Monday, February 17, 2014

How I Write

I'm writing this blog entry to ask for a volunteer.  As you may or may not know, I am a travel and food writer.  I write for both money and fun, on rare occasions I do both at the same time.  My technique for writing is very personal, and it involves people that don't even know that they're the subject.  When I write any food or travel article, I write it as if I'm explaining something to someone I know.  For example, when I write a candy review for candycritic.org, I think about someone I know that either really likes candy, or really hates candy, and I write the review for them.  More than likely it's someone that I've had contact with recently on Facebook or Twitter.  I have a small group of my Facebook friends that are my go to people.

When I write about travel, I pretty much do the same thing.  I pretend that someone I know needs tips on a particular travel destination and I write for them.  I'm just finishing up a project for Afar.com and I had a whole scenario with a particular friend in mind when I wrote it.  The scenario was completely fabricated, but their personality was perfect for the audience of my piece.
So this leads me back to my reason for needing a volunteer.  I've been asked to work on another writing project recently that involves both food and travel.  It's a pitch for a book, and it's really got me stumped.  I then realized that I wasn't really writing this pitch with anybody in mind. The problem is, I can't think of whom I'd write this for.  So I'm looking for a volunteer to be the person for whom I write this pitch.  As an added bonus, if I pick you and the book gets picked up, I'll give you a special thanks.  The book is about candy and travel, so you'd have to be someone who notionally would travel to taste candy.  If you think you're that person, let me know.

Later