[This article is extracted from Write Your Way Around the World. Click here for the full article.]
If you’re new here, Write Your Way Around The World, is a weekly dive into the deep end of travel writing, and sharing ideas, tips and insights on how to create a writing portfolio career you love.
This week, I’m covering two topics:
- What makes for a great micro-story?
- The Writer’s Blueprint Part I (Building a Writing Career You Love)
Essaylets — Writing Micro-Story
Last week one of my notes was about short-form writing, how to create a mini-story from a scene or moment. The literary equivalent of a five minute sketch with a fine liner. Lots of you commented and shared your writing, so I thought I’d take a deeper look at this in today’s post.
Flash fiction and micro-stories have been around since storytelling began. From Aesop’s Fables (miniature moral tales, often under 200 words), to the brevity of parables, and the Chuanqi and zhiguai tales in China, focused on concise story formats, to vignettes by 19th century writers like Kate Chopin, Anton Chekhov and Edgar Allen Poe — all often clocking in under 1000 words, from Japanese Nobel Laureate Yasunari Kawabata’s micro ‘Palm-of-the-Hand’ stories, to the micro fiction boom in Latin America in the 1960s-80s, and modern day writers like Lydia Davis — brevity of storytelling, or story in miniature intrigues us.
I asked if anyone would be willing to share their own ultra-short pieces.
Lots of people shared both their writing and the note (thank you to all that did!) and I’ve picked out my two favourites to share here and explain why I think they work really well as stand-alone story moments. I thought I’d also share a 4-part frame for writing these kinds of shorter pieces for anyone interested in story structure.
What makes for a great mini-story?
Zoom in on a moment that catches your eye. What is it about this scene that captured your attention? What story is going on beneath the surface? How can you craft it into a story-in-miniature?
This is a four-part frame to help shape your mini-story:
- Hook (an opening spark, something to reel us in)
- Insight or Conflict (a thread of story tension)
- Transformation (a moment of growth/change/perspective shift)
- Close (tie-back with imagery, insight, action or resonance)
[see the original article for the analysis of the two stories]
Your Writing Life Blueprint (Part One)
Last week, we talked about knowing that your voice belongs here.
This week, I’m laying out the first half of a blueprint to help you think about and structure your writing life.
You know you want to write, but perhaps you’re unsure where to start. Maybe you’re already writing, but feel unfocused.
This blueprint can give you a frame to move forward in a way that feels much more intentional.
I. Foundation: Design Your Ideal Writing Life
Purpose: Think about why you write, and what you want your writing life to feel like. Be intentional.
- Define Your “Why”
- Why do you want to write? Why travel, or fiction or journalism or blogging?
- Who are you writing for — a specific audience, yourself, a particular community of readers?
- What values are driving your writing?
2. Picture Your Ideal Writing Life
- Describe a day/week/year in your dream writing life.
- What do you picture yourself doing?
- What is non-negotiable for you (for example, being location-independent, income stability, time freedom)?
3. Portfolio Career Mindset
Be really honest with yourself. Have you already gained some in-house editorial, writing or creative experience? What skills do you already have? Which skills do you want/need to develop?
You don’t have to dive in to a portfolio career. You can build up skills, experience and portfolio alongside a 9-5 role until you’re comfortable freelancing.
Explore different income streams (i.e. articles, books, courses, content for brands, copywriting) and balance creative projects with income-generating ones (sometimes both elements overlap, sometimes they won’t — and that’s okay).
II. Focus: Presence, Voice, Niche
- Find a niche/s to get started
I believe you should write what you love — for example, I write fiction, travel writing, journalism, non-fiction narrative, screenplays and essays — but if you start off trying to do everything at once, you’ll find it hard to move forward. So be kind to yourself: pick a focus, give yourself a few months and see what you can achieve in that time.
2. Voice & Perspective
You find you voice by writing. Read widely, read great writing, but remember you don’t want to sound like anyone else other than yourself.
Understand the difference between style (how you write) and your angle (what you notice).
3. Focus
Write down a couple of sentences that describe what you’re choosing to write, for whom, and why.
III. Structure: Create a Portfolio Career Framework
You’ve committed to building a creative career but you want income stability. Think of the different types of writing-related work as creating a stable base for your writing life.
1. Income Streams
- Editorial work — Magazines, online outlets, newspapers
- Books — (in travel these encompass memoirs, travel guides, narrative nonfiction)
- Commercial work — copywriting (in travel for hotels, travel brands, tourism boards)
- Your own platforms — substack, blog, digital products, courses
- Consultancy — teaching, speaking, workshops, retreats, editorial consultancy
2. Balancing Your Workload
Learn to manage your time. Don’t over-commit, and try not to bunch delivery deadlines.
It’s easy to get burnout when you freelance — make sure you’re putting good systems (communications, record-keeping, content flow etc.) in place from the outset.
Block out your creative writing time every single week/day — other things will compete for your attention. Protect your writing. Write when your energy is best.
3. Networking & Relationship-Building
- Build relationships with editors and clients
- Collaborate with others in your field
- Show up at industry events, join networks, be a part of industry communities
To access the rest of the article, Visit Write Your Way Around The World here and subscribe to receive weekly writing tips.
Laura mcVeigh is an internationally bestselling Northern Irish novelist and travel writer. Her work is widely translated. She has authored books for Lonely Planet, DK Travel, bylines in the Irish Times, Irish Independent, featured by the BBC, Newsweek, The i Paper, New Internationalist & many more. She is founder of Travel-Writing.Com and Green Travel Guides. Laura writes on storytelling, travel writing and mindful travel on Substack.