Saturday, October 6, 2012

Saturday, October 06, 2012 - No comments

Be Kind, Please Rewind

I set today aside as a writing day.  My roommate's away, the house is quiet, and my creative juices are long overdue for a good day of exercise.

As I'm flipping back through my travel notebooks, I'm noticing that I have this bad habit of taking really detailed notes while I'm on the road, but never actually transforming them into something readable for posting/publishing.  I'm always so busy catching up on normal life and responsibilities when I get home that I never "get around to it" and, as a result, some of my most interesting potential stories never see the light of day.

In the past year, I have really grown in the discipline of carrying a notebook with me and jotting down ideas and impressions.  I've got great records off all the things I've seen, done and eaten while traveling.  This is a good step in the right direction.  It keeps me observant and helps me to really "see" what's going on around me.  But if I'm to be a successful travel writer, I need to, well, write!

So today, I am hitting the rewind button.  I'm going through my old notes from past trips, mining for possible story and article ideas.  Some of what I'm finding isn't publishable, per se, but it's great to challenge myself to use what I have and just write, purely for the purpose of flexing my muscles.  Plus, it's just plain amusing - to me, at least.

For starters, what follows are notes for a little series I started last year called "The Coffee Diaries."  Since my favourite way to experience any city is through its cafes, I thought it would be fun to document the details surrounding each cup of coffee I drink while on the road.  Maybe on day it'll evolve into some sort of "Guidebook to Istanbul's Coffee Shops" or something.  For now, it's just a fun way to remember the little things that made otherwise ordinary days special.

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