If you’re into travel writing then don’t miss our excellent workshop with the super Simon Whaley. He’ll be delivering a workshop that offers the best advice on how to start writing travel articles and what you need to make them a success. Here, we have a little chat with Simon first.
So Simon, tell us a little bit about yourself.
I’m a freelance writer, author, and photographer who lives in the glorious Welsh Borders. I write articles for a variety of magazines including The People’s Friend, This England, BBC Countryfile, Writing Magazine, and Country Walking. I’m the bestselling author of One Hundred Ways For A Dog To Train Its Human, I write the Mortiforde Mystery cosy crime novels, and I’m a BBC WeatherWatcher.
I see from your website that you were working in South West London before your move to the Welsh Borders. What drove that move?
There were many factors that all came to a head at the same time, effectively making it a no-brainer. But, ultimately, I have never been a city boy. I’m much happier out in the hills. And, can you believe it, but I struggled to find a writing group to go to when I lived in South West London? Yet in Shropshire, I go to two and have led workshops at several others in the county. There’s a wonderful sense of community here.
At what point did you decide to be an author for a living?
My first book, One Hundred Ways For A Dog To Train Its Human was published by Hodder & Stoughton in September 2003. The initial print run was 10,000 copies. A month later, they told me they were printing another 10,000 copies. Then there was another print run, and another. Amazingly, the book spent the first three weeks of December 2003 on the bestseller lists. At the time, I was working for Herefordshire Council, in offices 27 miles from home. They were looking to relocate staff into Hereford City, which was a 40-mile journey each way. I decided this was fate telling me it was time to have a go at this full-time writing! So, in January 2004, I became a full-time freelancer, and three days later, I was enjoying lunch with my publishers (Hodder & Stoughton), where they commissioned One Hundred Muddy Paws For Thought.
Did you have any training?
I have no formal training. I did do a feature-writing distance learning course in my early twenties, but essentially the best training any writer can have is reading. My first article successes were with the magazines that I subscribed to as a reader.
What drew you to the discipline of writing travel?
Travel is an extremely broad genre. Whether it’s going for a local walk, or exploring part of the world you’ve never been to before, there’s always something to write about. Travel is about experience. (And Artificial Intelligence can’t write about experiences … yet.) My writing friends often tease me because, although I have a passport, I don’t go abroad. I love discovering facts about places and there’s so much to discover about the UK. And we’re all guilty of ignoring the places on our doorstep. I love discovering new things about places I thought I already knew about, and travel writing feeds that love
.
Do you actually travel to be able to write your articles?
Yes. Firstly, I take photographs. Rarely will you come across a travel piece that has no images. Editors love writers who can provide the complete words-and-picture package, so I feel you have to travel somewhere to be able to take the photos. But you also need to go there to experience the place. Again, this is what differentiates travel writers from AI, at the moment. Ask AI to write an article listing the seven best beaches in Pembrokeshire and it will produce a perfectly good article with relevant suggestions. But there’s no experience. It can’t share with you the time when you had the whole beach to yourself, or when you went all tingly because an otter suddenly appeared from the sea with a fish and scurried across the sands to eat it. If you travel, you’ll have experience to write about.
I see from your website you have had success with your work in The People’s Friend, a notoriously tough nut to crack. Would you say there is a magic ingredient or style to get into that particular publication?
The magic ingredient is hard work, and the style is friendly and approachable. All magazines have their own style and the best way to learn it is to read several issues of the publication. The People’s Friend publishes a lot of fiction, but you won’t find any gory murders in it. Instead, you’ll find heart-warming stories about relationships and life generally. The fiction I’ve had published in there has always had an upbeat, hopeful ending, because that’s what readers want. Similarly, my travel pieces have a story-like structure to them.
You have some great snippets of your travels on YouTube. Is this a medium you intend to develop further or do you do it just because you like doing it?
At the moment, I love taking short videos on my phone, and putting them on YouTube is a great way to keep them and share them. But they come in really handy when I write travel pieces for online markets, because I can embed my videos in those articles. They say a picture paints a thousand words, so think how many a fifteen-second video paints!
Describe your writing process for us.I sit down at my desk and I apply my fingers to the keyboard! I’m not being facetious. I find it easier to edit something into shape rather than spend hours with my muse waiting for the right words to strike. Once you’ve got something down you can edit it into something more readable. Sometimes, I might end up deleting most of the first draft, but I always feel I needed to write that draft to help me clarify my thoughts. Jodi Picout once said, “You can’t edit a blank page,” and she is right.
As well as your travel articles you also write murder mystery - The Mortiforde Mysteries: Blooming Murder and Foraging for Murder. Why this genre?
