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A writer’s journey.
Over the years, countless writers have retreated to parts less travelled in order to craft their great works. Ernest Hemingway and Truman Capote are just two such examples, but this isn’t to say that you have to either write at the level of skill or fame that these two individuals did. Travel is a worthy aid to any writer, capable of opening their eyes to a variety of new experiences and perspectives that will broaden their minds.
Soaking up your environment is crucial to writing, as inspiration and ideas cannot be formed in a fresh mind, not if you’re looking to present something of a particular type, to a partciular standard. To write often is to become a better writer, and to write of your experiences, be it a week of Partypoker in Vegas or a stroll along the beaches of Italy, will enable you to create windows into worlds that others are yet to experience.
What an astonishing gift it is, to be able to travel and write. Those who do are lucky – to see so many places and become a more knowledgeable individual, but also to potentially profit from being able to write about a wide variety of locations and activities that most people would never have painted onto their own eyes outside your journalism, your diary-writing, your non-fiction or your literature.
Here, you’ll find a wealth of travel writing, discussing locales and experiences from around the world. It’s a dream job, in a lot of ways, and comes with some responsibility – to accurately represent these places and convince people to explore it themselves. A journey worth making, and one that may make many people writing barons, should they wish to become one. May your travels help generate some of your best work.
OK mano, the viral marketing gigs are getting off the hook. A daliance here and there is cool, like a certain Dr. said “[people] see the green and their eyes go slanted”. And here was me thinking you were a screaming lefty . . . .
Eh, I pay for this space and this has covered it for a year. I negotiated for a couple of weeks to make sure there was a disclaimer before hand (they wanted it at the end; that was non-negotiable and nearly scuppered the deal). I work absolutely insane hours G. I’ve just reduced hours at the office and am taking on a lot of freelance. if I can make a little cash on the side on this – a labour of love, well, I’m going to, as long as I’m not duping people.
Maybe you should spend more time on My Kafkaesque Life (he needs to check mine out)’s blog if you want holier than thou scruples. Myself, his spotless morals are outweighed by the insipid, rehashed platitudes that constitute the lion’s share of his output.
MKL’s got his own at-peace-with-everything vibe and I’m cool with that, and I hear you with the fact that you’re putting up your own dosh for this blog.
However, maybe you should pitch these guys some advertising content, as the stuff their writing for themselves if definitely sub-par: no connect to the product, no hook to drag you in, looks like it was produced automatically. A decent adverblog should read something more like those old-time magazines – you know the type: a photo with a dense para of text underneath it saying something laudatory about the kind of person who buys/uses their product.
Good idea G but I don’t really give a toss and that’s not how what they’re doing works.
I have no problem with what MKL does. Just find his harping about being “the best blog in Taiwan” rather embarrassing as, I’ll say again, I’ve never really read any original content on their that really made be think “Oh, that’s interesting.” I haven’t and won’t go into the writing aspect because he’s a non-native and does very well overall.
I just don’t need his sanctimonious pooh-poohing – especially when quite a few of his fawning female lackeys (the ones I’ve half looked into) seem to do real paid blogging for products (like a lot of girls in TW who make bloody good money of it), unlike myself. If you think I’m compromising myself, then I’ll have a think about it as, believe it or not, I do have time for what you think as both a friend and someone who has something to say for himself.
I think I’ve been pretty straight up with this in announcing it for what it is. If I thought it was turning people whose opinions I value away from my blog or making them think ill of me then I wouldn’t do it but I don’t think there are really any numbers to turn away and those that do read (you and my mum!) probably won’t be too fussed, no?
Me, I’m an out-and-out capitalist, so I have no problem with advertising if it’s paying alright. Since it’s covering the cost of the blog (a couple of hundred US a year was the price of a domain back in the mid-’00s) I guess the money’s not nothing so that’s alright. I thought the free hotel room for a review you got from those guys in Sri Lanka was pretty awesome. Back in my CN days I did take a free weekend in Macau from a guy working for Macau.com who hoped I’d do a good review – and I did, because it was awesome, though the blog on which I wrote it is now defunct – so I can’t claim I’m pure as driven snow on this either.