Bloggers, Writers, the Past and the Future
It all started yesterday on Twitter. Somebody made some offhand comment about a recent interview with travel writer Paul Theroux. I haven’t read the interview but apparently Mr. Theroux made some not nice comments about travel bloggers. The ever grumpy elder statesman of travel writing inferred that some travel bloggers are borderline illiterate.
You can imagine the backlash and ultra-knee-jerk reaction in the travel blogging world. What started me thinking was one sarcastic comment that Paul was ‘probably jealous because he didn’t have a blog and could only write books.’ The comment, perhaps meant to be ironic got me thinking about how I feel about blogging in the modern world.
As a writer people always ask me about blogging. Do I have a blog? What do I think about bloggers? What’s the difference between a writer and a blogger? Interesting questions all, and to answer I have to tell you a story about where I came from as a writer.
When I was starting out as a writer way back when we were scared about Y2K and Facebook sounded like something from Star Trek the writing world was a different place. I vividly remember submitting my first published article to a magazine. I typed out the story on my shitty old computer and printed, yes printed, it out (onto paper) and mailed it to the editor. He liked it and had it re-typed to go into the magazine. By the time my second article went to print I mailed the editor of the magazine a floppy disc with the article on it. This wasn’t the dark ages, this was 12 years ago.
Fast-forward to today and everything is so different words elude my comparison. Beyond delivery of material how words are published is vastly different. There used to be a stewardship of writing for little magazines, newsletters, community papers and whatever you could, ‘to get your name out there.’ Actually getting a written piece with your name on it in front of somebody else who didn’t have the same last name was a really big deal. The option to self publish either in print or digitally simply didn’t exist. For better or worse that was the system.
From that system a culture of writers grew that had truly paid their dues. We wrote for shitty publications with zero distribution just to get experience with editors. We wrote about stuff we didn’t want to and put up with terrible edits to further our career. We hit the phones, cold called everyone in the business we could find and after years of hard work, obscurity and soul crushing rejection we, in some cases, found success. I’m one of the lucky ones; I came through the other side with a career and my soul intact. Many very talented people didn’t make it through with either.
To become a blogger takes zero training, zero experience, zero investment and in some cases almost zero understanding of the English language. Don’t get me wrong I’m not bemoaning the current system; the opportunity for novice writers to get their work ‘in print’ is fantastic. When new writers ask me the best way to get into the industry, the first thing I tell them to do is start a blog. Having that outlet for the world to see your work is a fantastic privilege, not to be understated.
My gripe comes at the culture that has evolved around the travel blogging world. This sub-sect of writers in some cases has reached a level of self awareness that exceeds their actual value in the writing and travel world. There is a certain lose of touch with reality. You could spend days reading self serving posts that do nothing other then scattergun key words and contextual links like self promotional projectile vomit. Blogs that disguise themselves as information portals for modern travelers that are nothing more than business to business sewing circles for other bloggers. Self serving circle jerks of traded links, top five whatever’s in wherever and two hundred word soulless articles about nothing.
Not all travel blogs or their authors are like this. The writing stars of the future are writing blogs today. What I don’t like is the glass ceiling that they have installed upon their own world. Twitter handles and blogs titled uber-narrow minded things like ‘So and So’s Round the World Trip’. What happens when the trip ends? Does the blog fold up shop too? Is the travel writing world cursed to have new writers spit out like some sort of social media Pez dispenser?
I’m not bitter that I started my writing career in a different time. I’m super excited about the writing world today. Technology and opportunity have come together and the relevance of the humble scribe has never been more vital. Where my, I’ll call it annoyance lies is what this revolution has done to my profession. The culture of travel bloggers has adversely affected travel writing as a whole. There is a subset of travel bloggers who see writing a blog as reason enough to demand freebees from tourism operators, unethically praise and slander based upon gratis hostel stays and cheap airfares. This has created a culture of expectation where travelers are gravitating towards blogging to help fund their trips as opposed to writers, writing quality work. Work that inspires people and lets them live a vicarious dream through their well chosen words.
Travel writing as a whole is suffering; the quality is decreasing as fast as the word counts. The long form travel story is an endangered species and nearly impossible to find online. The status quo has been hijacked not by superior talent but by those who see writing as a means to an end and not the end itself.
