Maybe I'm not cut out to be a travel writer. A 21st-century travel writer, anyway. I've been doing some thinking, and I believe I've figured out why I don't have a career yet.
It's not that I can't write. I'm a first-rate wordsmith.
It's not that I can't find anything to write about. There's boatloads of material out there. I'm sitting right in the middle of some of the best travel material (especially budget travel material) an aspiring travel writer could ask for.
It's not that I can't get published. I've done that three or four times already. My work's graced the pages of Real Travel Adventures, In the Know Traveler, and The Expeditioner. I've even been featured in one of the latter's printed compilations.
But therein lies the problem. I've been calling myself a travel writer for a few years now, and I've only been published a couple of times. That means one thing, and one thing only: I'm lazy. Apparently, writing is a full-time job. You must constantly send out proposals and pitches. Keep lines in the water and irons in the fire. (Actually writing every day is another plus.) Try as I might, I just can't seem to keep those kind of habits up for very long.
Here, check out this questionnaire I found on the Travel Writer's Exchange. This says it all, really. I'm not so bad off...I did answer mostly C's. Long story short, though there's only a few things I'm lacking, they're enough to impede my nascent career something righteous.
Being a lazy bastard isn't even my main problem, though. There's something else. It only recently made itself apparent, and it took me a while to understand it.
I'm long-winded.
Yep, since the future of travel writing lies online, the new line of thinking is that travel writing must be short, sweet and to-the-point. Actually, that's the way it's always been. You shouldn't go off on digressions, or give in to the temptation to fill your writing with florid prose. You should stick to the task at hand, which is to tell your reader about your subject and back it up with a few lurid details. But lately, it seems, there's been added emphasis on the whole brevity thing.
Brevity is, and shall remain, a difficult challenge for me. I'm a wordy bugger. Maybe that's the reason I started this blog in the first place. And why the posts are so freaking long, when all the best blogging advice says you should keep 'em tight. This is the only place I can get my meandering, garrulous, poetical, literary jollies out. And you know what's even funnier than that? Somehow I've gotten away with being long-winded even in my published works—you'll notice that all those articles I've linked to are rather lengthy.
But no more, I'm sensing: I'm going to have to toe the line from here on out. Write well, write briefly, and start shotgunning those proposals and pitches all over the place.
Well, no time like the present. I've been in Korea for almost a month now and I'm settled into my apartment, even if I don't have my green card or my first paycheck in hand yet. Time to start my career. First thing to do, I reckon, is survey the list of newspapers that the TWE recommends and send out some pitches. I bet they'd be interested in the balloon launch I participated in last weekend. Or the kind of fun you can have in Hongdae on a Saturday night. I just have to remember to keep it tight, short, sweet and simple. I shall adjust to this new future the way I've adjusted to everything else: maybe a tad reluctantly, but with aplomb, dignity and competence.
Wish me luck.
6 comments:
I enjoy your lengthly prose and point of view, but i'm not a standard ADHD suffering, textuall active, socially awkward person of the up and adulting next generation
Hmm, there is something to be said about clean, tight, to-the-point prose... but often it's not nearly as fun. I agree with Crystal- I like the lengthy prose for the blog. But you gotta cater to what sells on some level for the travel-writing thing. I hope you can find a compromise!
For me, "keeping it tight" means working out. Ha!
Yeah, let's both keep it tight, I suppose.
Enjoyed you as usual...
Personally I think brevity is overrated. I appreciate that your travel writing is a launch pad for all your thoughts and idiosyncrasies.
I think, and hope they'll be a place for both types of writing... Dave Forester Wallace made the long essay work... mostly by being on a much higher plane than the editors who didn't dare keep his brilliance at bay... I guess when it comes to making a living as a writer, and both of us are slugging a way at it, it's good to understand what's need to make it in the current enviroment, and once you and I find an answer to the question of "How the hell am I going to write AND eat" then we can use that success and friendship with editors to let us be less cookie cutter...
Since this comment is getting rather long winded itself, I'll end by sharing something a friend passed to me that every writer should read: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/02/22/henry-miller-on-writing/
And I appreciate that you're not a textually-active ADHD-suffering teenager, Crystal. 'Tis why I cherish our friendship. Thanks for stopping in!
Not nearly as fun, Jane. That's exactly it. It's fun to be a wordy little booger like me. Thanks for offering your opinion...glad to know I wasn't boring you!
EC! How have you been??
Jerry: Sure is. That's why the newspaper industry and I never got along.
Luke! You make a good point. I suppose as long as the writing's good enough, the length is unimportant. What matters is if you can hold interest. How ARE we going to write and eat, my friend?
I'll take a look at the link. I could always use more advice. Thanks.
Post a Comment