Thanks for sharing, Helen. I'm not a seasoned travel writer like you, but I am a seasoned freelance writer who has been looking to dip my toes in the travel-writing waters while I'm in France (living here for a while because of my wife's graduate program). I started pitching a couple of months ago and got a bite for a personal essay. Other than that, silence and rejections. As a longtime writer, I'm no stranger to that experience, but I do wonder if "breaking into" travel writing is too much of a slog for it not to be my full-time commitment. Most of my income comes from technical writing, which I intend to continue, though I supplement with some political writing and personal essays. In other words, I'm trying to add travel writing to my repertoire, but I wonder if that may be too ambitious. Apologies for the lengthy comment. This has been on my mind lately, and your post prompted reflection.
Thanks for your comment Pablo. I hear you, the silence and rejection is so rough. I think though that if travel writing is something you want to add to your repertoire then you can absolutely do that around your other work. One of the best things about it is that you don’t need to do it ‘full-time’ (which is a meaningless measure really anyway) if you don’t want to or aren’t able to.
Thanks for sharing, Helen. I'm not a seasoned travel writer like you, but I am a seasoned freelance writer who has been looking to dip my toes in the travel-writing waters while I'm in France (living here for a while because of my wife's graduate program). I started pitching a couple of months ago and got a bite for a personal essay. Other than that, silence and rejections. As a longtime writer, I'm no stranger to that experience, but I do wonder if "breaking into" travel writing is too much of a slog for it not to be my full-time commitment. Most of my income comes from technical writing, which I intend to continue, though I supplement with some political writing and personal essays. In other words, I'm trying to add travel writing to my repertoire, but I wonder if that may be too ambitious. Apologies for the lengthy comment. This has been on my mind lately, and your post prompted reflection.
Thanks for your comment Pablo. I hear you, the silence and rejection is so rough. I think though that if travel writing is something you want to add to your repertoire then you can absolutely do that around your other work. One of the best things about it is that you don’t need to do it ‘full-time’ (which is a meaningless measure really anyway) if you don’t want to or aren’t able to.
Thanks for the words of encouragement, Helen.