I started writing because I loved the way that words fit together. I loved the sound of a good sentence and the feeling when those words came from me. It was a rush, a creative outlet that kept me up at night and shaped who I’ve become. I started writing about travel because I was a writer that went traveling not as a means to keep the trip going.
That feeling of excitement when a good turn of phrase arrives on the page is still a part of my life every day. I want my world to be filled with colleagues who feel the same. Writers who look at a blank page as the first step in a journey, a metaphorical adventure into the written world and nothing more.
Perhaps this trend in travel blogging will reverse engineer some fine writers. Writers who arrived at writing via a strange route. I hope so. But to those of you out there who were quick to dismiss Mr. Theroux and his offside remark to bloggers be mindful of where you came from, why you are writing and where you see yourself five years from now. As writers we all hold the responsibility to inspire the next generation of travelers. Let’s inspire them to chase their dreams, see the world, experience new cultures and arrive home a new person. Extolling the virtues of playing the system and polluting the wordsmith gene pool with senseless drivel does nothing but damage us all.
Scott Kennedy
May 19, 2011
I’m glad those remarks helped me find my way here.
Theroux’s a crank. Always has been. Comes from a long tradition of cranks. He’s also a fine writer, The Great Railway Bazaar was my first love in the pantheon of travel books. But his assessment of bloggers is crap, utter nonsense, and it sounds like he’s not made it past LOL Cats. I don’t actually care about that. I can think that Theroux is a great writer and a crackpot at the same time.
The other issues here are bigger. While I agree that the web is cluttered with garbage, blogging is the gateway drug for writing. Those that fall in love with words will continue to strive to write better work, to be better writers, and the medium won’t be the message anymore. Those who don’t make the leap, well, it doesn’t really matter, does it? Not REALLY.
Theroux would have hated Gutenberg, too, I think, had he been born a few centuries earlier.
For the record here is what Theroux said:
“I loathe blogs when I look at them. Blogs look to me illiterate, they look hasty, like someone babbling. To me writing is a considered act. It’s something which is a great labor of thought and consideration. A blog doesn’t seem to have any literary merit at all. It’s a chatty account of things that have happened to that particular person.”
My ultimate goal has always, since I was a little girl, to be a print writer. Like you, I love words, I love writing them. I especially love when people actually get a chance to read what I’ve written, which self-publishing ensures. Travel blogging has been, for me, a way to make headway in the industry, and along the way it has transformed into a bit of a career in itself. I care a lot of about my writing skills, and I think they have improved dramatically since I started blogging.
The problem with what Theroux wrote is that he sounds, like Pam said like a cranky old man, and an ill-informed one as well. I could choose to be insulted, because I do think my writing is a “considered act,” but I’m honestly not sure Theroux has ever bothered to read a travel blog. Because there are some really great, inspiring writers on the web. And the medium they use does not diminish the pleasure I get in reading their words.
Like you, Scott and Pam, I write because I enjoy it. I wrote before I had blogs, I would write if I had no audience. I wonder, however, if it’s not understanding the shifting role of writer-as-publisher that is the issue.
As a writer, Mr T has never had to commercially promote his work. Sure, he’s done book tours and interviews, but the publisher has had to publish works for the masses and for more elite audiences: the publisher has had to do the job of attracting money and numbers of buyers. Now, a blogger is writer, promoter, publisher and business manager. There’s stuff one pours soul into, and stuff one writes for a particular need. Or maybe he’s just a crank.
And as for the bigger travel blogging world, it’ll grow. Both in numbers and in maturity. Or, at least we can hope so.
my favorite line ever: “Self serving circle jerks of traded links, top five whatever’s in wherever and two hundred word soulless articles about nothing.” I feel both contempt and love for bloggers – especially those with huge followings on blogs of nothingness, all friends or friends of friends encouraging things that shouldn’t be encouraged. But at the same time, it also allows me to see really good writers (like yourself) through random contacts and links and posts on twitter. And discover worlds I may never have experienced had I not waded through the grotesque mire of “so i went to the gym yesterday, yay!” and other such irrelevancies. The world of food bloggers have also been influenced in such ways. Great entry!! I can tell you have a passion for writing and that your frustration comes from your respect for writing as an art form.
