Travel & Photography
Beautiful Strangers in a Strange Land
Where we’ve been and where we’re going….
Did you know that you can listen to this story being read to you? Just click on the play button above with the little arrow and don’t forget to choose a voice and speed that you like.
Haven’t we met? You’re some kind of beautiful stranger. — Madonna
How are you doing? Seriously?
It’s been a doozy of a few months. Things seem a little… different around here. Trying to make heads and tails of it. Been feeling a lot like a fly stuck in the bug zapper.
One thing I’m glad of though is that you are all still here! Warm fuzzies penetrating my heart!!
As such, this is my n3ws9le#tt$er and a sorta &rompt $ubmission for )anuary all rolled into one. I’m disguising it a bit because I know this automatically will place this story into n*tw@rk only status.
Heaven forbid. Can’t let this get out to the masses!!
Oh, why even try to disguise it though. No dummies here!! But yes, that’s right anytime we present a new challenge prompt for the month or publish a newsletter or anything else that supports our community of travel readers and writers it automatically gets set to Network Only distribution.
Meta stories (stories about Medium) get set to Network Only as well. Essentially, I do get why… so much meta gets published that is filled with erroneous information or just pure ranty shit with zero anything in the way of constructive criticism…. But why throw out the good with the bad?
Truth is. I’ve always loved the Medium platform. Love everything it stands for and everything it does. And I still love it! Even if you love something you don’t have to love everything about it though. Life is never gonna be perfect and sometimes we just have to accept that.
100% I’m here because of you! I’ve always seen my role as editor and publisher at Globetrotters and Picture This as being a bridge between readers and writers. Every day I work tirelessly to do just that!
Boosted stories
So much negative stuff gets written about the boost nomination program (BNP) and this tends to get me down. BNP has allowed me the opportunity to work with writers on improving their writing — not merely so that stories will get boosted, but so that those stories will connect with wider audiences.
It’s hardly an exact science or anything and time becomes a huge factor.
There are many misconceptions floating around about the program though and just what exactly the BNP does.
Here’s a very important question, just how do writers add quality to their stories in a manner that truly communicates to their readers and a wider audience?
Not just personal experience will work anymore… after all, we all have our own personal experiences. Even though we probably all enjoy reading those kinds of stories to a certain degree, we have to go beyond this and write with personal expertise.
Specifically, when it comes to travel writing, many travel writers mistakenly think that just because they’ve visited a place or experienced something that this automatically equates to personal expertise. It absolutely does not!
Here are some examples of stories where writers have done an excellent job of combining both personal experience with personal expertise:
I love learning new things and I always learn a lot from Vincent Gragnani. With the following story, he gives us details about all kinds of things… weather, specific points of interest in Austria and the trains…. train travel is, without a doubt Vincent’s area of expertise. It’s not just something he’s dabbling in at the moment. He didn’t merely ride one train and declare himself an expert. He lives and breathes it and it shows! Beyond merely learning though, he really pulls us into the journey and takes us along as though we are there, too. And so the personal experience aspect is still a vital one:
And just like Hemingway, he rarely forgets to tell us about the food! Just one example of how some writers work to really connect with their readers. He did a similar great job with this story: Yorkshire in January: Trains, Cathedrals, Pub Lunches and, Yes, Sun.
Check out the following list where I’ve begun to keep all the boosted stories for both pubs and you will see similar qualities on display again and again. Been trying to add explanations to a lot of stories so that you can clearly see why I believe they were chosen to be boosted but this is time consuming itself so not all are done:
Oksana Kukurudza's Sunflowers Rarely Break wrote about the heartbreaking realities of wanting to visit a country torn apart by war. Ryan Frawley shared a struggle many of us face when it comes to travel, which is what to do when the money situation gets tight. Shawn Forno wrote this story about his motivation to finally visit a cardiologist and how being in a specific country helped. These stories are relatable, well-written and go well beyond “I visited a place and it was awesome.”
We’ve also had a couple of new writers join us who have had several stories boosted so far. Steph Dyson gave us Peruvian culture and dancing in one story while Mark Spowart | Photographer | Writer | Traveller shared the challenge and the beauty of photographing the Great Lakes during The November Witch.
Again, not only do we get a well-written and lovely story but we learn a lot as well.
People want to know what a quality story looks like… this is your sign! 🖖And no, we are not looking for cookie cutter stories or for you to use any boosted story as a formula or anything like that. Learn from them and see how you can adapt certain attributes into your own writing.
