Note to self: When in doubt, don’t curl up in a ball.
I’m not sure if Next Train Out counts as a travel blog seeing as all I do is write about my thoughts and experiences abroad, not actually offering recommendations on things to do or food to eat because I think enough people do that already (and we’ve also got TripAdvisor).
For my blog, I envision it to become a travel blog that gives my readers something to chew on and think about even after they’ve turned off their screens and are getting on with the dishes.
But man is it hard.
A simple Google search on “How to be a better travel writer” often retrieves enough information to make my brain implode, with suggestions not on what to write but rather how to write.
Take this excerpt from James Durstan’s book, How to Pitch Travel Stories that I stumbled upon on another incredible writer’s blog:
Do all bored housewives eventually metamorphose into travel writers? Is being a bored housewife some kind of preparatory challenge, completion of which leads to the reward of being a wannabe travel writer?
Before I go much further, let me offer a disclaimer: this chapter is in no way meant to disparage or undermine the gallant work mothers and housewives do around the world, prior to the point they decide to become travel writers. If you want, you could argue that a life of traveling and writing is the least that should be awarded for the labors and sacrifices made during a housewife’s years of toil.
But you’d be taking me too literally.
I’ve been pitched and read articles by a 20-year-old female blogger and a 50-year-old male journalist — and they both projected into my head this image of a Chardonnay-sipping retiree on holiday who decides the thoughts s/he’s penned into his/her journal sound rather nice actually and perhaps a travel magazine or website would like to buy them.
This is “travel writing” at its worst — banal diary entries of this and that of a twee class of traveler, not wealthy or privileged enough to feel guilty, not poor or deprived enough to be stuck, but that has just enough access to places and experiences to think how lucky I am to be able to witness this, let me share so others may vicariously revel in the wonder of this al fresco spa in Thailand.
…..
So, if you’re a housewife or a househusband (or write like one) and you want to make that lifestyle change, make it fully — verbally, tonally, ideologically. Don’t just describe the spa as if that hasn’t been done a thousand times already. Give me its stories, reveal its spirit, cut open its gut and let me see its organs, throbbing and pumping, spill out onto the polished floor with a visceral splat.
How does one read that and stop doubt from creeping in? Where do I even start? Before I let my fingers run wild on my keyboard, I’m already trembling in fear, wondering how I’ll ever compete with and, one day, even impress these big dogs.
How does one, too paralysed from doubt and fear, not curl up into a ball and do nothing?
At the back of my mind, there’s always a soft whisper of my own voice asking “What if I’m just not good enough?”
And that fear, that I have ultimately chosen the wrong project to spend my time on is my biggest fear. So I don’t try too hard. I keep it simple, calm and cool. Just like intimate relationships, the less I invest, the less I’m likely to get hurt when things maybe go wrong.
When I look at my life, I realise how much of a contradiction I truly am. Although I’m able to navigate external uncertainties that once enticed doubt and fear to come dancing in my mind, I can’t seem to get over the voices inside. Nothing brings out the fear in me like hearing my own inner voice, full of vulnerability and insecurities ask “What if I’m not good enough?”
So it’s another battle I need to win every day. For someone who dispenses tough love, being stern and telling that scared voice to shut up and let me get on with my writing is sometimes difficult. Sometimes, I just want to be coddled.
But I know that’s not the way forward for me.
For me, I need to try harder and not stop. I just need to keep trying and take the risk of giving it my all.
