The Power of Destination Writing

It is no secret that writing from an authentic point of view is a great way to get a listener hooked.  It’s one thing to tell a story and another thing to tell a relatable story.  Easier said than done, huh?  In order for the listener to truly feel what you are talking about, they need to be able to imagine themselves in the character’s shoes.  We do this successfully with a type of object writing called destination writing. 

Destination writing is sense-bound free writing directed at a place, a person, or a time instead of an object. The key to both destination writing and object writing is involving the senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, sound, and also movement. When those senses are involved, the writing springs to life. 

A good way to visualize what we’re doing when we destination-write is to imagine ourselves as a camera lens. The closer we zoom in, the more detail we see. The bulk of our writing will be spent zoomed in so close that we will see the very pores and veins of a place, person, or time.  But once in a while, we'll also zoom out and comment on the landscape and big picture.

Let’s imagine we’re destination writing about a place, such as a busy sidewalk in NYC.

Zoomed in, we might describe “handbags slapping against passing elbows and the rhythm of legs like windmills propelling bodies through a mass of driven faces.…” But zoomed out on the same scenario, we might write “A sidewalk full of people trying to get somewhere, all worrying about their schedules, their relationships, and scurrying for direction in life.” Detail allows our listener to step into our shoes, know what we know, and feel how we feel. Too little detail and we generalize the experience, losing intensity. Too much detail and we run the risk of delving so deep into the abyss of description that we only emerge with some thoughtful poetry. 

Try zooming in and out on your next piece and see just how much it adds to the strength and relatability of your narrative. Its power might just surprise you.

Stay creative,