You need to travel if you want to be a travel writer, right? Well, I want to travel more, and I want to be a writer, but for now, I’m not doing much travelling, so now what?
Maybe I don’t have to physically travel to be a travel writer. Maybe I can write about my current home as if I was travelling through it. Try to see it with new eyes. I could also revisit some memories and diaries from journeys past. Would that count?
A journey can be many things. Physically moving through geographical space. Exploring your own life; searching for purpose, pleasure or challenge. Following a path of spiritual, intellectual or athletic development. Looking at it that way, we’re all on a journey of some sort or other. Travellers, all of us. Does that then mean that those of us who write are all travel writers? Or perhaps some would be better described as travelling writers? And does it matter?
There is a lot of emphasis in the world of ‘personal development’ about specialisation. You must label yourself in order to stand out above the crowd. I AM (insert name) AND I DO (insert chosen speciality) REALLY WELL! I even heard one seemingly very experienced and highly paid commercial writing coach, saying that to label yourself merely as a ‘writer’ was a sure way to fail at being one (professionally).
For a while, not knowing what badge to wear held me back. I wanted to be a writer, perhaps even a travel writer, but I didn’t believe myself to be specialised enough nor ‘expert’ enough to be one. I was essentially waiting for myself to become an expert writer, before becoming an expert writer. Confused? I certainly was.
Perhaps I could call myself a stay-at-home writer, or a looking-out-the-window writer, or a practicing-to-be-a-writer-for-the-day-I-start-travel-writing writer. I could definitely call myself a writing-when-I-find-time-between-parenting writer.
I decided that it doesn’t matter, because if it did, then I would never get started, and if I never get started, I won’t get anywhere.
So my advice to myself : Don’t stress about labelling yourself, just get on with what feels right, and worry about what to call it later.
Stuart Westwood 