In 2008, I quit my corporate job, sold off everything I owned and moved overseas with my husband Drew. Since then we've traveled around the world, started our careers over as creative types and nurtured our love of sleeping in late. Oh and we had a baby. Cole, our almost 2 year old has been traveling since he was four months old and probably knows more Thai than me (not that he brags).
National Travel Writing Month: NaTraWriMo
I had this idea the other day. What if I spent one month, really focusing on my writing? Not just polishing prose that will never get published, but actually thinking like an editor, finding angles and pitching my ideas to a publication. What if I spent the entire month of August, submitting a query letter per day? Would I get published more often? Would I learn something about writing queries? Would I make connections with editors? It seemed like a worthy experiment, so I started drafting a dream list of publications that I would target.
Of course, what fun is to spend an entire month slogging through query writing if you can’t bring your friends down with you? (misery loves company as they say). I sent an email out, got lots of responses and lo and behold NaTraWriMo was born.
The Concept
Based on the wildly popular National Novel Writing Month (Or NaNoWriMo), this travel writing social experiment seeks to push our boundaries as writers. While NaNo focuses on writing a 50,000 word novel in one month, we’re trying to send 31 query letters between August 1 -31, 2008.
Novel writing is very different than writing 1000 word articles for publication. Before you’ve gotten over the glow of a single acceptance, it’s time to send out more pitches (there is no monthly or yearly lag between selling). So we are focused on writing a small amount per day (a single letter to an editor) but at a quality level you feel comfortable sending to a publication. That’s right. You write and you submit. Wash, Rinse and Repeat (31 times).
Want to play?
Well I have a few folks who have volunteered to come along for the ride with me, and we’d love to have more. I created a simple forum for us to communicate with, and I think over time it will be a great resource for travel writers in general.
If you want to sign up go to almostfearless.com/NaTraWriMo, register and post an introduction!
Don’t have time, but still like to play?
I also received a bunch of emails from folks who’d love to do it, but are too busy finishing their book, traveling or just want a break in August (no rest for the wicked). If you can’t commit, you can still join in the conversations. Also, we do make exceptions for writing articles (they count if they are going to an editor) or for photographers, or if you want to work on your guidebook instead. So come on over and say hi!