Travel Blogs Replacing Travel Narratives?

The travel narrative was for longer attention spans

Blogs are killing the travel narrative. But they’re not killing travel narratives in the sense that blogs are what travel narratives are transforming into; no, blogs are simply replacing the travel narrative as the more popular media by which to read personal experiences from traveling. It’s a tragedy.

What is a Blog?

A blog is usually a place where someone posts thoughts and stories, but it is generally written in a way that more closely represents spoken language than written. This part of Velabas is a blog. ‘Blog’ is short for weblog. Logging is much like entering dates into a diary, which makes sense for many blogs that today dominate the scene. However, people are allowing it to become commonplace to read the same half-assed shit shat out time and time again. There are some bloggers out there who give a crap about how they write, but their numbers are small in comparison to those who just write to fill space, make money or pass the time.

What is a Travel Narrative?

A travel narrative is a story of no particular length–unlike blogs, whose unspoken limit is short–which uses literary devices to show an experience rather than to tell it. Where a blog sounds matter-of-fact and spoken, a travel narrative presents tales like snippets from a novel. Imagery is important, as is dialogue and sense of metaphor and similie. Blogs take the written language and try to make it conversational, while travel narratives use words to paint a picture and give the story tone.

Who gives a shit about travel narratives?

I think blogs can be useful in a world that never seems able to keep up with itself, but it’s unfortunate. People live too quickly, and don’t know how to slow down outside of their two week vacation. Blogs are a reflection of that world, but I find it excruciatingly ironic that the typical blogger who “left their corporate job to live location independent” buys in, as it were, to the fast-paced nature of a blog.

I want to see more travel narratives. I write on this website a long and seemingly never-ending travel narrative. I don’t care if it’s that good or not in others’ eyes, but the important thing is that I try to truthfully depict adventure and discovery through narrative writing that uses the written language as it should be used, and not as a vessel for my conversational voice. I think the travel narrative has much more worth than bland, here’s-what-happened-and-oh-my-god blog post. You might take issue with my tone here, but do not misread. I want you, if you’re a blogger, to consider carefully your writing. Make it writing. Give it your voice but make it writing, for god’s sake.