Our own Bob Fisher is holding his annual Travel Writing Workshop down in Key West this February, something he's been doing since 1991. But this year, there's quite a difference. Bob is concentrating on telling you about grabbing the attention of editors (and then readers and viewers) for whatever you write, be it travel or anything else.
"It's all about entertainment," he says, "and you have to get their attention in the first sentence." He agrees that photos, audio and video might help do that, but points out that the written word is still supreme even if it is only part of a caption for the visual stuff.
The Key West Travel Writing Workshop will be held at Key West's second-oldest building, the venerable Heritage House Museum, in the Robert Frost Cottage attached there. (Yes, crabby ol' Bob Frost spent his winners in this small house in an orchid-filled garden, gradually learning to like Key West.) The course concentrates on how to shape your writing to best market it in view of current conditions, including the short attention span of readers and viewers, ditto the amazingly little time editors might spend looking at your submission, and the like.
Writers of memoirs and blogs, not to mention other electronic forms of media, will find the course instructive as well. "I don't much like the idea of publishing long works on Twitter," Bob says, "but they're doing novels in Japan that way, and they are so popular with young people that mainline publishers there are putting out print editions, too."
The course costs just $275 (unchanged since last year) and is held on Saturday and Sunday, February 20-21, 2010, with a reception the Friday night before. Students are responsible for their own transportation and accommodations.
Bob's credentials include writing for this website as columnist and contributing editor, being former president and editor-in-chief of the Fodor guidebook series, former president of both the Society of American Travel Writers and the New York Travel Writers Association, author of several travel and art books, and editor "of more than 800 travel guides, enough for a while," he says. You can learn more about Bob at his website, www.bobharu.com or at www.travelwritingworkshop.org. He also has a blog (www.madtravelwriter.com), but says he has just got it started "and there's not much on it as yet."
Students are urged to sign up early, as the class is limited to 14 students and February is the high season in Key West, limiting the number of hotel rooms available and airline seats as well. The museum prefers you contact them by email at heritagehouse AT aol DOT com. You can also write to them at 410 Caroline Street, Key West, FL 33040 or phone them at 305/296-3573. Inquiries about the course itself can be sent to Bob at bobharu AT aol DOT com. The museum's website provider suddenly went out of business just before press time, but the site is expected to be back up by a new provider around mid-October at www.heritagehousemuseum.org.
