Writing the Adventures

Somewhere people are actually being paid to write about testing free gear in the Alps, hiking in Alaska with their kids, and being dropped by helicopter into the woods and finding a way out. And at least one man has been paid to climb and write about Mt. Everest. Outdoor magazine journalists inspire people to get outside, whether it’s on hiking trails, bikes, skis, rivers or mountains.

As a subscriber of such myself, these writers show parts of the Earth, most of which I’ll probably never go, but remain grateful for the opportunity to know that such wild and rugged places are out there. Food for fantasy. But, for the trips I do go on, the various magazines have their own mission that tries to show where the best and freshest places are, what gear is solid, as well as supplying essential safety and other clever tips. After that, it’s up to the reader to get out and make his or her own adventure happen.

But, these journalists get to do both. There are many outdoor enthusiasts and there are many great writers, some people are both. But not everyone with hiking boots, a bike, and a laptop can be a journalist. And of those that can, it’s still not easy to build a career through small pieces with small paychecks.

Like most fields, there are few people that transcend their niche and achieve mainstream recognition. One of the biggest names in outdoor writing is Jon Krakauer. As a contributing editor to Outside magazine, he expanded two of his feature articles into bestselling books, Into the Wild and Into Thin Air. He first reported on the young man, Christopher McCandless, who was found dead in a school bus in the Alaskan wilderness. Krakauer later expanded the story into a book where he retraced McCandless’s multi-year trek from suburban Virginia to the bus where he died. Into Thin Air was Krakauer’s personal account of the 1996 Mt. Everest Disaster where eight people, including his guide and three of the six people on his team, died when a storm hit the mountain (yes, it is true outdoor writers sometimes face challenges unheard of in other fields of writing, but if you decide to write for Outside, you probably like it).

In an Outside interview one year after the Everest Disaster Krakauer told Mark Bryant, “I'd had this secret desire to climb Everest that never left me from the time I was nine… a friend of my father's, made it in '63. They were my childhood heroes, and Everest was always a big deal to me, though I buried the desire until Outside called.” His drive to climb came long before his drive to write. The cities he has lived in, Corvallis, Seattle, and Boulder, lie much nearer to mountains and adventure than the major literary hub of New York. According to his Outside biography, before he wrote about climbing, he just climbed and got by as a fisherman and carpenter. Few writers will ever hope to approach the fame and success of Krakauer, and I suspect relatively few people in general would wish to be famous for barely surviving an icy tragedy, but should a hiker or climber find the desire to write, entering the field is rather simple—in theory.

Getting Started
Magazines such as Outside, Backpacker, and the Sierra Club’s Sierra write for very specific audiences, and are fairly open to freelance submissions. Most magazines explicitly state they do not want simple odes to the outdoors, and that a place or destination is not an article in and of itself. Their websites generally offer guidelines for submission and requirements at the bottom of the homepage. Backpacker reports around 50% of its content comes from freelance work each issue, but it has a very specific mission statement, goals, and readership that submissions must adhere to (this is not the place to celebrate the wonder of the ATV). All assignments are made in writing, and Backpacker reports it pays $.60 to more than $1.00 per word, depending on experience and the assignment. Outside has a much broader focus (outside), and laxer general submission guidelines than Backpacker. Up north, British Columbia Magazine has very strict standards, and specifically says theirs is not a publication for “fledgling writers.” The Sierra’s editor is very clear on what kind of stories and submissions are needed. Whether or not a prospective writer has anything of interest is up to the editors, but theoretically one can just “walk in” off the internet with a great story idea and begin a relationship writing for a magazine.

But, building a career is not so simple. National Geographic is a world renowned magazine that has covered the most exotic and exiting places and stories in the world for over a century. Likewise, National Geographic has incredibly high submission standards. The magazine’s website states, “Many of our writers have made a thorough study of the sciences, journalism, and English, and in some cases know several languages. A solid academic background and a proven record of success in one's chosen field are most important.” The editors go on to point out you should never count on writing for them “because we cannot know a person's particular talents nor assure employment after a completed course, we do not encourage gearing a career or educational program specifically toward employment by the National Geographic Society.” Basically don’t call them—they’ll call you, maybe, possibly, eventually. Though less daunting and formal than its parent magazine National Geographic Adventure still requires three published clips along with a freelance query.