I’m not one for blood, guts, and gore. I pass out at the sight of my own blood. (Well, it’s not a good sign if you’ve sprung a leak, is it?) So, my Mortiforde Mysteries fall into the cosy mystery genre, because they’re more about ‘whodunnit’ and why they ‘dunnit’, rather than catching killers by calling in CSI Shrewsbury. Also, I’m not very nice to my main character, Aldermaston, who’s the Eighth Marquess of Mortiforde. I don’t just give him a murder or two to solve, but I throw many more local community issues at him. Ever had one of those days when everything that can go wrong, does go wrong? Well, Aldermaston has those days on a regular basis. Which means I sometimes feel my Mortiforde Mysteries are also ‘how’s-he-going-to-sort-all-this-lot-outs’. Perhaps I’m creating a new genre.
Do you plan any more Mortifordes?
Yes! I’ve just finished the first draft of Flaming Murder. And judging by what I’ve written so far, the editing process will be flaming murder, too!
What was your path to publication for these books?
Oh gosh, that’s a long story (as any novelist knows), but essentially, my agent worked hard to interest a publisher, and there were three occasions when an editor loved Blooming Murder so much, they took it to their next acquisitions meeting (where the publisher decides which books they will offer contracts for). Unfortunately, I missed out on a contract on these occasions. But I learned so much from the process, and the advice I received from those one of those editors turned my first novel, Blooming Murder into the book it is today. My agent said it was important to get Blooming Murder out to readers, and so she encouraged me to self-publish. The joy of self-publishing these days is that it doesn’t close off any opportunities. I’m building up a readership, and my agent still approaches publishers on my behalf, both here in the UK and to foreign markets as well.
What do think makes a great story?
Interesting characters with a problem to solve. Readers need to have empathy for your main character, the person whose story it is, and there has to be a problem they need to overcome. That problem could be a huge physical issue, like saving the planet, or it could be an internal conflict, like deciding whether to marry someone, or whether take that new job. The problem is the start, the resolution is the end, so how you join the two together is where the fun comes in!
Do you find it easy to switch between non-fiction and fiction writing?
Yes, generally, and I think that’s because I read a lot of fiction and non-fiction. What I like about writing both is that if ever I get stuck with one particular project, I have many other projects on the go at any one time, so I can usually find something to work on.
How long did it take you to become established?
I’d been writing articles in my spare time for many years before going full-time as a writer in 2004. But I would say it took a couple of years of full time writing before I got to the stage where editors were also approaching me to do work for them (rather than me pitching ideas to them all the time).
How long did it take you to write your books?
It varies! It does depend upon my workload. My novels take a while because I’m not a detailed planner. I’m a discovery writer, and I love seeing where the characters take me. And because I’m not contracted to write the novels, there’s no deadline, so I always prioritise commissioned work. When Hodder & Stoughton commissioned One Hundred Muddy Paws For Thought, I had three months. It might only have been five-thousand-word book, but it needed one hundred ideas! That was quite tight.
Marmite: Yes or No?
Definitely a No. Although, apparently, it’s good for filling holes in wood panelling, or waxing your surfboard with. Who knew?
Do you have favourite author?
No. I have loads, including Phil Rickman, Robert Goddard, Rebecca Tope, Joanne Harris, Tom Sharpe, David Nobbs, Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling), Mark Wallington …
Why them, particularly?
Phil Rickman’s novels are set in the Welsh Borders, where I live, so I can really picture his settings. Robert Goddard’s novels are full of twists and turns, particularly his earlier works, and his main characters are often ‘ordinary’ people. Rebecca Tope writes lovely cosy crime, again, often based in locations I know well. I love the humour in Tom Sharpe’s books – there’s a sense of farce, as there is in some of David Nobbs’ books, which some people say appears in my Mortiforde Mysteries.
How do you view your readership?
It always amazes me how many people get my quirky sense of humour. So it’s lovely to get messages from readers saying they’ve enjoyed my articles or books.
What do you do when you’re not writing?
Walking. I love walking in the outdoors (and taking photographs). Living in Shropshire, particularly South Shropshire, I’m blessed with some stunning landscapes. It’s the best way to top up the creative well. And, I’m currently writing a couple of articles on why walking is beneficial for writers. It’s great thinking time. I have my best ideas when I’m out walking. Dickens thought nothing of walking thirty miles a day!
What advice would you give to someone embarking on travel writing?
Apart from getting a good pair of boots. You don’t have to travel far to be a travel writer. The travel is for the reader. Everywhere is a potential visitor destination to someone else.
And please add anything else you would like to say about yourself, your writing, your writing journey and your writing ambitions.
Several readers have suggested my Mortiforde Mysteries would make a great television series. I can always dream about that one!
Interview by Jacci Gooding