And you aren’t alone. I’m working on this, too, but it did work well with my boosted story from December: A Year of Humans Being Human While Traveling. I took a long time crafting that story and getting it just right. Some people write and edit fast. I tend to write and edit slow.
Feel free to field questions about this in the comments. And also know that we’re hoping to publish more practical stories like How to Write Better Travel Stories in 2025 by Matthew David so that we can all learn and grow together as both writers and readers.
Do I agree with every decision that gets made on what the curation team chooses to boost? Of course not but that is life. We aren’t always going to agree on everything. All we can do is keep giving constructive feedback.
Pay and spam comments
As far as pay for writers, that is a completely different thing and it’s not something we can do much about at the pub level. However, from what I’ve seen I can still tell you that topic, title and quality still make a big difference. No, it’s not about coming up with clickbait titles and topics. It’s about finding ways to connect to your human readers. They don’t live in your head and they aren’t all like you, so you gotta find ways to relate to them.
And about all the spam comments and other malarky… crazy annoying I know but report this shit to Medium and let them deal with it. Then, concentrate the bulk of your attention on other/better things. How you choose to spend your time is important.
Featured stories
The new featuring program, as outlined in Introducing Featured Stories for Publications, was recently launched and from what I can see on our end it’s working as described as all stories seem to have gotten additional traction.
Check out our featured story list here… (it’s important to note that this program is just getting started and so it needs much more time and tweaking):
Two new banners!
Lastly, we have two new banners for both pubs! Been going in and making a few little changes here and there.
This absolutely is not intended to be a click-baity list but still wanted to pay homage to these wonderful writers and photo capturers. Thanks so much for the stories!
Clockwise from the top:
Gifted: A Gift for Giving Preposterously Wonderful Gifts by JonesPJ
How I ‘Read’ Water as an Angler and a Surfer by Ryan Chin
Cruising the World on a Sailboat Is Not for the Faint Of Heart by Egor Korneev
Disney World Is for The Birds by Steve Ostrovsky
Feeling Thankful and Blessed for Life’s Cycles by Rhonda Carrier
What Good Is a Self-Portrait Without My Dog? by Melissa Rock
Orange Color Brings Happiness To My Life by Dr. Preeti Singh
Orange Robes On The Golden Peninsula by Brad Yonaka
Playing Cricket Beneath The 27th Highest Mountain by Lauren Winslow-Llewellyn
Hemingway’s Dire Warning from the Cliffs of Ronda, Spain by Craig K. Collins
(background photo) Orange You Glad You Read These Stories? by Allisonn Church
Clockwise from the top:
How I Instill the Love of Travel In My Children by Michele Maize
The Bridge That Took Me On A Magical Adventure by Tara Torres
Mountains Made Me Who I Am by Matthew David
A Lifeline for the People by Krasi Shapkarova
Martian Beauty of Henichesk Lake by Serhii Onkov
June Monthly Challenge — Hospitality by Anne Bonfert
The Underrated Power Of Traveling Less by TRAVEL STORIES BY GABE
Hitchhiking in Tibet. 36 hours in the back of a truck by Tim Ward, Mature Flâneur
Finding Peace on the World’s Most Enigmatic Island by Joseph Dalton
France’s Best Christmas Markets: A Grinch’s Guide by Ryan Frawley
A Narrow Escape in the Swiss Alps by Victoria Z.
Addicted to Spanish Caves. After Aracena, who could blame me? by Adrienne Beaumont
(background photo) Travelling While Working in Croatia by Michelle Lawson
Oh yes, and back to Anne’s wonderful prompt, Where I’ve Been and Where I’d Go. Last year I spent somewhere around 300 days out of 365 traveling. And I loved it so much! I spent much more time traveling and editing stories than I did writing but it paid off with a whole lot of beautiful boosted stories.
But this year, so far, I’m in pure contemplation mode of what to do next… been juggling a lot of things around in my mind… hopefully I will get something sorted out there soon! In the meantime I’m still here working to edit stories and make them shine for readers.
Here’s to a New Year of striving to be the best we can all be!!
Thanks so much to my fellow editors. Currently our team consists of: Globetrotters — Anne Bonfert, Melissa Rock, Krasi Shapkarova, Michele Maize and myself. Picture This — Allisonn Church, Melissa Rock and myself.
Happy traveling and writing to you!
