Advice about travel memoir type writing

[newnamenellie]

For a while now, I've been thinking about writing some sort of experience/travel/memoir type of thing. This would focus on my time spent in Paris and also in East Germany in the mid nineties. I was a modern languages student and went abroad on placement for a year to these two locations. It was my first time abroad so quite the baptism of fire and I have lots of great memories from that time.

I love travel writing and have recently read Abroad in Japan by Chris Broad. This is where the seed was sewn as he too writes about his early days as a TEFL teacher in Japan.

I have zero writing creative experience and wondered if anyone on here could point me on the right direction?

I am in no way qualified to answer this, but as you hadn't had any replies, I will. 😂I think that Chris Broad got a contract because he had a large fan base anyway, of people interested in Japan, and was therefore able to show there were lots of potential readers.

If I were you, I'd just start writing, with the aim of entertaining your family, and to get writing experience. I'd start making notes of all the funny incidents etc that you remember, in a Word document. Then arrange them as a sort of numbered outline, and start writing up bits that grab your fancy. As more memories occur to you, add that to the skeleton. See how far you get, whether you enjoy writing, and whether it's entertaining.

There was an unanswered post a little while ago on this topic
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/creative_writing/5032217-does-anyone-know-what-the-market-is-like-for-travel-memoir

The most important thing to learn how to write is to write!! Write often and consistently, its a craft. I don't write in the same genre but never thought I could be capable (dyslexic and hated English at school) but now getting very good responses from my teachers who are published authors themselves.

I would recommend a writing group or workshop. Make sure it is one where your work is read and critiqued by others and the focus is the practical art of writing rather then then lecturing about theory.

I think you’re leaping much too far ahead here, OP. If you’ve never written anything, and you’re thinking of this as just for your own amusement, just start writing. If you want to explore publication, that’s a different matter. Read lots of travel memoirs. What is the USP of yours? What would make strangers want to read it?

You need to read more than one travelogue. But start by getting your various memories down, and you can then assemble them into a timeline. But read, read, read in your chosen genre,