Seriously now, aside from a trust fund, a professional travel writer needs to be highly organized, personable, disciplined and be comfortable living out of a pack for months at a time.
But what exactly is a professional travel writer? Some people write for magazines, some write books, some update guidebooks, some are PR pros...I think it's most important to become a writer first, and then start to write about travel.
Stuart Emmrich, editor of the NY Times travel section, put it well in a Q+A with readers last week:
I have a standard answer when anyone asks me what can they do to become a travel writer: “Don’t.”
"As the editor of the Travel section, I am not looking for good “travel writers” but instead good writers and — more important — good reporters with wide and varied backgrounds, who can bring their knowledge of such specific topics as history, art, music, literature, the environment, and world events to the subject of travel."
Emmrich's full Q+A is here:
Tim-
I was just thinking about an issue you mention in your post: what IS a travel writer, anyway? Eva's article over at BNT got me thinking about this subject. There are lots of kinds of travel writing: guide books (which are, for the most part, straight up facts) and narrative. The differences between the two are considerable and significant. Both require good writing skills, the ability to be organized, and the other attributes you identified. But I also think that there's more to it, especially if you are in the narrative category.
That doesn't answer your question, David, but I think it's an important part of the conversation.
I second Tim on the writing coming first, and travel being a favourite subject matter rather than the end purpose. You have to love the time in front of the computer as much as the time out on the road.
After that: discipline. luck. hard work. and, as I'm increasingly learning: contacts.
Not that it's all about "who you know" in a cynical sense but even if you've got the rest (the discipline, the talent, the work ethic) you're still going to have trouble getting an editor's attention in this over-saturated market. Every break I've gotten has resulted from personal contact of some sort... with the exception of my decision to join Matador and pitch for a Bounty Board item!
For me personally, the two most important steps have been: joining Matador, and days later, attending Book Passage. Those two actions have made all the difference.
I am of the bent that writers are born not made (although you can always hone your skills).I am a writer. I have always been a writer....but for most of my life I wrote reports for government agencies, Environmental Impact Statements and depositions for environmental lawsuits.
Today I write about xeriscaping, college basketball, the death penalty, my grandfather (WWI vet), failed romance, quantum theory as it applies to my cat, Africa, sailing and sleeping with Einstein. Sometimes it pays, sometimes it doesn't. But when people ask me "What do you do?" I say "I'm a writer.". There is no adjective.
Humility.
I honestly think my absolute worst writing came about through the belief that I had done something special, something that--in and of itself, regardless of my abilities--was worth reading about.
I used to aspire to be a "travel writer". This was a horrible mistake, a sudden weekend-in-Vegas-style marriage between my love of travel and my love of writing. The two do not, a career, make...
...Or at least one that I want.
Tim's and other Matadorian blogs about the guidebook-writing life, further exacerbated by the recent antics of one "T-Kone", coupled with a select few "travel" writing/researching gigs showed me that what I love to do for a living is write, not necessarily "travel" write.
For me, confidence and being able to sell yourself is key. Like you (David) said, "come correct". Write about what you know.
There are hundreds of thousands of aspiring travel writers out there - everyone who's ever taken an extended trip abroad wants to dabble in travel writing.
Professionalism when handling rejections and networking is also paramount.
I am a technical writer (coming from a very technical background), yet being an artist outside of work is helping me slowly take my writing in a more creative direction.
The first step is always the most important. So, I think the most important step is...
Convincing yourself that you are a writer. Until you can do that, it will be nearly impossible to convince anyone else.
Joined: 08-13-06
What is--in your opinion--the single most important step to becoming a professional travel writer?