Hotel Providence: Travel Photography & Creative Writing Courses

Have you always wanted to become a travel writer? If the answer to that question is yes, one component of the journey you may want to focus on is travel photography. Being able to take your own pictures to accompany an article not only makes you a more valuable writer in the eyes of an editor, but it can net you extra income as well.

Today we have with us Tricia Carter, the workshop facilitator for the Hotel Providence’s newest course offering–Travel Photography. She’s going to elaborate a bit on the workshop and another upcoming event at the hotel.

Can you tell Freelance-Zone readers a bit about your travel photography course and what type of person it is designed for? 

This is a photography course designed for complete beginners through intermediates who would like to refresh their previous photographic knowledge. The workshop will provide a good technical foundation along with the fundamentals of composition to dramatically improve your images. You will learn to see what makes some images memorable, while others simply are not. With this new mystery of your camera Robyn will teach you how to apply your new photographic techniques creatively to capture those perfect travel photographs.

Who is the person that will be teaching the session and what is their background in travel photography? 

Robyn Rowles, owner of Robynrowlesphotography.com and Artist in You art studio, has traveled all over the world as a professional studio and freelance photographer.  Robyn owned and exhibited in various distinguished galleries internationally. Recently she turned her attention to North America and is in the process of developing a photography book chronically the rural Southern United States travels capturing the strength, beauty and simplicity of its many diverse cultures.

What are some of the things that people will learn during the course?

Alongside your like-minded peers, in a nurturing and supportive environment, you will discover your personal aesthetic and apply your new eye and skills to capture a moment, a sense of place, and a true cultural portrait. You will learn how angles, lighting, and other techniques can unearth the beauty in uncommon places.

Can you tell readers what the cost is for this course and what is included for that price?

$389.00 Single Occupancy

The cost for the $389.00 for single occupancy and $544.00 for double occupancy. These rates include:

• Overnight accommodations in our Superior Rooms
• 2 days of expert instruction by Robyn Rowles
• Lunch and Dinner on Saturday
• Breakfast on Sunday
• Overnight Valet Parking
  * optional keepsake book of your photographs for an additional $75.00

Our local rate is $180.00. This excludes overnight room and breakfast.

You also have a Creative Writing course coming up—can you tell readers a bit about that as well?

Our first creative writing course, As The Plot Thickens….Developing Your Novel, was so well-received we thought that it was only natural to try it again! Our next workshop will be centered on writing children’s literature. We are grateful to have Brown University instructor and author, Joanna Howard involved again, so the caliber of the workshop will be excellent.

Travel Tips – Setting Up Your Money For Traveling Internationally

One of the most common questions I receive about traveling is: “what bank and what credit card should I use while traveling?”. After doing countless hours of research on the subject, and spending the last year traveling abroad, I’m confident I’ve found a good way to set up your money in an efficient manner.

A quick warning: Unfortunately, the following information is only applicable to people from the United States. I apologize to the international audience, but I have yet to find similar options in other countries.

For banking, I recommend using Charles Schwab as your primary account. Why is Charles Schwab great? They have all of the traditional features one looks for in a bank, but in addition, they do not charge any fees for using other companies’ ATMs and they automatically reimburse you when the ATM you’re using charges you a fee. They even reimburse when international ATMs charge fees. At the end of every month, along with an interest payment, there’s a line-item that reimburses you for any fees charged by ATMs.

Tip: If you go with Schwab, make sure to track your ATM fees, especially internationally, as I’ve noticed they do not catch and reimburse you for all of the fees. A quick and easy phone call takes care of the mistake.

For credit cards, I recommend Capital One’s No Hassle credit card. They offer cards with a $0 annual fee in a cash rewards flavor and an airline miles rewards flavor. What makes these cards great is the fact that they do not charge any exchange rate fees (normally 3%). In fact, Capital One apparently even eats the 1% exchange fee that Visa and MasterCard charges.

Together, Schwab and a Capital One credit card make a great combination while traveling abroad. Their excellent exchange rates and lack of fees mean you can worry about finding your next travel writing story, rather than worrying about how you’re going to pay for your next meal.