Pam, Stephanie, Craig – great comments, thanks for that. I think we are all on the same page here. By no means am I throwing the baby out with the bathwater, there are some great blogs out there. I too care little what format I read quality words – print, blog, carved into stone – who cares, it’s the words that matter.
I too hope that the travel blogging world grows and matures and the chaff falls by the wayside. I’m confident it will, it’s just a frustrating reinvention of the wheel to see it have to come full circle.
Craig you make a good point about the new need for self promotion. One thing to consider is that Paul would have gone through that to get to the stage where he was invited to write a book. The hat in hand grovelling and dealing with the old-school publishing world was by far less fun than any self promotion that happens these days.
Stephanie – “I love words, I love writing them. I especially love when people actually get a chance to read what I’ve written, which self-publishing ensures. Travel blogging has been, for me, a way to make headway in the industry, and along the way it has transformed into a bit of a career in itself. I care a lot of about my writing skills, and I think they have improved dramatically since I started blogging.” – AWESOME!
Pam – Blogging is a great gateway drug for both writers and readers – hopefully readers are finding the good stuff and not being put off by the clutter.”Those that fall in love with words will continue to strive to write better work, to be better writers, and the medium won’t be the message anymore.” exactly!
Thanks guys,
Scott
Mee – thanks for the comments and the kudos. I do enjoy the irony that this was written in my blog and was discovered by you (and others) via social media.
Cheers,
Scott
Regardless of the literacy of bloggers versus writers (in many cases writers have the joy of an editor to help them rework and refine their work such that it appears literate) I think there is a far greater white elephant in the room.
Do travel bloggers actually add value to the travel suppliers that make up the travel industry? Do travel bloggers go to the same length to research a travel piece as a traditional writer who must submit, and as you say, earn that pieces passage through editors (some of whose own status as judge and jury is dubious)? Are travellers actually reading the travel blogs as sources of inspiration and as points of research for their travel?
You are absolutely right Scott in stating that a travel writer earns their success and respect by grafting at their trade and getting their pieces published in progressively better and better publications. A measure of a travel bloggers success, however, is often attributed to traffic on their website; traffic that can be earned through such well researched pieces as 5 Ways to Get Naked on a Beach, or 10 Things to Take Travelling. Stumble Upon and social media such as Twitter can accelerate ones traffic thereby supposedly making that blogger more respected. But when you look at their 40 odd comments on a post – the majority come from other bloggers, those that also lurk on Twitter. So again are genuine travellers reading these blogs? Are they in fact adding any value to the industry they are so-called representing?
People say stupid things, all the time, as I shall presently illustrate for you.
Whether it be in print, on screen, in a song or at the pub, there is always, at least, one person talking a lot and saying very little. This, however, far from being a negative aspect of the internet or human nature, is cause to celebrate! These founts of silage make our dear friends all the more interesting, our most cherished novels (also dear friends) all the more magical and our favourite music all the more transcendent. Theroux should be pleased with the plethora of illiterates: they make him look good (If you have never read Mosquito Coast do so immediately.)
I needn’t add that what distinguishes one writer’s rhetoric from another’s brain numbing ramblings is not arbitrary but simply a matter of the reader’s opinion.
Some readers may not recognise a well-constructed sentence if it built a cage around them and fed them bananas. Conversely others recognise them immediately and are instantly driven bananas by what they see as being over complicated, self-congratulatory and pompous drivel. Or they are put off reading it in the first place because the paragraphs that constitute its format are too long.
I hasten to point out that this can have absolutely nothing to do with the intellect or profession of the reader. Just as I have had colleagues in the English (literature) teaching profession (and more recently a PHD student in Linguistics) confess that they no longer read for pleasure, (fools!) I have also witnessed silly, chatty and vain 15 year old students be moved by a phrase of great literature.
Herein lies the problem with organised elitism. Just as with organised religion and Orwellian utopias: we are forced beyond the realm of the whinging pom, and I love nothing more than a good, accurate bitch, and admit we have a responsibility to ask: what, pray, is the consequence? An entrance exam? Initiation ceremony? Travel blog police? Surely not that age old enemy of freedom: GENOCIDE, worse still: CENSORSHIP?
