: Re: How to make travel stories interesting? I have some good, true travel stories. Things that involve guns, explosions, and all kinds of other good stuff. I want to write them down, but I'm

@Debbie451

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I don't want to embellish, and it would go against my ethics to stray into creative writing in a non-fiction account

I think you're off-base here. Memoirs (which is what you're writing) are not transcripts of history. Yes, they are recitations of actual facts and events which occurred to the writer, but nobody remembers every detail of first grade with photographic precision (unless you happen to have eidetic memory). The writer is going to add, trim, and edit to make it work as a story.

There's nothing wrong with smoothing out the dry facts of your narrative into something readable and interesting. That's not embellishment or what you dismiss as "creative writing." That's editing.

If the dry fact is "I caught two trout," embellishment is "I caught four monstrous trout!" and creative writing is "After two days at sea, with no power, no GPS, and diminishing supplies, I finally sighted the great white shark. He reared out of the water and fixed me with one fathomless black eye. I took aim with my trusty flare gun..."

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