Today’s guest is a freelance journalist and photographer, specializing in travel, adventure, the environment and popular culture. Her work has appeared in MSN, Yahoo, Outside, Sport Diver, The Guardian, Cooking Light, Bon Appetit, Alaska Airlines, Wired, Salon, Islands, Hemispheres and The International Herald Tribune, as well as the BBC and the Sunday Express in Britain. She has edited and contributed to more than 30 travel books, including Frommer’s, Michelin, The Rough Guides and National Geographic’s Journeys of a Lifetime. On top of all this, she also teaches travel writing – an intro and master class – at Writers.com, the first writing school on the internet.
Amanda at Rancho Washikemba horse ranch Bonaire in Netherlands Antilles
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The Finer Details of Episode 24 with Amanda Castleman! She shares ………..
- How she ended up in a writers workshop space in Italy where Galileo debuted the telescope in 1611.
- When you have only 4 hours a day to be creative you learn how to make it happen.
- How she transitioned from a traditional newspaper journalist to a travel writer.
- Why travel writing is such a broad genre and what it encompasses.
- Why real travel journalism isn’t sharing what you did on your summer vacation.
- What good travel writers do subconsciously with structure, imagery and word choice.
- Why good travel writing is not about your experience but instead telling someone else’s story.
- Why becoming a travel writing teacher accelerated her understanding and comprehension of travel writing.
Amanda also shares her insights on how to fight impostor syndrome and self doubt as a travel writer. We also talk about why many travel writers struggle with marketing themselves and she shares some great advice to take your writing to a new level. Some of the main points we discuss are:
- Amanda’s top tips for travel writing
And here is what a day of work looks like in Amanda’s world!
Cliff jumping in Palau. Photo by Ron Leidich of Paddle Palau.
Episode Resources
The Patriarch: The Rise and Fall of the Bingham Dynasty by Susan Tifft
Amanda’s Courses and Workshops
The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen
Writers.com
Portland Family Magazine
Hugo House in Seattle
Honey Badger Video
Aspiring Travelers Facebook Group
Travel Girl Magazine
Amanda’s article about the Marquesas
The Grotto in San Francisco
Monkey Barrel Media
Austin Kleon Article about “Fake it Until You Make It”
Amanda’s Sokeye Salmon article
Amanda’s Quietest Place in the US article
BBC
Travel Classics Conference
Contributoria
Cision
Cision Contact Email
Contently
People Mentioned on this episode:
Sylvia Poggoli from NPR
Chelsea Lin
Edward Readicker-Henderson
Thomas Swick
Pico Iyer
Tim Cahill (and his books)
Joan Didion (and her books)
Susan Spano
Jim Benning of the BBC & Worldhum
Madeline Ostrander
Keith Bellows of National Geographic
Austin Kleon
Connect with Amanda
Amanda Castleman’s Website
Amanda Castleman on Facebook
Amanda Castleman on Twitter
Amanda Castleman on Instagram
Amanda Castleman on Linkedin
Connect with Break Into Travel Writing
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
The Aspiring Travel Writer, the Facebook group
Hope you enjoyed this episode and please join me in thanking Amanda for being here! And thank you as well. We’ll see you next time!
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[…] a life time experience. To be honest, swimming with whale sharks wasn’t on my radar, until I interviewed Amanda Castleman for my Break Into Travel Writing podcast. During our interview she mentioned that one of the top […]