Jason Demant is the founder of UnAnchor.com, where you can find detailed do-it-yourself travel itineraries for your next trip. For the latest on travel-writing you can follow him on Twitter @UnAnchor, or join the I Love Travel Writing Facebook group.

The Guaranteed Way to Become a Paid Travel Writer

The one sure-fire, 100% guaranteed method to becoming a paid travel writer is to find demand first, and write second. It’s certainly possible to write first and then try to sell your writing, but it’s a whole lot harder. In this post, and future posts as well, I’ll make sure to share some recent paid travel-writing gigs I’ve found from around the web.

A quick warning – while all of these jobs are paying jobs, they are not exactly well-paying jobs. But, for someone interested in travel-writing, these are a great way to get your feet wet, build up your resume, and get paid at least some amount for your time.

All of these jobs are time-sensitive. If you come across this post and the jobs have already expired, do a search on the sites I’ve linked to for their recent job postings.

Destination Weddings Articles – eLance

35 Articles / 500 Words / $3 each – Freelancer

Article Writer – Odesk

Finally, if you’d still prefer to write first and then try to get paid, PhotoJBartlett.com has a great list of sites that actually pay and he includes many direct email addresses – 10 Travel Photography and Travel Writing Markets that Pay

P.S. Just a quick fun, old article from Matador – Four Ways To Sound Like A Jerk In Your Travel Writing (And How to Avoid Them)

Jason Demant is the founder of UnAnchor.com, a place to find detailed do-it-yourself travel itineraries for your next trip. For the latest on travel-writing you can follow him on Twitter @UnAnchor, or join the I Love Travel Writing Facebook group.

Photo Credit: Keith Chan

Travel: Scouting Out The Good Stuff

by Catherine L. Tully

As you may know I just got back from a trip to Colorado. I plan to do some writing about places/things I saw there and thought I’d share some stuff with you about how I take a trip and gather info.

If you are going somewhere and you are not quite sure what you are going to write about there, here are some pointers for getting intel together that you can use later on:

+ Ask the locals. Try and avoid writing travel pieces about typical travel spots if possible. They’re generally done to death. If you are going to Philadelphia, don’t pen a piece on the Liberty Bell. Trekking to San Antonio? Pass on The Alamo. The locals know the cool stuff. Check with them.

+ Go brochure crazy. I confess to having a problem with this, but it comes in quite handy. Grab every brochure, booklet and pamphlet you can find. Keep them for later reference. You can find stuff this way that you wouldn’t be able to locate online. Plus–quick facts and figures are all right there for the taking. Makes the research easier.

+  Take a walk. You see so much more on foot than you do when riding on public transportation or in a car. Enough said there.

+ Be open minded. Try stuff that you wouldn’t normally do. Not a rodeo fan? Go anyway. Not too keen on checking out a sushi bar? At least nibble on a California roll. You don’t have to do things that you really hate, but if you are somewhere that is known for a particular thing, you may want to at least give it a shot. It could be article-worthy.

+ Carry a camera. Take pictures of everything. This is so handy! I snap photos of street signs rather than writing them down and jog my memory of a city with visuals. At my age–it’s really helpful. Plus, it helps you remember the “flavor” of a place so you can write about it more authoritatively than if you were relying on memory alone.

Book Review: “Travel Writing 2.0″ by Tim Leffel

By Erin Dalpini 

What’s the ultimate freelance assignment? You know, the one all writers dream of?

Probably getting paid to vacation—and then write about it.

But travel-writing veteran Tim Leffel says that getting there is anything but a holiday. In his aptly titled Travel Writing 2.0, Leffel takes readers on a journey through the hard realities of what it takes to be a successful travel writer in today’s competitive new media landscape. With some exceptions, it’s not much different than what it takes to be a successful, non-traveling freelance writer.

