Enough About Me, What Do YOU Think About Me?

Have I mentioned my hearty dislike of memes? Oooo, I really don’t like them. For starters, I already have a head full of nonsense just waiting to get out, and at the root of it all, I’m not a joiner. I hate “fun activities” and “games” and “team sports” – especially if there’s a ball involved. And the meme comes under that heading for me.

But I do like Jessica and her In Search of Dessert. And though I haven’t met her in person, I just know we’d have tons to talk about. I’d like very much to sit with Jessica at the Baekerei Munding in Innsbruck over big servings of cake and coffee. And because Jessica asked, I will do her #$%&@*$ meme.

Also, because it’s about why I’m fabulous.

[If you share my bad attitude, maybe you’d like to read this, instead, from the archives: Fish Tales. It’s about snow, salmon, and Seattle.]

Okay then. For Jessica, my five strengths as a writer:

1. Prolific: Okay, not all of it’s good, but boy do I crank it out. Wow, can I not shut up.
2. Descriptive: I’ll take you there. I can really capture the place in words.
3. Natural: My writing isn’t pretentious or strained, it’s not labored. It’s conversation.
4. Reliable. This is boring, but I can be counted on to produce. See above under Prolific.
5. Felt: I’m not sure this is the right word, ironically enough. What I want to say is that if I think something is funny or annoying or so freakin’ gorgeous as to make me cry, you know it when you read it. Maybe I mean sincere?

And five pieces of advice for writers:

1. If you have writer’s block, don’t write. I know that’s contrary to a lot of what you hear, but sheyoot, go outside, take a nap, cook something complicated, read a book, do something else. Don’t kick yourself and suffer, take a break instead. It’s okay.
2. Writing is like exercise, if you do it all the time, it gets easier. Yes, I know this is contrary to my first point.
3. Don’t edit your own (commercial) work. If you’re getting paid to write something, get someone you trust to read it before you hand it in. Yeah, maybe they have an editor, but it’s nice to catch all the embarrassing stuff before the in house editors get it. I adore my editor pals, they are the bomb. And they always help me catch stuff I just don’t see – too many reallys, repeated phrases, lazy punctuation errors, the mystery typo Word doesn’t see… it’s a great help.
4. For travel writers, please, oh please do not tell me your itinerary. Please. Look at the edges, write about what you saw and did and not where you were. I hate it when I feel like I’m reading an address book or a list of destinations. I really hate it. And lemme tell you, I see a LOT of that. It Drives Me Crazy.
5. Be fearless. I sit on stuff sometimes because I think it’s too personal and then, when I publish it, I get the best love ever.

While I’m all on about me me me, the nice folks at FlipKey, a vacation rental blog, voted me one of their favorite blogs. For that, we give them link love and a blushing “Aw, shucks!”

Why we love the Nerd’s Eye View blog? Pam’s blog captured our interest due to its more artful take on the travel industry. It’s easy to get absorbed in the inner workings of the market, but sometimes it is worth the time to read enjoyable stories about the places people go and the things they do while traveling. Pam gets bonus points for “Fish Wednesday”, her weekly post dedicated towards the fine art of cooking and eating fish.

Now, let’s put a stop to all this. Back to your regularly scheduled programming. Did I mention I’m going to Vietnam and Cambodia?

[tags]writing, memes[/tags]