WHEN 8 weeks, August 6 - October 1 Chats Tuesdays, 9-10 pm ET WHERE Online. Click here for more information. LEVEL Intro PRICE $499 ($475 for ) more info

Course Details

Travel the world and get paid for it? Yes, it's true! Whether a long weekend in Mendocino or a long walk across Nepal, there's a market out there for your stories, and a proven path that successful travel writers follow. In this course, you'll learn how to grow your freelance writing career by mastering one of its most adaptable, engaging genres: travel. Travel writing is a conduit to many parallel genres, from food to art, politics to technology, and the skills and experience you'll gain covering travel can be applied to all your writings. In class one, we'll fully assess the travel writing market (magazines and newspapers, guidebooks and more) and set individual writing agendas for the duration of class. In following weeks we'll reveal the inner workings of the field, showing how travel editors think and what they want from their writers. We'll diagram the many different styles of travel writing, study the critical role of pitch letters, analyze key components to strong travel writing and show how and why you can use travel writing as a springboard to other genres.

Throughout class we'll extensively workshop your pitches and articles, and you'll graduate with a series of solid pieces ready for you to sell. So pack your bags for the glamorous life, whether that's poolside mai tais at boutique hotels or chicken-packed buses bouncing along Andean backroads.

In this class, you will learn:

• How to break into travel writing
• The rules of reporting, interviewing, finding sources, and local color
• What kinds of stories make good journalism
• What travel editors look for, and how to get them to notice you
• Where to find story ideas in any place, and how to pitch them successfully
• What to do when you get to your destination
• How to turn one trip into dozens of sellable story ideas
• Where to pitch travel articles besides travel publications

By the end of class, you will have:
Two salable pieces and pitch letters to match (and the know-how to send them out!)

Admission Requirements
Please submit a letter of interest (including a brief work history).

• Instructors post lectures once a week. You can read them online, print them, or download them at your convenience.
• Students post completed assignments for feedback and discussion by the instructor and class.
• Weekly chats allow your class to get together via instant message. Transcripts are available for review if you can't attend.
• Technical support is available from mediabistro staff.

Related Courses

Instructor Bio

David Abel's Courses

A reporter and editor with The Boston Globe and an adjunct professor of journalism at Northeastern University and Emerson College, David Abel has traveled throughout the States, Latin America, and Europe, covering everything from homelessness in New England, to dissident movements in Cuba, to the war in Kosovo. David's travel experiences include being deported from Cuba, camping beneath a glacier in Iceland, running a pepper farm in the Dominican Republic, sleeping in a cave in Turkey, and exploring Japan in eight hours. David's career started in Mexico City, where he wrote for a local daily covering the nation's social movements and economic woes. He also spent a year in San Francisco, writing poetry, fiction, and articles for the Haight Ashbury Free Press. Born and raised in New York, David studied political science and philosophy at the University of Michigan and has a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University. To see more about David, click on www.davidabel.blogspot.com.

Testimonials

David Abel was absolutely great! I would love to attend another class with him about other types of writing. Very pleased with selection of course instructor. -Caitlyn Willox

David Abel is a delight to listen to and take a class from. Not only is he a fine journalist himself, but even more unusual, he is also an adept teacher who clearly enjoys the process of sharing his experience and hard-earned wisdom with students and aspiring journalists. With his friendly, casual and non-intimidating manner he even managed to persuade all of us to pen some paragraphs on the fly. Bravo! David knows what's good for us. -- Alessandra Bianchi

"David was absolutely great! I would love to attend another class with him about other types of writing. I was very pleased with the selection of our course instructor." -- Caitlyn Willox

"David shared invaluable advice and proven best practices with the cheerful enthusiasm of someone who loves his job. I left David's travel writing session feeling inspired and ready to pitch my first piece with confidence." -- Joe Fox