Importantly, Leffel wants readers to know that travel writing is not for the faint of heart. … Continue Reading

Interview With…Travel Writer Joshua Berman

Joshua Berman, Travel Writer

Today on Freelance-Zone we have a great interview to share with you. Travel writer Joshua Berman was kind enough to answer some questions about “the life” for us here.   – Catherine

1. What is your background in writing and travel?

I’ve always written and I’ve always traveled. After graduating from college (1995), I took a series of seasonal jobs that paid me to travel: trip leader, Forest Service, firefighter, international volunteer.

My breakthrough came when the Peace Corps assigned me to a beautiful tropical nation where tourism was in the process of being born. There were no guidebooks. So I wrote MOON NICARAGUA with Randy Wood. From there, I was asked to take over MOON BELIZE, then Randy and I wrote the first edition of LIVING ABROAD IN NICARAGUA (all Avalon Travel Publishing). Guidebooks have been my bread and butter ever since, while I’ve been able to spin out a few magazine and newspaper pieces as well.

2. What are the biggest mistakes writers make when they attempt to do a travel piece?

The biggest mistakes are NOT painting a picture or telling a story with some kind of narrative arc, even in relatively short service pieces. The quickest way to turn off a reader is to write a laundry list of the places you went. Travel writing should transport the reader to a new place and challenge them to think about new issues or meet new people, NOT simply explain what happened when the writer was there.

3. Can you share any savvy travel tips with readers?

To make sure you don’t tempt thieves, do not travel with a fancy, expensive-looking backpack with neon straps and a million pockets. Instead, go to your local thrift shop or army-navy store and buy a beat-up, top-loading, used pack—the uglier and more beat-up, the better.

4. In your opinion, what are the components of good travel writing?

Use as many sensory details as possible: smells, sounds, sights, tastes, and textures. Don’t get hung up on listing your itinerary. I don’t care where you went, that’s a background detail. I want to meet new people through your writing and imagine what it feels like to be there, talking to these people and learning their stories.

5. What are the necessities for a travel writer in terms of gear?

Short stack of Moleskine notebooks (or equivalent in sturdiness and size). A lightweight laptop which is either insured or not so expensive that you’ll be upset when it gets ruined by salt-water, rain, sand, ants, or beer. A still camera that shoots video and a digital voice recorder are also essential for the backpack journalist, as is some kind of file storage backup plan (online, mini-hard drive, flash cards).

Joshua Berman is an award-winning guidebook author, specializing in Nicaragua, Belize, and volunteering abroad. His travel articles have appeared in National Geographic Traveler, Budget Travel, The Boston Globe, Yoga Journal, Outside Traveler, 5280, Worldview, and Transitions Abroad. New editions of his two Nicaragua titles are hitting bookstores this September, 2010: MOON NICARAGUA and LIVING ABROAD IN NICARAGUA (both Avalon Travel Publishing). Joshua lives in Colorado with his family, where he is also a part-time Spanish teacher.

Interested in purchasing one of his travel books? Order an autographed copy here.

Interview With…Jason Demant

Today we have an interview to share with Freelance-Zone readers. Jason Demant is a writer and traveler who has recently founded UnAnchor, a travel itenerary site. Enjoy!                          - Catherine 

Jason Demant

1. What is your background in writing and travel?

My background in writing is little to none to be honest. It’s been an interesting experience the last year realizing how much time I now spend writing. To my surprise though, I’ve really enjoyed it. In addition to blogging, I’ve started writing occasionally for other blogs and writing travel itineraries as well.

In terms of travel, I’ve spent the last 10 months on the road across Asia. I’m starting to have a passport that I’m really proud of. Before this big trip though, I did the standard American corporate-life vacation thing. Once a year, I took off one to two weeks (two, only if I was lucky) and saw as many cities and countries as possible. Always returning more exhausted than when I left. I was able to visit the Middle East, South America and Europe twice.

2. What is UnAnchor and how did the idea for it come about?

UnAnchor is a site to find specific, do-it-yourself travel itineraries. I like to think of it as an “app store” for travel itineraries. However, UnAnchor is also quite new. So, while that’s the eventual goal, right now a lot of my focus with UnAnchor is finding the experts to write itineraries. All itinerary writers set their own price on the itinerary (starting at $0.99) and keep 75% from each one they sale. However, for the first 50 itineraries written, we’re jumping that to 90%.

