Travail of the Travel Writer

Imagine this if you will — you have just returned from a glorious trip to Europe, you are all excited and want the whole world to read about the beautiful places you've seen. You sit at your word processor, and try to earn some money so the IRS will know the trip is deductible if not profitable.

First, find a subject. Just to write about some beautifully interesting building, festival, village, or country is not enough. Time must be spent in reading articles — maybe you will get an idea of what will hit the editor's select button.

You read where someone visited Prague and all he remembered were the beer bars, and it almost makes you cry. When it dawns on you that article hit some editor's select button, you really do cry. Can that be for real? Visit Prague and write about beer bars. What about the Charles Bridge, what about the old Jewish Cemetery, then there’s the St. Vitus Cathedral and the Prague Castle.

The neighbors are invited for a showing of some of the slides taken during the trip. It's interesting to hear the comments and see the excitement of someone who last visited Venice 30 years ago, and now has the opportunity to visit again through your slides and description. How do you describe that in 1500 words or less?

If you describe a "thousand" year old city surrounded by a high stone wall with gates, with cobbled streets, a beautiful cathedral — a city still alive with stores, banks, churches and schools for the residents, are you describing Carcassone, Dubrovnik, or Rothenburg? Or perhaps Urbino, Italy; Sarlat, France; York, England; or maybe Toledo, Spain. Could be one of the several hundred other towns and villages that fit that description in England, Italy, France, Germany and other European countries. They really are very different to the eye, but the English language doesn't know that.

When you see lovely old towns with beautiful homes, huge churches, castle ruins, ancient bridges, and shopping streets, you wonder if the architect designed that beauty, or if the builder just built according to the style of that day, and the beauty "is in the eye of the beholder."

The eye can see and the heart can love what the word cannot describe. Now about that select button … … .