So, as I wipe my mouth and scrape back my fringe, signing off on the big porcelain telephone, I leave you with words of peace and comfort amid the carrots. (And here I googled to try and find some sound bite by a reputed author on dichotomy and necessity of opposites for their very existence and only could find new age and self help bollocks…)
Wicked writing, as always Scott, thank you for opening up these forums for discussion, these are the pearls within the oysters of salty travel blogging phlegm x
If this is what Theroux said – “To me writing is a considered act. It’s something which is a great labor of thought and consideration” – then I thoroughly disagree. Sometimes good writing is laboured over, fine-tuned and diligently cut. Indeed, much of the best writing is this way. But sometimes the off-the-cuff, on-the-spot, fire-in-the-belly expulsion of words contains more power and insight. It conveys more sense of place and feeling. It brings people into a world that’s felt not analysed.
But that’s about immediacy versus reflection. It’s nothing to do with blogging versus traditional travel writing (something, I think you’ll find, that no-one can actually define). Basically, there’s good writing and bad writing. Most travel blogs are absof***inglutely awful. Most MSM travel writing is too. The medium doesn’t matter, to focus on it is completely missing the point. The open publishability just means that,by volume, there’s a lot more awful in the travel blogging world. Percentage wise, it’s probably roughly equivalent.
This said, I still stick to my theory: Quite a lot of people make a living from blogging about travel. Very few of them call themselves travel bloggers.
Well said David. I agree the medium matters little – Dan eluded to it in his comment that the lack of an editors eye often plays as much a part as anything. I also agree that Theroux’s statement that all writing must be considered is open for argument. There is always a time and a place for the fire and brimstone heat of the moment writing. And who is anyone to judge how someone ‘considers’ what they are writing. Kerouac wrote On The Road in a few long nights on scrolls of taped together typewriter paper. does that somehow make it ‘unconsidered’.
As you say there is good writing and bad writing, but we seem to be inundated by something even worse these days – boring writing.
Thanks for a very – un-boring comment!
Cheers,
Scott
Jo – anyone who can talk so elegantly about puke knows the way to my heart. phlegm, genocide, censorship and carrots – all the ingredients one needs for a fine stew. Thanks for the very literate and well thought comments. I agree we shouldn’t waste energy on the background din, but I do worry at times that the shitful karaoke sung by so many is drowning out the folk singer in the corner that could change your life.
Dan – interesting points and a genuine concern that should be alarming the hell out of the travel blog community…
Enjoyable piece – cheers. As already noted, there’s no shortage of dire content — on- or offline. It’s generally easier to force crap to the surface online than in print, which probably goes some way to explaining why this is such a resilient meme. Is swapping out an editor for Google’s whimsical algorithm the root of the problem? Maybe, or maybe not – many bloggers complain they can’t rank there.
Can’t say I disagree with Theroux much at all. I think there are scads of travel bloggers (and yes, I am in that subset of writers myself) that completely overrate the quality of their writing and somehow think their prose is anywhere near as good as Theroux’s, or Iyer’s, or Bryson’s, or Chatwin’s and so on. The book writers — at least the really good ones we can all name off easily — are far better writers than virtually any travel blogger out there. Not to diminish the need or validity of travel blogging — hell, I do it — but those that think what we do is somehow on par with the writing that those folks do is kidding themselves.
Nice post. I too started 12 years ago as a writer and fell into travel writing after having my self-funded trips published. Now it’s my passion and I focus more heavily in the online sphere than print – although print still pays the bills at this point!
Cheers
Megan – Blogger at Large
“To me writing is a considered act. It’s something which is a great labor of thought and consideration”
It is too bad he doesn’t extend that much thought and consideration to doing interviews….
Like Scott, I remember typing my first few stories, printing them, and sending them to the newspaper to see them retyped and actually set into print. I started out as a business writer for weekly newspapers, so you can only imagine how many stories I wrote about things I considered less than exciting (muffler stores, plastic surgeons, chiropractors…the list goes on). I suffered through tons of bad edits. I worked production nights at our newspapers as a proofreader as a means to learn more about the whole newspaper production process. And, as an aside, I remember being the “Y2K coordinator” at the FT (non-writing) job I had as 2000 arrived…even as I was writing stories about Y2K for the newspapers and some other local business publications.