The idea initially came from a previous co-worker, now friend, of mine and has been further refined through my own travel experiences. It’s been frustrating figuring out how to use public transportation, how to do an activity without joining an expensive tour, and choosing what to do in a city with hundreds of tourist options. The idea is that a detailed itinerary will solve all of these frustrations. It will explain how to use public transportation and give you a detailed map to show you how to drive or walk to a destination. If you only have 1, 2, or 3 days in a city, it will tell you the things you absolutely must see.

3. Can you share any savvy travel tips with readers? … Continue Reading

Freelance Travel and the Perils of Being a Road Warrior

I’m sitting in a hotel room in Pennsylvania watching a news report about a situation I just missed–the bomb squad was called out in Pittsburgh after a suspicious package was discovered somewhere in the city. I shudder to think of what might have happened to my deadlines if I had gotten caught in a horrific traffic snarl that probably followed. But that’s not among the perils of being a freelance road warrior I’m thinking of…

I knew this week that the second I pulled out of the driveway to go on my Chicago to New York City road trip, I’d get hit six ways from Sunday with things I had hoped to avoid dealing with until I got back. Freelance-Zone.com got several requests from potential sponsors for rate cards and other information, an interview I’d been waiting on finally came in from the cold, and I even got an offer for some additional freelance work writing copy for one of my previous clients.

Naturally all this stuff came in when I was in no-signal areas, doing my travel reviews of record stores and restaurants, or trying to write up material to make deadline for the clients that I did NOT put on hold during all of this travel and discovery.

23 record stores later, I am still trying to catch up with all the e-mails and requests for my time. And I’m STILL on the road!

The perils of freelancing from the road range from the mundane–trying to get a seat in a coffee shop next to an outlet so you can deal with a dying laptop battery and make deadline…to the serious–trying to avoid having my travel budget dinged by gotcha charges, excessive fees and highway tolls and other expenses.

Lessons learned?

Essential road warrior gear for freelancers should include a wireless headset for your cell phone, a spare battery for your laptop, and a cell phone capable of using Google Maps with the Location Services feature. I can’t tell you how many times I would have gotten hopelessly lost without the Location Services function of the iPhone displaying the little blue dot telling me exactly where I was on both my route AND in terms of the directions I had gotten from Google Maps. On or off track, the little blue dot tells all and it shows you in SECONDS whether you’ve zigged when you should have zagged.

I’ll do a complete post on essential freelance travel gear later, but for now, suffice it to say that you should always expect your battery to die when you need it most, you should always count on getting lost just when you NEED to be in a certain town on time, and never make plans to stay longer than absolutely necessary—you’ll find a way to need to be someplace else on that day you were planning to sleep in. … Continue Reading

Cleveland Ohio: Freelancer-Friendly

by Joe Wallace

I’ve been traveling across the U.S. in the last seven days, blogging about independent record stores and trying to maintain my regular freelance clients at the same time. It’s been a tricky journey in spots; the closer I got to NYC, the more difficult it became to find wi-fi hotspots along the way so I could meet my deadlines while staying the course on the long drives to and from the indie record stores I’m writing about.

One of the most freelancer-friendly cities I’ve visited so far has to be Cleveland, Ohio. More specifically, my experiences were in Cleveland Heights–which I’m not sure is an actual township outside Cleveland proper or a district of Cleveland.

I am a new Cleveland fan now for several reasons–for starters, it wasn’t hard to find a place to connect (for free) and post my work. There were plenty of inexpensive hotels to choose from, and everyone I met there was super-friendly–offering plenty of help for my blogging work. Record store owners even told me where the competition is located in Cleveland so I could make a more complete report!

But hands down, the most impressive thing for a hungry, road-weary freelancer is the quality of the food in any place where the vehicle gets parked for the night. Cleveland wins first prize in this categoy. ALL the restaurants I enjoyed there had big menus priced under ten dollars and were so massive that I got two, even three meals out of the bargain. And make no mistake–this was GOOD food, not barely adequate crap.

