Travel Writing - Nottingham Trent University

About

21st - 25th August | 2023 | Monday to Friday 10 am - 4 pm, one week
Nottingham Trent University
£435

Travel evokes a feeling of freedom and transcendence. It gives us new eyes with which to see the world and provides an insight into people and experiences that we may not have otherwise encountered.

Travel also challenges us to expand our physical and mental comfort zones and makes us open-minded as we observe the diversity of other people and cultures, from the way they eat, dress, socialise, or pray.

A great piece of travel writing allows us to experience all this vicariously through the eyes of the writer.

On this course you'll draw upon your own personal experiences to create a powerful and engaging piece of creative writing.

It's ideal for both new and experienced writers who enjoy travelling and would like to develop their skills and techniques in writing powerful and memorable stories.

The course will cover these key themes:

• getting started – generating travel story ideas and creating a real sense of place
• voices of the road – reaching out to strangers and interviewing people to explore different narrative viewpoints
• the inward journey – how to express your own personality and worldview in your travel writing
• artistic freedom and using sensitivity when portraying real people and subject matter
• finding a organising thread for your story by focusing on a theme that emerges from your travel experiences
• hitting the page: story structure and outlines to hold the audience's focus
• writing and rewriting – editing and polishing your work
• publishing your work: pitching ideas to editors and writing a travel book.

This practical course will involve plenty of short writing exercises and a trip to complete a place-writing exercise in search of material to practise travel writing.

You'll be offered advice and feedback in a supportive, seminar environment to help your writing develop and progress.

During this course, you will:

• learn how to generate ideas and themes that lend themselves to a travel feature in a newspaper or travel magazine
• understand how informal encounters can be useful versus formal interviews
• keep a notebook as a bridge between your ideas and your finished piece of writing
• practise bringing a strong sense of your personality and worldview onto the page
• develop writing inspired by real life events and experiences
• look at how writers have been inspired by their travels to create notable works
• create a sense of place and interesting characters using dialogue and description.

What will you gain?

By the end of the course, you will have a variety of writing projects in development, and a network of fellow writers and potential collaborators with whom you can progress your work further.

You'll leave with an understanding of how to structure and plan your writing, build dramatic tension and instil a sense of time and place, based on real-life events and experiences.

A certificate of attendance will be awarded upon completion of the course.

Entry requirement:

No previous creative writing experience is required. Level: Beginner / Intermediate

Where you'll learn:

You will be studying creative writing in a UNESCO City of Literature, and be based in the School of Arts and Humanities on the City Campus.

You will find modern teaching spaces and quiet study environments to develop your ideas and writing.

You'll also have access to the NTU library to use outside of your short course; whilst you can't reserve or take away books, you are welcome to use them as a resource for research and referencing.

Tutor profile:

Chandrahas Choudhury is a novelist and a travel writer with over 17 years of experience.

He is the editor of the anthology 'India: A Traveler's Literary Companion' (Whereabouts Press, California).

His travel writing has documented a variety of subjects, from the amazing world of the Indian mango to the unique musical culture of Bahia in Brazil.

His writing has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Conde Nast Traveller, Travel + Leisure, and EnRoute Canada.

His essay "Mumbai By Night" won a Gold in the North American Travel Journalists Association awards in 2018.

Chandrahas is an author of three novels: Arzee the Dwarf (shortlisted for the Commonwealth First Book Award), Clouds, and Days of My China Dragon, and a book of literary essays, My Country Is Literature.

He is also a writing mentor at the Summer Institute, a short-term summer creative writing program run by the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.

Need accommodation?

You can book a self-catered, single room with private bathroom on the NTU city campus, right next door to the studios and classrooms.