Feature writing is the big time for any magazine writing, including outdoor and travel. Editors assign features to writers who have successfully written for the publication in the past. In almost every submission guideline page, the editor warns not to expect longer, better paid feature writing for quite some time. However, after looking at many of the feature writers and what they’ve published, they generally write for many of the outdoor magazines. Naturally experience and a thick portfolio will only help. Every magazine strongly suggests a prospective freelance familiarizing him/herself with back issues of the publications to best comprehend their mission statement, audience, and what has been published in recent memory. Prospective writers obviously need to know about whatever the magazine’s focus is, and the various shades of magazine. Though they may both be about biking, Bicycling and Dirt Rag have two very different focuses.

One of the perks of outdoor and sport magazines is the opportunities for testing brand new gear and writing reviews. It may be pleasant to dream that magazines have giant closets bursting with gear, and tragically not enough people to test it. However, it does not behoove a new writer to contact the editors offering to test a specific of gear (or really any). Backpacker makes it quite clear that the gear editors always use writers they already know, and that equipment reviews are not a way to fill a closet.

A more formal, and still competitive, route into the industry is through internships. Many magazines offer seasonal internships where interns work closely with editors and gain a valuable entry into publishing. The pay is small, if there’s any at all, and it probably demands uprooting and moving to another state. But, as an aspiring adventure writer, that’s probably a perk. National Geographic and its sibling magazines have several internship opportunities in different departments, but they are quite competitive. Outside keeps a rotation of interns for six-month intervals, with a small stipend at their Santa Fe, NM office. High Country News, a bi-monthly newspaper about environmental issues in the west also offers two internships each year and provides a small stipend as well as housing.

And So On

There is a persistent rumor that print is dead, therefore the internet should be considered when embarking on any paper based career. Online magazines like WorldHum.com offer payments for short travel narratives, but without the stringent vetting process of a published and printed magazine. Even though they do not print a hard copy, they do pay, and are not as constricted by a specific audience or page count. I was unable to determine how this compares in to traditional magazines in pay or security, but it can’t hurt to see what they think about your story.

One needn’t look too long before it becomes obvious that outdoor magazines (and too often the outdoors) men disproportionately outnumber women. Only two of Outside’s twenty-six “Literary All-Stars” are women. But that is by no means any reason for a woman to feel deterred by the outdoor subfield. Literary “All-Stars” or not, a glance at Backpacker’s editorial staff has a healthy number of women, and the editor-in-chief of Bicycling is a woman. Whether a male or female, you have to be tough to be in the field. In an Outdoors Unlimited article writer and filmmaker Kris Millgate wrote “I’m as open to grunt work now as I was as an intern. Hauling gear through the mountains tracking wolves for two days – I’ll do it.”

Everyone needs a little help and support from time to time, including the rugged and intrepid scribes. The Outdoor Writer’s Association of America is a nonprofit organization where professionals in all parts of the outdoor journalism community may join and support high standards of environment reporting. The OWAA also holds conferences and publishes a quarterly publication where outdoor professionals share things like business tips and other support.

Travel and outdoor writing is a freelance friendly area of writing where writers share their experiences with the public, to inspire readers to go on similar adventures on their own. Many magazines will clearly state how to pitch stories and what they are interested in. It is still highly competitive, and takes years of patience to build the experience and respect to be able to write features for wider audiences. Despite the rugged glamour of the outdoors, according to a contributing editor to Backpacker, it’s still journalism, and it what happens inside at your desk is quite important. If a magazine isn’t interested in a story about your trip, don’t distress, your friends will probably be.

---Anna Tuttle

References

http://outside.away.com/system/guidelines.html

http://www.Backpacker.com/guidelines

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/faq/submissions.html#write

http://www.bcmag.ca/guidelines/guidelines-for-writers.asp

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/guidelines/writers.aspx

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/about_writers.html

http://outside.away.com/outside/features/literary-all-stars_12.html

http://www.worldhum.com/

http://outside.away.com/magazine/0597/9705krakauer.html

http://owaa.org/ou/2009/04/know-it-all-millgate/

http://owaa.org/ou

http://www.owaa.org/