My hat is off to Tommy’s Restaurant (awesome breakfasts), to the Winking Lizard Tavern (great dinner), and Phoenix Coffee, all located along the same stretch of Coventry Road in Cleveland Heights. You might notice that I only list two actual restaurants–that’s because the previously mentioned food portions were so massive I didn’t NEED to eat anywhere else.

As a city, Cleveland has a lot to offer a music journalist and record store lover like me…as a freelancer it also is an easy place to work.

Being a Freelance Road Warrior: Musings on Travel, Writing

by Joe Wallace

Like the pic? It’s from a Cleveland night spot adjacent to the hotel I stayed in on the first leg of my current 12-day road trip from Chicago to NYC. I’m blogging at Turntabling.net about indie record stores between the two points, and making copious notes of my experiences to share with you here.

A prolonged stretch of travel writing has its own challenges. When I did this last year from Chicago to San Antonio, Texas, I didn’t really know what to expect, but I had the luxury of not worrying about servicing freelance clients while on the road. This time I decided to add that challenge to the mix and see what happens.

My plan was to use the new free-for-all wi-fi service at Starbucks, since the coffee chain seems to be everywhere. I figured at the very very least I might have to drive or walk to the nearest coffee shop to get connectivity and post away.

That strategy worked for a while. In Cleveland, which is quite possibly one of THE most freelancer-friendly cities in the U.S. it was child’s play to get a connection and file my work for my clients. Ditto for Pittsburgh, which had plenty of free wi-fi to go around.

Not so much once I got closer to the East Coast. In Allentown I had trouble connecting to the hotel’s TWO wi-fi servers, and when I hit Newark, I learned that not only does Starbucks seem to be quite scarce here (at least in the vicinity where I am staying near Penn Station) but there’s no Panera Bread, either. And the hotel I’m in is quite happy to charge me to connect in addition to the room fee.

I bit the bullet and paid the extra usury for wireless Internet in order to keep current with my clients, but I have to say, it’s a bad idea to depend on that free wi-fi service on a road trip unless you’ve done your homework first–what I should have done was check each city on my itinerary via Yelp.com or some other restaurant reviewer site to see if I’d be able to depend on the free stuff for the entire trip. I’d have saved myself some extra hotel charges and a lot of headaches trying to find an office-away-from-the-office. It was via Yelp that I learned that Newark is short on the free wi-fi near where I’m staying, and via Yelp that I found plenty of places in Greenwich Village to connect instead. A 2o minute train ride into NYC was the cure for many of my problems…

In my next report, a list of the freelancer-friendly places I’ve been so far. … Continue Reading

A Freelance Travel Writing Experiment

by Joe Wallace

I love travel, and I love travel writing. So why haven’t I done that much in 2010? Because I let myself get tied down to a freelance gig that required me to show up onsite several days a week or take meetings that tied me to the company’s secure site which was tricky to access even ONSITE.

So I wound up being tied to a desk. It was worth it financially–I built up my war chest and was able to finish the project, choose not to renew with that client and concentrate on my own work after the project was done.

And now I’m taking full advantage by doing some travel and travel blogging.

Specifically, I’m doing a cross country trek to blog about indie record stores between Chicago, Illinois and New York City. It’s called Vinyl Road Rage, and I’m taking a dozen days on the road, blogging the whole way for Turntabling.net.

But I’ll also be posting along the way for Freelance-Zone.com because the issues I’ll be facing on the road are travel writing issues. How do I connect on the road? How do I juggle my travel with my other clients–who I won’t be putting on hold during the trip? How will THAT work out? I will give reports along the way about the trials, tribulations, almost-busted deadlines and much more.

After all, the idea of being a freelancer is being FREE. If I’m true to the freelance ideal, I should be able to travel for nearly two weeks, make my freelance clients happy AND post about it all here…right? Let’s take this journey together and see what happens. My road trip begins today, Thursday August 12, 2010…time to hit the road!

