Moving Past the Wall

I’ve been facing a block these past couple of months. It’s felt like I’ve been standing in front of a wall with no doorway to the other side. The other side being my creativity. Instead there’s been an emptiness where the passion was. 

Some might call it burn out, I’ll call it laziness and being stuck in a writing rut. 

I’m not a believer of writer’s block. If you want to write that’s just what you have to do. Write. Sit ass in chair and type away on the Macbook or move the pen over the page, letter after letter, word after word until you build a sentence, then a paragraph and then something magical. 

There’s a gazillion and one topics to discuss and write about that at times it’s easy to lose focus. Too many ideas that don’t come to fruition can do that to you. It’s easy to ask questions - but is it good enough? Will anyone care? Am I going to be laughed at? Ridiculed? 

Sure all those are possible. 

But what if what you write touches someone at the core. Just one person. That’s enough to make what you’ve written worthwhile. Did it make you feel better to get it off your chest? You’ve done yourself a favor. 

Some people play a musical instrument. Others go running. If you’re thing is writing, then that’s what you should do. Just write. You can edit the crap out of it later.

If you want to be a writer you need to write. There’s no secret. Sometimes it takes years to pay your dues, sometimes you get lucky. The truth is you won’t stand a chance at getting lucky if you (a) don’t write, and (b) never submit your work anywhere. Simple really.

I think it's time to start following the advice.

5 Ways Not To Get Published

1*Play Solitaire for hours and try to beat your highest winning streak but fail miserably. Placing cards in the correct order in the correct colour on your computer is not going to get the research done or story written. Bye-bye to any publishing success, unless of course you’re writing a story about Solitaire.

2*Write down lots of ideas for articles every day but never actually come up with a slant, do the research or write a query letter to a suitable publication. Writers often get asked, ‘where do you get your ideas from?’ If you’re coming up with those riveting story ideas and doing nothing about them then you are not going to get published. They’re no use to anyone hidden away in your computer files somewhere.

3*Talk about wanting to write but never actually get around to putting even a sentence down on to paper or computer. Talking is not the same as writing. It’s not going to put words together that editors’ love. The only way to do that is to actually plant butt in chair and start typing or scribbling away.

4*Forget about revising, editing and going through grammar and spelling with a fine-tooth comb. Whether you’ve just finished writing a story, novel, article or poem, it’s not finished yet. The hard work comes next; every sentence has to be in the right order. Every paragraph has to have a purpose. Confusing ‘there’ with ‘their’ or ‘effect’ with ‘affect’ is not acceptable nor is ‘except’ with ‘accept’, and it happens more often than some like to admit.

5*Don’t try to improve your writing by meddling in different genres, trying new techniques, using advice from others, and reading voraciously. Writers write, they also read, seek quality advice, constantly try to improve their writing skills, pick up new vocabulary and work on becoming the best that they can be. Writing is a business, it’s also a competitive business and if you want to stay in business you have to constantly keep on top of your game.

Now for a little confession: I’m guilty of all three. I spend way too much time playing Solitaire, I come up with ideas for articles and novels on a daily basis but rarely do much with them, I often tell my partner how much I need to write but when it actually comes to getting down and writing I’ve been slacking off over the past few months- I’m blaming it on acclimatising to being back on the Gold Coast. Then there’s the part about writing but rarely getting to the editing stage – it can be so boring; or forgetting about learning new vocabulary and trying to improve on my writing skills. Yep, me, I’m guilty as charged and now I have to make reprimands and get back on track so that I can be productive once again.

Fifty percent surcharge on coffee

Sometimes I wonder about the decisions I make. Like coming to the Marriott for a conference by Oxford Press for TEFL teachers, having forty minutes to spare and deciding to have a coffee at the lobby café where I can see delicious looking sandwiches and tasty coffees making my mouth water. 'La Pallesiere' in the lobby on the right as you enter, offers takeaway and eat in options. I order a café mocha, something different from my usual large black Americano. The price is 9.50zloty. Not a problem.
The lady behind the counter is middle aged. She's kind enough to smile which doesn't happen as often as I'd like or I'm used to. There's a sense of warmth glowing from her, which makes her a good candidate for working with people there.
'You know that if you have it on the spot there's a fifty per cent surcharge.' she informs me.
I try not to sound shocked and contain my laughter, telling her that it doesn't matter. I still want the coffee.

I sit down at the marble table and a few moments later the same lady brings over my Café Mocha in a medium sized cup. No revelation there. It's just cacao, coffee, milk and water.
This is Poland, I shouldn't be surprised. I am paying extra for the pleasure to sit in the Marriott lobby where business man chat, young pretty girls are interviewed for positions in the hotel, and parents try to contain their loud children. Nothing different from the regular Coffee Heaven or Starbucks down the road, so why the surcharge? Ah, yes I forgot. I'm at the Marriott sitting at a marble table and leather chair. The patrons flash their gold watches and expensive tailored business suits. Tapping on lap tops on speaking on their phones about another boring meeting or conference, making excuses to their wives or husbands as to why they are going to be late home again.

