How to write Interesting Travel Fiction

I have known Ruchira Khanna  for a long period as a fellow member of the The Book Club group I am part of. While many of the members in the group focus on romance, she is one who experiments with multiple genres - Children's fiction, Philosophical fiction and now travel fiction. As she is launching her latest book 'Voyager into the Unknown', a travel fiction, I requested her for a guest post regarding this genre and she has been kind enough to oblige.

I asked her the question "How does an author balance between the story line, research, facts & information in a novel around travel without making the story boring or dry like reading Lonely Planet?" Read on for her response.


If I could answer your question in one line, “Read the book!” ☺

Travel and Story resonate such independence, yet these two get entwined when we go on a holiday. There is no travel without a story and vice versa.

Thus, as a writer the importance of research, getting the facts and information of that city becomes crucial since history is needed to attract the reader and create a foundation, a background before introducing characters to them.

Fortunately the Taj Mahal in my book did not need any introduction since it is a known landmark, however; the city, its population, the weather and various other landmarks needed a Google.
Once the above were check marked, the characters were introduced in that setting, and now and then the above facts were sprinkled in the storyline to avoid making it a history lecture. When the individuals started their interaction with each other, the city played a silent yet a translucent role. When an incident occurred, and the characters were recovering, the city’s attractions gave an insight into what, where, how the individual was interacting emotionally and physically thus, allowing the storyline to move along and not become stagnant or boring.

In a few words: The city is very much in the background supporting the characters and would push the story line further when these individuals would get burned down.

It’s like a parent giving the ‘right’ amount of push now and then to his toddler!

Check out my post spotlighting her book 'Voyagers into the Unknown' to know more about the author and her latest work.

3 comments:

Ruchira Khanna said...

Thank you for giving me this opportunity, Karthik

Vishal Bheeroo said...

That's a very interesting way to weave a story, I bet. Ruchira is such a super talented person.

T F Carthick said...

You are welcome, Ruchira.

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