Why you should Write Your Passion

Passion = Motivation

Writing a travel guide is a time-consuming process. If you’re not passionate about your topic you’re not likely to maintain long term motivation to complete it.

Your motivation and passion will show up in your work. If you’re inspired your writing will reflect that and your content will be fun and meaningful to create.

Do you want your travel guide to be fun to write, or another arduous task in your busy life that becomes a chore?

Quote from Robin Lloyd-Jones, Travel author and Writers Workshop

“in order to fully engage your reader your book must have something in it that you care about strongly …. without this your writing is in danger of seeming flat.”

Can you Fake Writing Your Passion?

You may be able to fake enthusiasm for your topic in the short term, but will you be able to maintain it throughout the creation of the entire draft?

And do you even want too? How would you prefer to spend the next 8 months:

Option A: Writing about a topic you’re passionate about.
Option B: Writing about a topic you don’t really care about.

Of course, just because you’re passionate about your topic doesn’t mean you won’t fall foul to procrastination. But your chances of seeing your project through until the end dramatically increases if you’re emotionally vested in your topic.

Without this level of commitment, it’s too easy to get distracted and spend more time on social media or surfing the web than writing your travel guide.

Quote from Bob Lotich from Blogging your Passion

“Being passionate about your topic is critical … it was a good thing that I really enjoyed and saw value in what I was doing … it is hard work, but it doesn’t really seem like it when you are doing something that you are truly passionate about.”

Be Inspired by your Topic

With so many topics to choose from, why write about one that doesn’t inspire you?

Writing is hard work. But if you choose a topic you’re passionate about you can bring that topic to life.

Write Your Passion and you’ll thank yourself in the longterm, and so will your readers and critics.

Quote from Richard Chang’s book The Passion Plan

“We spend a lot of time doing things we don’t want to do in places we don’t want to be for no other reason than that we feel that we have to.

Don’t waste your time on something that feels like it’s sucking up time and not delivering benefits back to you. Enjoy the journey not just the destination, and you will find the discipline to write every day the drive to achieve your goal.

With all that in mind, the Writing your Passion journey starts with a few simple steps.

Here’s what Rough Guide travel writer Terry Richardson said about what kind of talent singles out the Best Travel Writers. Top of his list is a Passion for your destination:

A passion for the country or place you’re writing about is pre-requisite, for me at least. I know Turkey very well after more than twenty years either travelling or living here, and it never fails to fascinate me.

Perseverance – you’ll need it when you’re visiting the tenth look-alike hotel of the day, it’s nearly 40 C and you’ve still got a raft of restaurants to check out that evening.

You also have to be very thorough, checking and cross-checking your facts – travellers rely on all those addresses, telephone numbers and the like being correct.

Having a way with words is definitely important, but don’t despair if you’re not naturally gifted – guide-book writing is as much craft as innate talent.