So why did I agree to pay 15zloty for a Café Mocha when I could have brought half a kilo of coffee for that same price and had it for a month or two at home? Well, it's all about the experience. Travelling is about experiencing the destination you are at. I've never been to a hotel where they surcharged for eating or drinking on the spot. It's a first. Is this normal? If someone can let me know I will be grateful. If it wasn't for the conference I would have not been there.

I still have time to enjoy my coffee and observe the vanity of individuals, young and old, who come here. I was supposed to go without coffee today and for the rest of the week but how could I resist. I may not have a reason to come here again. Or maybe? But I like the Marriott. I love hotel lobby's and restaurants just as much as airports. People watching is fun, and I notice I'm not the only one doing it. I am here to observe, write and enjoy the Cafe Mocha.

Time to finish up and had to the third floor for the conference, after all that is what I came here for.

Your Home Town

Most of us don't consider our home town as a place for inspiration or story ideas. Who would want to read about the boring places we live in? Well, someone lives in all those places written about in the most glamorous travel magazines, in newspapers and in-flight magazines that the locals might find dull but to you it's paradise.

The same goes for your home town. A lot of professional writers suggest to write what you know. This may seem rather limited but the advice is good. Who is a better expert on your home town than the local who's lived their most of their life. You. If you mention this fact to an editor they may be more willing to offer you a story about your local town. Of course it's not enough to just offer a story about your town, you need to find a good angle to capture the attention of your editor and your readers. Even a general story about the Himalayas or Bora Bora won't sell if it doesn't have an interesting slant.

'Write what you know' is something I have heard and read about a lot. But it's not something I wanted to believe or do. I wanted to write about interesting things, fun things, about stories that weren't necessary a part of my life just yet. But than I realised writing about what you know isn't just writing about your interests, experiences and location. It's also being able to do the right research to expand your knowledge base and write about anything and everything that is of interest to you.

I've been living in Warsaw for two years now. The city is a blend of contradictions. Combined with the new and old, it's come a long way but it still has a long way to go. There are many stories here. Travel stories. Human interest stories. And much more. I'm going to try to focus on my local area and see what happens. Well, I'm off to look for some interesting story slants.

Writing Travel Stories

I've always wanted to travel and write. The notion seems so romantic and glamorous. Who wouldn't want to travel the world, see new places, meet interesting people, writing about it, and making money doing it all. Yeah right. Well it's true many people do make money from travel writing. But which came first? The travel or the writing?

I think this is like the question about the chicken and the egg. It's difficult to say. Some people have been lucky enough to spend a lot of their time travelling, and than decided to write about it. While others have been writing all their life and have stumbled upon a travel story or decided to give it a go. Whichever works for you is the way to go.

Travel stories about faraway places, hidden islands, exotic towns and foreign people sound like the type of stories you find in magazines like Conde Nast Traveller, CNN Traveller and Wanderlust. But what happens if you want to write a travel story and don't have the cash or the connections to get to that faraway place. How do you become a travel writer?

This is something that's been on my mind for some time. Do I have to travel to faraway places to sell travel stories to the right magazines? Where can I find the magazines that want the type of stories I write? How do writers find the time and energy to write all those travel stories? Do they really travel to all these places? How do they break into the right magazines and sell their first piece?

I did it. It wasn't planned. I was sending out queries to magazines and happened to send one out to a travel magazines. A stab in the dark. A magazine that I had never read in my life but stumbled while searching for markets on the Internet (this is not recommended, you stand a better chance getting your writing accepted if you've actually read at least one copy of the magazine).

My first travel story was 'Learn Through Travel' for Real Travel (UK) magazines' May 2009 issue. A 2000 word feature with photos. First I was excited and than petrified. How in the world was I going to come up with a 2000 word feature about learning foreign languages while travelling? And quotes? Who was going to give me quotes? And with only three weeks to get it all done. How?

The Internet of course. I started searching for language schools in Europe and sent them email asking if any current or past students were interested in being interviewed for an article. One day passed, two days, three. It was over. And than I got a response and a few interviews. I remembered I had a friend from high school who spent two years in Italy, another who planned on learning in France and one who spent some time in Japan.

The interviews were done via email. If you're on difference continents with different time zones I think this is the easiest way to do this. I emailed the questions and gave them a time frame as to when I needed their responses. Easy. The interviewees were even willing enough to provide some cool photos to go with the story, making my life a hell of a lot easier.

In the meantime I started working on the outline and an initial draft. Once the questions arrived I managed to put it all together. Five or six rewrites later I had a feature article to send to the editor. A month later, my story was published.

The first one was a fluke. The second one is going to be a little bit more challenging. In the next couple of days, I'm going to write how I plan to tackle landing my next travel story assignment.