I had an epiphany while I was cleaning the bathroom today. It was right after I dislodged the showerhead slightly, resulting in a complete soaking of myself in a dry shower. As I untangled myself from the wreckage of the plumbing, I thought to myself, I don’t want to be a travel writer. I don’t even really want a travel blog.
So…. what on earth am I doing writing this post I hear you ask?
To be fair, the epiphany was the culmination of a few months of real thinking on my part, and then an interesting author talk at the local library this morning. The author wasn’t a travel writer at all, in fact he wrote children’s books and his presentation was followed by a mad Irishman teaching us how to draw dragons (literally), but I digress.
My point, is that an author from a completely different genre and with a completely different approach to his writing journey, highlighted the one thing that I think I have been missing lately. The one thing that the travel writing lists of great places to visit in Broome isn’t doing for me or my development as a writer. The one thing that goes back up to the top of my list. Imagination.
Maybe it was the fumes from the cleaning agents, but I realised that this ‘journey’ I am on at the moment, is less about travel and more about writing. But not writing about travel, if that makes sense, but storytelling. My novel is stuck in ‘boredom town’ and my travel articles are not inspiring me. I read so many articles that say the same thing as well. Where is the imagination and individuality?
Storytelling is definitely a word that is overused. It has become a buzzword in business and for this reason I tend to resist using it, but it is fundamentally at the heart of what I want to do, tell stories. How, what format and what stories are the challenge and this chapter of my life is the time for me to explore and work this out to pursue a direction.
So, what has the shower drenching resulted in (other than forcing me to create more washing). I am going to re-purpose my blog…again. Yes I know, but this is my personl blog, its not my business calling card or my job. It’s just me. This will now become my ‘life journal’ and now the fun can really begin. I want to talk about my writing, about travel and about life.
So while I haven’t really got a plan to slay dragons, in fact I didn’t even stay to try and draw one myself, I can imagine that I was able to, and I can imagine that I was successful. It’s time to take the next step.
PS – In case you are wondering, I still plan to keep working towards my Top 12 Broome travel experiences (I have ticked off 5 so far), as these are all things that I want to do and experience, but I will be using them in a slightly different way in my writing in the future.
Learning to write a novel 