Travel writers have one advantage – they can never run short of topics to write home about. But travel writing is not something you study in college, so if you have your sights pegged on this activity, you’d better go down on your knees and ask God to open up your creative mind. Certainly, there are no job openings at your local employment bureau, nor does travel writing come on a silver platter! I am not trying to kill your spirit by saying these; rather, I would like to prepare you for the joys and anguish of this occupation.
This is a given – to be an accomplished travel writer you will have to put up with countless hours of frustration, persistence and ambiguous failure. However, that alone should not dissuade you otherwise you will not live your dream of becoming a travel writer. Here are tips to help you along.
- Travel writing is simply that – travelling and writing. Start doing that and you will be well on your way to becoming one. There is no other kind of authority to rely on apart from getting firsthand experience of what life on the road looks, feels, and tastes like.
- Be adventurous and avoid the beaten truck. Who wants to read about the same stuff from everyone else? You will need to do better than that. Open up yourself to the unknown, travel to remote locations and interact with alien cultures. Simply do the unthinkable! Do you have what it takes?
- If you can, look for employment opportunities in foreign countries. You can start by volunteering to work overseas with a charity etc. This will give you the chance to experience the world in a more vivid way. The expatriate experience you gather will enable you to immerse in a foreign culture more than if you are merely traveling.
- Capture all your experiences on paper by writing a lot. The ticket to getting published is to write well and you can learn to write well only if you write a lot. Leave your bags of procrastinations at home.
- Now, no one is going to fall over themselves to get your stories published. Be prepared to endure countless rejections. You need to develop a thick skin because this is a career that takes more than one night to establish. You will need to be more patient than a saint!
- Editors are gods unto themselves. They pretend (or are they always actually busy) so let that not bother you. Once you nail them, work on cultivating a professional relationship. You can be very good friends at a personal level, but if your writing is bad, an editor will not hesitate to toss you out the window. Be friendly, but don’t forget to work hard, prove your competence, be consistent, and never take anything for granted.
- Finally here but not lastly (you will get more tips in my next installment) of Flight Attendant Courses Australia, learn to nurture your passion. Make travel and not travel writing your first priority. It is expensive, isn’t it? But you want to be a travel writer, don’t you? Keep traveling and experiencing different parts of the world even if you are not published straightaway. Visit us here http://flightattendantcourses.com.au and let’s talk some more. Meet you in Antarctica next month, Cheerio!