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Travel Memoir

5-week course

Eat, pray, love – then write a
best-selling book about it.

Are you planning a fabulous trip overseas and think
there might be a book in it?

Do you travel regularly for work and believe you have a
story to share with the world?

Are you dreaming of moving to Bali and reinventing your life?

Your story could be the next best-selling hit. After all, although the world is shrinking, the genre of travel writing just keeps getting bigger. Go into any bookstore and you’ll find a wide range of titles from literary to humorous, from a sea change in Tuscany to travelling the Andes on a donkey.

Travel memoir in particular has a strong foothold in the publishing market. Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Eat Pray Love has sold over 7 million copies!

Publishers and the reading public love this genre. It appeals to our
own sense of adventure. From the comfort of our armchair we are given
a glimpse into another world.

Learn the art of storytelling

Whether you travel for business or pleasure, whether you’re a writing traveller, or a travelling writer — what’s most important is learning to be a good storyteller. Unlike travel journalism, literary travel writing uses many of the narrative techniques common in fiction.

It isn’t enough to string together a series of blog posts and hope it will
become the a runaway bestseller: you need to craft a compelling story
with credible characters, dialogue, atmosphere and revelation.
This course will teach you how.

Packed with plenty of exercises, this intensive course will cover:

how to structure your travel memoir and make your journey
unique from the first page
ways to transform dog-eared travel journals into a must-read manuscript
writing about place with new eyes and describing characters without clichés
popular genres of travel writing
what to do before you leave and how to write on the road
how to write a compelling book proposal to get your work published

Perhaps you’ve already enjoyed the Introduction to Travel Writing (2-hour seminar) or the Travel Writing course (5-week course) and want to elevate your travel experience from straight reportage or a magazine article into something longer: a travel memoir, a private journal or an extended blog for your next journey up the Mekong.

Suited to first-time or seasoned writers, this Travel Memoir course invites you to get out of the armchair and write your own travel narrative. And by the way, your journey doesn’t have to be exotic.

Local to you, is exotic to somebody else.

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Learn from the best

CLAIRE SCOBIE

Claire Scobie is author of Last Seen in Lhasa, winner of the Dolman Best Travel Book Award. So far, it has been translated into German, Dutch and Korean. She writes for numerous publications including the Daily Telegraph and the Observer Magazine in the UK, and is a contributor to the Sydney Morning Herald, Sun-Herald, Marie Claire Australia and the Qantas in-flight magazine, The Australian Way. Claire has taught journalism at Macquarie University in Sydney and been a judge in the Australian Society of Travel Writers Travel Journalism Awards. ...more

Courses are held at our harbourside Centre in Milsons Point

DIRECTIONS TO THE
SYDNEY WRITERS’ CENTRE

VIDEO: What will you learn in the Travel Memoir course?

Next available course:

Weekend Travel Memoir with Claire Scobie

Saturday 25 February and Sunday 26 February 2012
(two consecutive days)
TIME: 10.00am - 4.00pm
FEE: $395 (includes GST)

COURSE STARTS:

Saturday 25 Feb 2012

NEXT AVAILABLE:

Weekend
Travel Memoir
with Claire Scobie

Saturday 25 and Sunday
26 February 2012
(two consecutive days)
TIME: 10.00am - 4.00pm
FEE: $395 (includes GST)

COURSE STARTS:

Saturday 25 Feb 2012

LOCATION

55 Lavender Street
Milsons Point NSW

Directions to the
Sydney Writers' Centre

VIDEO: What's the biggest mistake people make when writing a travel memoir?

VIDEO: Participant Gemma Swart
talks about our Travel Memoir course.

Claire Scobie's latest book
Last Seen in Lhasa

RAVE REVIEWS ABOUT
TRAVEL MEMOIR

“I really enjoyed the pace and structure of the course, the short exercises, reading and listening to other members of the group, and the feedback from the presenter. Claire is an excellent teacher. It was great to have a presenter who has been published in the field.”
- Katherine Hill

“It was a great introduction to writing a travel memoir without providing unrealistic expectations. The presenter (Claire) was very generous with her knowledge and extremely helpful. The structure was very good and I learned a lot from her.”
- Kristine Madden

"Claire is lovely and had our interest and attention at all times. She is so experienced and knowledgeable and encouraged us all to share our ideas whatever our level."
- Jennifer Leeder

"It was truly enjoyable. I have wanted to do a course like this for such a long time. I never knew I could learn so much about travel memoir writing. Claire was excellent. Her method of teaching was encouraging and easy to follow."
- Beverly Pang

"The group was of a good size and the material was well organised with all the important aspects of travel memoir covered. Claire was a great presenter and made sure to include the whole class, encouraging those who were a little shy."
- Allison Rushby

"I found this course extremely useful. It has provided me with some very useful tools and a good insight into travel writing. Claire has such a wealth of knowledge and experience in writing. Claire was very helpful in providing advice and good feedback during the course."
- Kirsty Cameron
"A good mix of tips, readings and exercises to apply knowledge. I really liked the post-its exercise after working through all the modules - to play with beginnings, ends, themes. Claire was fantastic. Good pace and great hand outs. Good presentation skills and lovely manner. She allowed lots of breaks which allowed you to rest your mind and meet fellow classmates and hear about their stories and writing projects."

- Nicole Miller

"Claire was an excellent facilitator, obviously knowledgeable about her subject, and also gave us lots of examples from well known authors to help illustrate her points."
- Nina Genikis