I’m guilty of social media dribble sometimes.
I prefer less mainstream, less sponsored and less time-tabled trips. I could write a travel blog but travel blogs have been flogged to death. Google just about anywhere and Tripadvisor or Lonely Planet or even News.com.au, etc, has it covered. The massive media conglomerations like Facebook fight to control the market and to suck up all your views and clicks as best they can. That’s not me for now.
We’ve got plenty of experience so what do we want to find?
I’ve run camping stores for over ten years and collected heaps of gear (most of it is now held together with duct tape – retail doesn’t pay well) so I know that millions of people never get the time or the money, or even have the inclination to explore the wild blue yonder outside the urban boundaries. For most of them it’s not this boutique camping thing for the photo opportunity either. They do it on the cheap. Airbeds deflate, the chairs break, and the rain. Well, it just rains. Why do they do it? Maybe because money just can’t buy experiences. Yes you do need money to go skydiving, agreed, but what does skydiving do? Exhilaration? Adrenalin? Excitement? What do we feel? My view is that a writer should attempt to get to the heart of what the experience is about for them, and find ways for people to relate.
My voice is obviously different.
Too much style is just lifted from marketing blurbs and I hate that. I try not to talk about the ‘delightful markets’ or the ‘wonderful gardens’, and I definitely won’t talk about the ‘great team’ or the ‘lovely’, or ‘informative’ display on an information sign.
You’ll like my down-to-earth and simple, yet expressive, reporting on places to go, things to do, and observations. Subscribe by email or like my Facebook and Insta.
Stay tuned.
-Mike