Writing tools
8 Travel-Related Writing Prompts
Take a creative journey!
New ideas for fiction sometimes don’t come easy, and you can find yourself staring at a blank screen.
As I’ve said elsewhere, a writing prompt is a great way of adding an element of randomness to the creative process. It can help you to spark new ideas, and get a new perspective on your work in progress. Or make you think of something totally new!
This is why I have begun to share a list of writing prompts every week.
This week’s list of prompts focuses on travel. And perhaps the feature image is already getting some ideas buzzing around in your head…? It shows the Glenfinnan Viaduct in Scotland — best known for its use in the Harry Potter movies.
I’ve been across it myself on a six-hour train ride from Glasgow to the north-west coast — recommended to me by my wife as a form of writing retreat! Which brings me to the first prompt…
Idea 1
You are on a train journey in a compartment of a carriage. You quickly realize that at least one of the other travellers is very strange. Describe their appearance and actions.
Idea 2
Write a conversation or flash fiction story where two people plan an elaborate journey, but then ultimately decide not to go on it. Why do they do all this planning? You can decide about their motives.
Idea 3
Write a memoir-style reflection on the worst trip you have ever taken. Feel free to ‘fictionalise’ the narrator and add in a few imagined elements.
Idea 4
A character is down on their luck, and has no money for a bus/plane ticket, but they need to get home. Explain why, and write what they do to get out of this jam.
Idea 5
Describe the transport in a far-off place, as if you were writing as a travel journalist. This could be a comical piece, but try to be warm rather than overly critical.
Idea 6
An inventor has come up with something that is going to help solve one of the world’s great transportation problems. What is it? Write the scene where they go public in a presentation to the world’s press. But perhaps a jealous underling or rival tries to spoil the day — or something goes very badly wrong with a demonstration.
Idea 7
Write a panicked conversation on an airplane that’s about to crash, or onboard a spacecraft that has lost contact with mission control (I’ve repeated this idea from a previous list — it fit the theme!).
Idea 8
Go back into history, and write about a character who tries to set up the world’s first travel agency. How to people react when they try to explain that people might travel to other places just for fun?
I hope you found these helpful! And perhaps you can also find a way of doing a train-based writing retreat. Just don’t forget your noise-cancelling headphones.
Get my articles by email here.
