What They Don’t Tell You About Being A Travel Writer

/ Stuart Danker / 41 Comments

Travel Writer Equipment - Annie Spratt

Who’d have thought travel writing would exist? You get to experience something you otherwise wouldn’t, and they pay for it? What is this, a writer’s wet dream?

When I flew to Boracay for my first travel assignment, I couldn’t believe I was doing it. Here I was, a writer that had stumbled across various dead-end jobs before finding this gig, and I was well on my way to collecting passport stamps and magazine bylines.

That honeymoon period lasted barely two months though, because while travel writing was fun, it also offered what any other job did—the potential for it to suck.

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NON FICTION: What You Need To Think About Before Writing That Next Blog Post

/ Stuart Danker / 62 Comments
Man thinking at desktop

Photo: Jason Strull

I’m fortunate enough to have grown up as a nobody who’d had a day job that involved public speaking.

What that taught me was that if I were to talk to a crowd of strangers, I better damn well have something interesting to say, lest I end up talking to a disinterested audience for however long it is I’m slated to talk.

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NON FICTION: Things I’ve Learned From Being A Jack Of All Trades

/ Stuart Danker / 57 Comments
Woman sleeping on dressing room table

Photo: Nihal Demirci

This might be anecdotal, but I do think that the world is changing to accommodate generalists rather than specialists.

I might be biased though. After all, I’d jumped from hairdressing to auditing to writing. And that doesn’t even include my other odd jobs such as being an insurance salesman and a roadie.

All my life, people have told me that I lacked focus, that I’m doing myself a disservice by not hunkering down and focusing on one thing.

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NON FICTION: Discovering My Writing Faith In The Ruby Mines Of Myanmar

/ Stuart Danker / 22 Comments
Man praying on beach

Photo: Ben White

“Maybe your writing sits better with westerners than with Asians,” Nick said, comparing my blog posts (read: more than five readers) to the Facebook shares (my sister being the sole reader) I occasionally put out.

I nodded with reluctance. It wasn’t as if Malaysia lacked a thriving reading community, but there was also no denying it: I get more traffic and engagement from the USA than anywhere else, all things considered.

As much as I’d like to believe that hard work and talent trumps all, it’s becoming real apparent to me that getting your work seen by the appropriate audience seems to be a more effective way of approaching things than just blindly churning out content week after week.

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