a rollercoaster . . . scary, but you know if you can push past the fear the ride will be fantastic. I have signed up for your Writeriffic course that begins next week and I am truly looking forward to continue on this journey with you as a guide. I hope that others from this course will be joining us in the next, as you have all been such a help and inspiration to me."

"I've SO enjoyed taking this class. Your instruction is marvelous and organized well. I have learned a great deal and am very excited about writing in the future. Now that my summer travels are over and I can complete working through the assignments and do the query letters, etc., I'll be well on the way."

"I was pleased with the class supplemental and optional material…What I was most pleased with was YOU. I have been in writing classes before and I didn't write for nearly twelve years because of the experience from my last class which was a nationally known course. Your positive attitude and support has been such a joy and I am looking forward to taking other classes with you. I feel now that I can really write if I work at it. I thank you."

"Just wanted to say thank you for all your help and encouragement. I have gotten so much out of this course. I found all the lessons to be full of helpful advice, and have downloaded them for future reference. The assignments were good practise, and forced me into the habit of making time to write regularly (Thanks to the bubble method I now have more ideas than I know what to do with!) Also your feedback and encouragement has helped motivate me to continue down this new career path."

"Many thanks for the course Eva...I have already started writing and have found your tips on the mechanics of writing very helpful."

"Thanks again, this course has been wonderful. I put this course on my resume when applying for the travel job and he seemed impressed...and I got the job!"

"Thanks for a great class. I am editing a piece on the San Juan Islands before trying to sell it."

"Thanks for creating an enjoyable, comfortable, and inspiring learning environment. I was able to improve my travel writing skills with a number of new ideas for my book about Yosemite and the San Francisco Bay Area. This certainly fits very well into my idea of lifelong learning. I'll look forward to the "Write Your Life Story" course."

"Thanks so much for offering this class. It is a great format. Reading other student's writing, getting their feedback, and learning through their examples and questions added depth and richness to the experience. One of the things I appreciated most was you sharing your query letters. You provided such good examples and it was so helpful to see such professional work. It made a difficult task much more manageable. Another great help is all of the resources that were provided in the supplemental material – it's a goldmine. Most of all, I've appreciated the positive support and feedback you've given to all of us. You created a safe place for us to "test the water." Your encouragement meant a great deal to me personally. I have gained so much more from this class than I ever anticipated. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in travel writing and hope to take more of your classes in the future."

"Thanks so much for this class. I learned a lot, especially how to break down the tasks necessary to get published. The information about how to write queries and locate potential publishers was very valuable. I sent off a bunch of queries over the weekend so I'll keep my fingers crossed. I'm hoping to take another class in the fall. Thanks again."

"Thank you Eva. This was my first online course and I really enjoyed it."

"Thank you for taking your time to teach us all of this, it's been a great time taking this class. I had no idea it could be so fun to go to school again!"

"Thank you so very much for lighting my creative wick! I need to carve out more time to write daily and then to be DARING with those query letters. I am looking forward to taking another class from you."

"Thank you so very much. This has been a very good class: 1) each lesson provided the perfect amount of information in a format that really stuck in my mind; 2) instantly usable information; 3) lessons built on previous material perfectly and by the end I really felt I had gained a thorough view of the process, procedures, world of travel writing and best of all, now have the confidence to get started!"

"Thank you very much for your time. I plan on using what I've learned here to get some of my adventures published. Take care!"

"The discussion areas were great! I loved the feedback from both the instructor and the other students. That helped me learn as much as the lessons themselves!"

"These online courses with Eva Shaw have paid for themselves every time I have taken one."

"This is a great class. It's very practical, informative and inspiring. It's good for novice writer's and those with more experience. This was my first on-line class. I 'm sure I'll take more from this instructor."

"This is really an excellent class. It far exceeded my expectations. Eva Shaw is a superb instructor. She has done a lot to inspire and motivate me. Thank you."

"This was my first on-line course, and it was a great experience. By participating in the discussion area, you really do feel as if you are an active part of class. Eva Shaw was a fabulous instructor - when she responds to you, you feel that she has taken the time to make each response individual to the student. I gained valuable insight into travel writing, and writing in general. In addition, the supplemental materials she gave with each lesson, I am sure, will further my knowledge base. I look forward to taking another of Eva’s classes in the future to continue my writing education!"

"This was my first on-line course ever, so I really didn't know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised with the ease of attending class this way. I also appreciated the thought that was put into the materials that I can save and use over and over again as needed. I thought the time and the pace were fine and just right for someone who has a busy schedule. The quizzes were to the point and short and the final exam was not too difficult if you kept up with the course material, assignments and the quizzes. Thank you Eva and crew for time well spent. I have a lot of food for thought, now I just need to do it. Thanks again."

"While interested in travel writing, I had never truly considered submitting an article for publication. After this course, I believe that I could actually be successful in producing publishable work. Dr. Shaw has encouraged me and whetted my ambition to become a more productive and creative writer."

"You are so inspiring. I have learned so much. Probably the most helpful assignment was the one at the coffeehouse, where we had to cut the description down to about 200 words. That took work and careful editing. It also taught me what I could do. The bubble method also fascinates me. I was introduced to it in writeriffic, and it continues to be an amazingly useful tool. Good for brainstorming in general, I have found, not just for writing. The query letter lesson was also very helpful, it is a skill I need to practice. Thank you for all of your kind words and "nudges". I don't think I could have a better instructor. I will take the course on magazine writing next."

"You've nudged me and I finished an article. I submitted it to a small pilot magazine, and they're planning on publishing it."