WHEN 8 weeks, July 17 - September 4 Chats Thursdays, 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.

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Instructor Bio

Christine Egan's Courses

Christine Egan is a freelance travel editor and writer. As a former travel editor on staff at Town & Country, Time Out New York, and Travel Holiday, she explored several continents on other people's dimes. She has also written travel articles for The New York Times, Glamour, Paper, Breathe, Pursuits, Indagare.com and USA Today Weekend. Christine holds a Master's Degree from Central School of Speech and Drama in London, which has nothing to do with travel journalism except that she kicked around Europe a lot during grad school.

Testimonials

Christine Egan was great. She was very knowledgeable about the travel writing industry and gave insight from both a writer's and editor's perspective. She was both critical and encouraging, helping me to improve upon my ideas and writing. The guest speakers that came to talk to us were also very knowledgeable of the industry and gave us great pointers on how to go about pursuing travel writing in the field. -- Rozanne Gelbinovich