–Joe Wallace

“And The Plot Thickens” Weekend Novel Writing Workshop

Today we are excited to bring Freelance-Zone readers an up-close look at “And The Plot Thickens”, a novel writing workshop in Rhode Island taking place later this month…

1. How did the idea for the “And The Plot Thickens” workshop come about, and when is it?

‘And The Plot Thickens… How to develop a novel’ is held on August 28 & 29 2010.

The idea came about because we are passionate about the Arts. From the regular RISDA exhibitions we hold in our lobby, our series of arts inspired events and the local arts society we support, it shows in everything we do…We wanted to help people discover their own passion and writing their first novel is a dream that many of us have. We also realized that with people taking shorter weekends because of the economy, they wanted to do something more worthwhile with their time away – this workshop allows them to pursue their dream, share experiences and make new friends while spending the weekend in a wonderful hotel in a beautiful city.

2.  Who will be leading this workshop and what are that person’s qualifications?

Joanna Howard is a published author and holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Denver, and MFA in fiction writing from Bowling Green State University. She currently teaches fiction at Brown University. Joanna is the author of ‘On the Winding Stair’ (Boa Editions, 2009) a collection of short stories which Publisher’s Weekly described as “14 tales of startling description and beauty.”  She is also the author of ‘In the Colorless Round’ (Noemi, 2007), a short collection of prose with artwork by Rikki Ducornet . Her publications also include numerous book reviews in Review of Contemporary Fiction and American Book Review, and she has worked as a co-translator on Marcel Cohen’s Walls (Black Square 2009) and on Frederic Boyer’s Cows (forthcoming from Noemi Press). Her stories appear in anthologies and journals including Conjunctions, The Chicago Review, Quarterly West, and American Letters and Commentary. Howard is a fiction editor for Tarpaulin Sky magazine, She has also edited for Denver Quarterly and other journals.

3. What will be covered in these two days?

Each day will be structured by a series of morning and afternoon sessions, which will include a range of writing exercises, workshops, and seminar style discussions.

Budding writers will learn practical skills for how to shape their ideas into a novel, discover how to create memorable characters and compelling narratives. They will examine their favorite novels and dissect what makes them great pieces of fiction. Reading-out exercises will give them the opportunity for feedback on material they have already written and advice on how to develop and shape their drafts. Joanna will share her experience and advice on how to talk about and present ideas to an audience and how to get that first novel published. … Continue Reading

Interview With…Tim Leffel, Travel Writer And Editor

Tim Leffel

1. Can you tell readers about your writing journey and how you came to be involved with travel writing?

I worked at RCA Records for seven years in marketing and did a lot of writing there as a part of my job. When my now-wife and I started preparing to go backpacking around the world long-term, the obvious money-making paths for me seemed to be teaching English and travel writing. So I did both. The stories I got published were just a trickle at first, but over time I got more assignments and eventually I was able to dispatch stories and hotel reviews from five different continents. I worked part-time for many, many years before I made the leap to this being a full-time job. For me, things really started to take off when I put out a book that sold well and started a blog to go with it. 

2. You have a new book coming out soon…would you share a bit about that with Freelance-Zone readers? 

It’s hitting the virtual shelves now, so you can get it at the usual online shops, at Booklocker.com, and soon at the Apple iBookstore. It’s called Travel Writing 2.0: Earning money from your travels in the new media landscape. This is the first guide I know of to address how to actually earn money at this in this time of transition between print and digital media. Besides my own hard-won advice, the book has lots of nuggets from 52 other travel writers and a group of editors and publishers.

3. In your opinion, what are the biggest mistakes writers make when it comes to travel writing?

Trying to publish broad stories about places instead of spending time finding unique angles that have not been covered before. Sure, you read plenty of ho-hum destination stories in magazines that follow a similar script, but what editors really want from new freelancers are unique angles, especially ones that can fit onto a page or less in the print world. The same concept applies to blogging as well: if what you’re writing is not noticeably different from everything else out there, why do readers need you? We’re already drowning in average prose from average writers.

The other big mistake is not having the long-term vision and persistence required to succeed at what is a very competitive field. It can take years to get established as a travel writer, whether on the old print path or a new digital one, so choose opportunities based on what it will do for you long-term, not how big that single check may or may not be.

