All Posts in Category: Coaching For Professional Writers
Is Your Social Circle Helping You Achieve Your Travel Writing Goals?
On the flight home from the North American installment of the TBEX travel blogging conference, I reflected back on the big-picture, future-of-the-industry conversations I’d had with travel writing heavy hitters.
The redux version: in terms of opportunities, it’s an incredibly exciting time to be a travel writer.
But there was something deeper that I noticed, a thread underpinning so many conversations I’ve had, both in my own coaching and in the conferences I’ve attended.
The Paradox of “Successful” Travel Writing
Why did you decide to become a travel writer?
No, I’m not referring back to the three main types of travel writing motivation and how that informs the types of writing you should do and the clients you should work with.
Join Us for Free Travel Writing Lessons on Annual Review
In the two years since we began running regular one-hour travel writing classes, we’ve covered more than 80 topics, including:
- how to land free trips
- how to get paid really, really well for your writing
- how to get on magazine editors’ good sides
- how to navigate every step of the process to land travel content marketing work, including phone calls and proposals
- how to keep your hourly rate down so your bank account goes up
- how to get work done on the road
- how to write, step-by-step, 15 different types of travel articles
- how to land guidebook and other traditional publishing deals
You can grab access to all of our past webinars (and a ton of other resources you can’t find anywhere else) with a subscription to our Dream Buffet or grab them one-by-one when you need them in our On-Demand Webinar Library for a set with the video, audio, transcript, and slides.
But we also air a free replay of one of our travel writing classes each and every weekday.
Join Us for Free Travel Writing Lessons on Annual Review and Taking Control of your Travel Writing Business
In the two years since we began running regular one-hour travel writing classes, we’ve covered more than 80 topics, including:
- how to land free trips
- how to get paid really, really well for your writing
- how to get on magazine editors’ good sides
- how to navigate every step of the process to land travel content marketing work, including phone calls and proposals
- how to keep your hourly rate down so your bank account goes up
- how to get work done on the road
- how to write, step-by-step, 15 different types of travel articles
- how to land guidebook and other traditional publishing deals
You can grab access to all of our past webinars (and a ton of other resources you can’t find anywhere else) with a subscription to our Dream Buffet or grab them one-by-one when you need them in our On-Demand Webinar Library for a set with the video, audio, transcript, and slides.
But we also air a free replay of one of our travel writing classes each and every weekday.
My Favorite Takeaways from Our New Detox + Reset Retreat
At 10 a.m. on Saturday, armed with thermoses of freshly-brewed espresso and milk from local farms, cups of housemade yogurt and plum preserves, and slices of walnut-studded fresh sourdough smearer with spiced maple plum better, we began.
On a mountain ledge, looking out over the plains between the famous rock climbing cliffs of the Shawangunk and the Hudson River, we began clarify how to determine the values that direct us which decision to take in every situation before moving into describing our most ideal work environment and brainstorming what to do back at home to create it.
This was just the first morning’s activities of our new Detox + Reset program that we wrapped up this week.
All the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Our Travel Writing Retreats
This frequently asked question (FAQ) page on our travel writing retreats is designed to address every question we receive from people looking to understand if one of our tour- or lesson-focused travel writing events is right for them.
Our writing retreats are a little bit out of the ordinary–we know!
We often field questions over email from folks looking to attend our events, and if there’s anything I’ve learned in the dozens of weekend- and week-long retreats we’ve run at our retreat house and the dozens and dozens more I’ve led around the globe since we started Dream of Travel Writing, it’s that when one person asks a question, there’s always other people who have the same question and haven’t voice it yet.
Why We Host Our Travel Writing Retreats in New York’s Catskill Mountains (And We Couldn’t Make Them the Same Anywhere Else!)
I spent this morning ripping apart rose-fleshed plums.
For the first few, I’d place them delicately, just so in the waiting glass jar—already studied with an intoxicating Saigon cinnamon stick. After ten minutes passed, and another ten, and then another, I realized I was going to run out of jars, so I started smooshing them in, the magenta juice bursting out to fill the crevices between plum halves.
On the stove, a syrup of local wildflower honey simmered. I added a little molasses-colored buckwheat honey for extra depth of flavor.
Announcing Our Fall and Winter Travel Writing Retreat Schedule!
Once again, I want to thank everyone who contributed their thoughts on our upcoming event schedule and designing our new Travel Writers’ Detox + Reset event.
We’ve opened up early-bird pricing for all of our retreats in next week’s newsletter, with limited $150-off spots in each event open on a first-registered, first-served basis.
The Travel Writers’ Detox + Reset: Announcing Our New Retreat!
You have spoken! We asked if you needed some time to re-center where you’re at with your work and travel life, and the response was clear.
We’ve been noticing a trend lately, from conference talks to our coaching calls, that freelance travel writers are being pulled in too many directions.
You can call it the by-product of not having a clear separation between work and life or decision-making overload from the sheer number of possible things to do anytime you open your computer, but we’re seeing a serious problem:
- How do you prioritize?
- Or do everything?
- Or decide what you should do in any one moment?
Where Will This Summer Take You? (And Your Travel Writing Career Goals?)
Something I love about the summer travel season is the uncontrollable and unavoidable return to essential enjoyments:
- The feeling of the sun on your skin on a beautiful dry day.
- The cooling barrage of a steady breeze during a beautiful hike on a humid day.
- Finding berries and eating them fresh off the bush.
- A juicy peach or plum that reminds you what fruit is meant to taste like.
- Sitting on the grass, or the beach, or any other place outside where there is no plastic or concrete between you and the world.
- Sitting with friends or family late into a fresh evening enjoying a moment in which nothing else matters and it seems the morning will never come.
- The view of the ocean and artistry of the clouds from an airplane window reminding you how big the world really is.
Whether it’s the weather, kids off from school, or simply the many holidays that encourage us to take vacation, summer has a way of forcing us to remember what really makes us happy and the outsized value of small pleasures.