TRAVEL WRITING PROMPT
A Call for a Local Travel Writing
Share stories about your own backyard as a #hometowntourist
These are indeed difficult times for travel bloggers and the travel community. People who continue to travel during the pandemic are often judged and looked down on, even though there are not so many of us in the skies anymore.
There’s a vacuum where bloggers who travel across continents used to be.
One year into the pandemic, you’ve probably had already written about all your previous trips. You’ve described each experience from every angle possible, and are likely fresh out of new material to write about.
What is there to write about now that we are all landlocked for the foreseeable future? That is indeed a tricky question.
As one of the editors of the World Traveler’s Blog, I have witnessed a trend in the submitted pieces we have received. Writers have begun to move away from experience-based personal travel tales to listicles that only mention places where the writer wants to go. The writer and their experiences are nowhere to be found in the stories.
While I will never say planning the next trip isn’t an exciting thing to do, it simply doesn’t read as nicely as those lovely travel reports that offer firsthand narratives of adventure and discovery.
I realize that I am one of the lucky ones: I can still travel and write about travel articles every other day. One might say I am one of those who dare to travel. Or one who can still afford it. Or even want to travel. (Some people don’t want to travel during a pandemic, which is totally fine.)
I am not here to judge anyone’s decision on whether to travel or how to handle a travel blog in a global pandemic.
But, I am here to motivate you to join our next project, a writing prompt. While you currently may not be able to travel to exotic places, you surely can explore your own backyard.
Let’s call these explorations micro-adventures
Micro-adventures are short, quick excursions you take over a day or weekend. Start looking at your hometown or current location through a travel writer’s lens. These are the stories I want to hear from you. Go as far as your restrictions and your bravery allow you to go. Walk through your hometown and experience the place the way a tourist would do it.
It doesn’t matter if you write about a walk in the park where you listen to birds and watch squirrels run across the forest floor or a tour on a sightseeing bus in a city near you. Go out and explore as much as your comfort zones allow, and write about it.
I invite you all to join this writing prompt: “Be a tourist in your home town.”
Use the hashtag #hometowntourist at the end of your story so our editors can easily identify your entry.
I’ll put a two-week deadline on it so that we can keep track of how many people participate. I challenge each of you to take a look at your town with fresh eyes. Let’s see how many of you can tell a travel story about the people and places you see every day.
The editing team will discuss after the two-week period and pick the best piece of writing that is produced from the writing prompt. The winner will get one of our services offered in the Patreon package. Premium publishing for the next article submitted. Instead of waiting for 3-5 days for it to get published, your story will go online in fewer than 24 hours.
I can’t wait to read about your adventures!
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