I always had a vision of writing about regional travel in the Midwest U.S., and I had the occasional opportunity to write a travel story or advertorial over the year years.
Then the bottom dropped out of the print markets around here. I feared losing whatever voice I did have after more than a decade of writing for print markets.
I hesitated about blogging, but I came to see it as an opportunity to finally do the sort of writing I always envisioned my self doing. Having a blog helps me create my own opportunities, build my own platform, find my own audience, and to have a voice. Writing for my own blog means I can write until the story is completed, rather than jamming my words into an 8-inch news hole.
I do believe, as David so eloquently explained, that to focus on the medium is to miss the point. There is, and always has been, a lot of crap out there. There are, and always has been, some great writers out there. I am, as I’ve heard Pam say, a writer who uses blogging as a platform.
Yes, it is annoying when a respected writer like Theroux makes a sweeping generalization about “travel bloggers” and dismisses them all as purveyors of crap without much apparent thought or consideration. It was also annoying when people disparaged those who wrote for little local publications as no-talent hacks and praised those who labored for years on their unpublished novels as real “serious writers”.
Seems like over the years, there is lots of change, while some things (like the need for some folks to engage in at least somewhat groundless criticism) seem to remain the same.
I’m a long-time journalist with stacks of newspaper and magazine clips on a wide variety of subjects, including travel. When I decided to start my travel Web site and blog I tweaked the format for screen reading but not the way I reported and composed the content. I still sweat over information gathering, phrasing and hunting down the just right word, and I still feel like I have an imaginary editor — a good one who isn’t crazy — hovering over my shoulder. Because at the end of the day I want to be proud of what I publish, whether it’s for a newspaper read by millions or my blog read by, well, I’m building.
In other words, standards are a must with writing no matter where it appears, and if they’re not going to be imposed by an editor or an employer, we as internet writers owe it to ourselves and our readers to impose them ourselves. Perhaps that’s what caused Theroux to unleash his vitriol. He’s right in a sense — there will never be the uniform standards in the realm of self-publishing that you find at a publishing house or big-name newspaper. But that doesn’t mean individual internet writers don’t — or won’t — abide by them. And that doesn’t mean all the traveling writing online is “hasty, babbling and illiterate.”
Sorry to pop in late to the discussion.
Stringing words together was a key solace during my childhood, so I respect their power and sit in awe of the kinds of emotions words can coax.
Much like Craig, I wrote well before blogging, then stopped.
I sat idle in a 9 to 5 job trying to convince myself that writing was an “outside” pastime. Clearly, I was dead wrong. It’s so ingrained in me and like you, a burst of creation leaves me more heady than any illegal substance could.
My blog and traveling overall was about changing my life. And yes, I adore traveling. So, decided to combine the two parts I love the most into one.
Theroux’s comments didn’t offend me necessarily. In every speck of life, negative and positive go hand in hand. There are senseless, babbling blogs. I’m sure I’ve published a low grade post or two as well. And as Pam/Steph point out, there are some searingly talented writers who now have the power to be publisher and writer.
I view blogging as a way to circumvent the traditional publishing route. I have plenty of friends with two or three books in play, frantically searching for an agent. Still. After several years. I don’t have several more years to waste. I already wasted enough.
I don’t have CV cred. Skipped that English degree.
What blogging has given me is the ability to write every single day, something that was stifled for 7 years. You can imagine my impatience then.
I give two hoots about SEO or backlinks in the end. They aren’t unimportant, just not my main goal.
It’s the writing. Always has been.
Appreciate this discussion!
I don’t think this has as much to do w/writing versus blogging as much as it has to do with the evolution of writing itself. People aren’t born with a need to write, or even read, but with a need to communicate – and the critical mass will always go to where communicating is easiest.
My guess is the work of the most gifted writers out there currently, never sees the light of day, or makes it further than a good MFA program, if they’re lucky. You’ve got to have “marketing skills”, and “platform,” and “influence” — everything has become extra sociable. Not to mention the sheer determination it took for writers back in the day to type and use correcter ribbon. Now the flood gates are open! Not necessarily bad – but not necessarily good either!
