Crap becoming less crappy

Books on writing piss me off. I’ve said it before that “…there are many people that take advantage of aspiring writers. Aspiring writers are vulnerable and, unlike actual writers, they have money to spend on books, online courses, and websites.” I would like to add this little nugget…

Reading books on writing takes away from time that you could actually be writing, which is how a writer becomes better – writing begets writing. A brick layer doesn’t get better reading books.

The difficult thing is finding the motivation to continually write. And by motivation I mean an audience or a deadline. I was lucky to have both early on when I contributed my “Travelin’ Light” column to the Key West City paper. Without this opportunity, which started at $0/column and eventually got up to a grand total of $15/column, I’m not sure if I would still be writing today.

A column or a blog are both great ways to get not sucky at writing.

Yesterday, I stumbled upon a thread I commented on a few months ago about what qualities I value in a personal travel blog. Here they are:

People are always way more interesting than place.

Today is always more interesting than 500 years ago.

Objectiveness is overrated.

Making an ass out of yourself in a foreign country while doing your darnedest to be culturally sensitive is priceless.

The more you write the better you get. And the better you get the more likely the one time a literary agent stumbles across your blog he’ll decide to email you, “This is a great idea. Ever think about writing a book?”

And then you realize all of those crappy posts about sitting on airplanes, trains, and standing in line in immigration were worth it.

Keep blogging! Crap becomes less crappy over time. In this way, crap is kinda like wine.

 
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