What will I achieve?

Each Travel Writing Workshop is kept small, so everyone has the chance to write, share their work, ask questions and discuss. A week before the Workshop, each participant is asked if they have any particular areas they would like to develop so we can cater to individual needs.

Some of the skills Travel Writing Workshops will encourage and develop are:

• Gathering the material to write
• Structuring a story
• Bringing a traveller's tale alive
• Writing from the heart
• Knowing what an editor or publisher wants
• How to pitch to an editor

The Workshop includes practical writing sessions. Participants should bring pen and paper - they will be expected to write! The emphasis is on developing skills to be applied to both articles and books.

View a sample timetable here.

At the end of the day-long workshop, you will feel confident, enthused and ready to write. Our aim is that each of you will have the tools to produce a publishable piece of travel writing.

But the real testimony to the success of Travel Writing Workshops is the participants. Here are just some of their achievements:

After attending a Travel Writing Workshop,

• Charlotte Baird wrote, "Just to let you know I have just been published in Real Travel and it's out in the shops now! I also have a contributor profile inside the front cover! Very exciting!"
• Antonia Windsor has had many articles published in the Guardian, including on Madrid, Pakistan and Scarborough
• Jane Gallagher has taken up a post as writer in residence at a prison. She writes, "Just wanted to say thanks again, this time for saving my writing career. At the Travel Writing Workshop I said I was thinking of getting a proper job as the finances of freelance journalism were so precarious. You replied that you had a two-day a week writer"s residency which helped pay the bills. On the train back I read an advert in the Guardian. The Writers In Prison Network was looking for writers in residence. One of the prisons was just 20 miles away from where I live. I had my interview yesterday and was later told I had been successful. The post is two and half days a week starting in September. I am too excited to be scared but I am looking forward to this journey of a different kind."
• Gina Perry has had an article on Bolivia published in Guardian on line. After not feeling confident enough to write for quite a while, Gina now says, "I'm well chuffed with it and hopefully will keep doing more."
• Kirstie Pelling has had features in Practical Parenting and Cumbria Life and had a play broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
• Eliza Reid, from Reykjavik, has had several travel pieces published since attending Travel Writing Workshop and secured a staff position for Iceland Review and Atlantica magazines, which involves writing regular travel feature. She's also had stories in the Ottawa Citizen and a five-part feature series on West Africa in Morgunbladid, Iceland's largest daily. See www.elizareid.com
• Susannah Grant wrote, "Thanks to your tips on the course Frank Barrett at the Mail on Sunday, who was the guest editor, has agreed to publish the 1,200 feature on paragliding in Portugal I emailed him. I'm extremely grateful to you for removing the glass wall I'd constructed between me and a potential publisher!"
• 
  Annabel Giles has also had a piece on going to Goa with her autistic son published in the Mail on Sunday after pitching to Frank Barrett at a Travel Writing Workshop. View pictures of Annabel's journey here.
• Roger Norum was asked to write an opinion piece for the Guardian on travel writers - The less-than-Lonely Planet

• 
  Samantha Hunt wrote, "Since participating in your class I have had two pieces published in Real Travel magazine - one Reader Report on Borneo and another City Spotlight on Toronto. I would like to say thank you for giving me the tools to do this."
• 
  Caitlin Fitzsimmons has had four features commissioned for forthcoming Rough Guides to Ultimate Experiences, and has had features in Anyway travel magazine.
• 
  Fiona Dunscombe has won the prestigious Dundee Book Prize for her novel The Triple Point of Water.
• 
  Jos Simon has been commissioned to write Frommers" Croatia with Your Family and a guide to Greece for Families, and has written extensively for Greece Magazine.
• 
  Jane Hannon has had a short travel story published in the brand new collection More Sand In My Bra: Funny Women Write for the Road Again.
• 
  Luce Choules has published the world's first mappazine - a travel magazine shaped and folded like a map. It's a fabulous product, with travel writing, photo essays, diary accounts, charts and kit lists. See www.foldedsheet.com
• 
  Linda Jones has published The Greatest Freelance Writing Tips in the World. She also wrote a review of the Travel Writing Workshop on her website. Putting her own tips into practice, Linda has written a piece about the Travel Writing Workshop for Press Gazette.
• 
  After meeting Takethefamily.com's Founder Andy Cook at a Travel Writing Workshop, Linzi Hill has become a featured writer. View her work here. She has also written for FreeRein.
• 
  Brendan Harding has had a selection of his works from his recent travels in the Kenyan bush read on LYRIC FM Radio.

What participants have said about Travel Writing Workshops:

"I am pleased to announce that I have published my first article! I am so excited. I wanted to thank you for inspiring me and encouraging me to go ahead. I learnt not only to pay attention to technical things I never knew about, but to write without boundaries and, most importantly, for myself. I had never even attempted to give anything I wrote to anybody else to read before the workshop. Now I feel I at the beginning of a great, new step." Andrea

"Can't wait for my next trip so I can get writing!" Charlotte

"Thanks for Saturday. I'm still staggering under the weight of information that I had to digest - completely inspiring." Mike

"It exceeded all expectations on so many fronts including structure, content and input from co-travel writers. I came away feeling totally exhausted and hugely enriched!" Kate

"Thank you very much indeed for a wonderful workshop. You were all great, truly generous with your help and advice and encouragement." Pamela

"Thank you once again for such an enjoyable and upbeat day. It has put fresh wind in the sails both on a personal and professional level. I look forward to putting it all into practice ." Liz

"Lots of useful, honest information and advice. It has definitely got my creative juices flowing." Carole

"After the workshop the ideas just flowed and I've come home with pages full of them!" Fiona

"I so enjoyed the Travel Writing Workshop - it was excellent! Thanks so much for a great day. Everyone left very inspired and a lot more confident. I am definitely going to start writing my book now!" Anita

"THANK YOU for such a confidence-boosting workshop." Julia

"A thoroughly enjoyable and stimulating day." David

"It was brilliant - I'm still buzzing and will definitely be having a sleepless night trying to store everything I've learnt." Jane

"Just arrived home from your invigorating workshop and wanted to say a big thank you. I arrived convinced I would feel thoroughly deflated and inadequate but, to my surprise, I've come home feeling as though I might well be on to something! And I met some hugely inspirational people to boot. Wonderful." Zoe

"I had a very good time, heard some invaluable advice, met some great people and reinvigorated my passion. Many thanks." Matt

"Thanks for the course on Saturday - it actually incentivised me to stay IN on a Saturday night and write the synopsis for my book." Kath