I like having my own travel website, where I can write and publish what I want. When I came back to “journalism” a while back, the editors weren’t the same either… the quality of journalism outside of the very top tier publications had gone to heck anyway, the pay had gotten worse, my feeling was, “why bother?” What I struggle with in my own public writing, is that I’m not about to publish one tenth of what I write in any given week. If anything I suffer from the opposite problem of thinking every word from my pen is worthy of being read immediately.
I agree that often the “self awareness” in the online world in general doesn’t add up. But I’m always looking for and often find that “folk singer in the corner” and hopefully enough others are too! Great discussion… so glad to have wandered over here today.
I like your thoughts on the topic. I am not a professional writer as such, but I write a lot in my professional job.
I started my travel blog because I wanted a place to keep all of my writing together and where people could read it. Personally, I get really annoyed at a lot of the “how-to” articles on writing a blog. I don’t like writing only 200 word articles or “top 10″ lists. I have posts on my blog from when I was 19 that are longer than most university honours dissertations.
I like reading long stories, so that’s usually what I write. I’m of the opinion that it’s my blog, so, for better or worse, I will write in the way I am comfortable. Like many others, I’ve always written, ever since I knew how to. I love the internet because I get to interact with the people who read what I wrote – no matter if that’s one person or one hundred people.
Perhaps travel blogging is just going through a “latest craze” these days, some people are thinking of it as a travel equivalent of a get rick quick scheme.
Hey there! I’ve been following your web site for some time now and finally got the courage to go ahead and give you a shout out from Dallas Texas! Just wanted to tell you keep up the good work!
As Stuart correctly points out, Google is a bad editor. The incentives are the problem, and until they’re fixed the drivel will continue.
I spend almost as much time trying to find an audience for my travelogue as I do writing, and because I agonise over words, as I think all good writers must do, I don’t post often. Unfortunately, regular posts seem to be an important part of having a successful blog, and this encourages drek that expires fast. Shelf-life is good measure of bad writing. The excerpts Theroux has chosen for The Tao of Travel are from writers who we will continue to read for generations, perhaps forever.
Reading on a screen is a part of the problem. It’s a paradox: most of the people with attention spans long enough to read lengthy articles don’t want to do that at their computers. Hand-held devices have made digital prose more comfortable, but the early adopters are usually the same people that want short posts about nothing. They don’t want big words or history or analysis. They want LOLCats.
I want the kind of readers that buy Theroux’s books. I just don’t know how to find them.
What travel writing on the internet needs is a recognised award for quality, not traffic. There are awards for travel blogs, but they’re put to a popular vote, and as a result are heavily skewed in favour of sites with the most traffic. The sites with the most traffic then get more traffic, and the circle continues. Saying that the best writing will attract the most readers online is like saying that Dan Brown is the finest writer of the last ten years, or that newspapers and magazines with the largest circulation produce the finest reporting. By that measure, The Sun would be the UK’s newspaper of record. We have a host prizes to recognise excellence in literature and journalism. Why not extend this to travel writing published online?
What Paul Theroux and his ilk should be doing is helping to set up and adjudicate this kind of award, instead of griping about an immature medium. He sounds like a short-sighted Luddite – and perhaps he is.
Read this today ( http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/71b85180-87e5-11e0-a6de-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1NccBGO3m ) and it reminded me of this discussion….
As I web-site possessor I believe the content material here is rattling great , appreciate it for your hard work. You should keep it up forever! Best of luck.
I think everything posted made a bunch of sense. However, think about this, suppose you were to create a awesome title? I ain’t suggesting your content isn’t solid., but suppose you added something that makes people want more? I mean Adventureskope » Bloggers, Writers, the Past and the Future is kinda plain. You might look at Yahoo’s front page and watch how they write news headlines to get viewers interested. You might add a related video or a pic or two to grab people interested about everything’ve written. In my opinion, it would make your blog a little bit more interesting.
I was basically wanting to know if you ever considered switching the page layout of your web site? Its well written; I enjoy what youve got to state. But maybe you can create a a bit more in the way of written content so people might connect to it better. You have got a great deal of wording for only having one or two photos. Maybe you could space it out better?