Question: I’m now an editor of an online travel magazine, and some submissions are not stories – they’re journal entries. How do you motivate a writer to change their journal entry into an actual story with a story arc?

Jan Morris said that every travel piece should start with a question. Please comment.

Oops, I meant "quest".

So fascinating (and reassuring!) that you're still learning how to get the story.

Definitely Larry. Liberating our senses and mind enough to discover the story is the fun part.

I’ve always worried about writing in the first person. I think to myself, “Who cares about my experience?”

ground glass! Hilarious!

About the last word: I was a stringer for The National Observer in the decade it lived, and my editor stressed that a guiding light of the paper was end each item with a bang. The inverted pyramid wasn’t the goal.

I took a post-conference trip (and paid for my own hotel), but the PR rep spent two days with me. The “nature reserve” was full of oil wells, mosquitos were as thick as San Francisco fog, and the people I met were rude (for example, “This area is a lot better than in California”). Is there any way you could you spin something like that into a story (other than an essay)?

This is the most exhilarating conversation on travel writing that I’ve experienced in a long while. Absolutely love it. One of my favourite editors always requests my personal experiences.

Good point. How about writing about negative experiences or places that were hyped and turned out to be disappointing.

Written with Canadian spelling:-)

April, did you end up writing about the place?

no

Catharine and Don, thank you very much. This was incredibly helpful.

Great, thank you!

FABULOUS WEBINAR!! THANK YOU!!!

Thanks Don! You always make me feel smarter after I hear you talk. Can't wait to see you in person.

Thanks, Catherine and Don. You're both incredible! We love you.

Thanks so much!

Such inspiration!

Thank you both!! Great stuff!

This was absolutely wonderful and so valuable. Thank you both.

Thank you so much, Don. This has been very helpful.