4. Would you share a career highlight with us?

I can’t pick one because the highlights are two-fold. First, I’ve taken some mind-blowing, amazing trips that either paid for themselves from articles sold or were covered by someone else paying the expenses and to me that’s the real payoff of this job. Writing assignments have taken me to the Galapagos, Peru, Panama, Iceland, Botswana, Hungary, Nepal—and plenty more places. Winning a Grand Prize from the North American Travel Journalists Association was nice. Selling Italian rights to The World’s Cheapest Destinations was pretty cool. But probably the greatest highlight was being able to reach the point where I could pay the bills and support my family as a writer/editor/blogger. I’m proud that I’ve accomplished this mostly because of websites and blogs I’ve created myself from scratch, not from pleading with rotating gatekeepers over and over.

5. What is the best piece of writing advice you have ever received?

One of my high school English teachers told me not to use 20 words when 10 will say it just as well—or better. What’s made me a good writer, more than anything I think, is being good at brutal self-editing.

BIO: Tim Leffel is a full-time freelance writer and the author of several books, including the new Travel Writing 2.0 and The World’s Cheapest Destinations, now in its third edition. He is the editor of the narrative webzine Perceptive Travel, the CheapestDestinations Blog, and the Practical Travel Gear Blog.

The Benefits of A Writer’s Getaway

Transparency: The ”And The Plot Thickens” novel-writing workshop at the Hotel Providence in Rhode Island is a Freelance-Zone sponsor. That said, we really think writers can get a lot out of this type of retreat, so we’re not hawking something here we don’t believe in. Travel broadens the mind!

A lot has been made about the profession of writing as a solitary endeavor. There’s a romantic image of the writer locked away in a room somewhere banging away on a keyboard safe from intrusions from the outside world…until the writer is in need of some inspiration, of course.

What happens when you get stuck and decide your book, article, or even a blog post needs something more than it’s got? That’s when the notion of the solitary writer goes right out the window. Writers NEED human interaction to get the job done, whether in the form of an interview, inspiration from overhearing a random conversation on the train or bus, even just looking up a literary reference is still going back to the well, so to speak, of the shared human experience.

I said all that to say the writer’s retreat, conference, or workshop is a pretty valuable thing. It’s easy to get married to that lone writer stereotype, but how do you know if your ideas are any good? How do you get confidence in your work?

You might think I’m telling people to go out in search of validation through the approval of people at these writing workshops—far from it. Rather than attending them looking for someone to affirm your basic genius, you should go to a writer’s retreat or conference looking for ways to overcome your shortfalls as a writer, to learn why your strengths work like they do and to undo bad habits that only come to light when you’re working under scrutiny.

You know the habits I mean—the ones you can’t help noticing when somebody else reads your material in front of you. “Wow, I DO have a set of crutch words!” It’s embarrassing at first, but realizing that every writer makes some of the same mistakes can actually help motivate you to be more vigilant.

A writer’s workshop like And The Plot Thickens is also helpful for another reason. Some writers don’t realize they’re toiling away at one type of writing when they could be more adept in a different area. Are you dreaming of shifting gears to a different sort of work?

If you’ve got a novel in you but don’t know how to get it out, this type of weekend workshop could be the way to unlock those particular doors. The same goes for any other type of writing—a novelist would do well to attend a blogger conference, a fiction writer could get a taste of straight journalism, etc. There’s also a lot to be said for getting away, spending a weekend at a place like the Hotel Providence in Rhode Island, and experiencing a complete change of scenery.

It’s never a bad thing to try something new, and those who have already committed to a novel, blog, or straight non-fiction format should give serious thought to spending time with colleagues and peers in environments like this. It’s good for you.

(For more information about the various ”Discover Your Passion” workshops, visit the Hotel Providence on the web.)

–Joe Wallace

Image courtesy of Rhode Island Roads.

The Library Hotel

by Catherine L. Tully

Writers love to read. Those words are the inspiration behind this travel destination for writers—the Library Hotel in New York. This property has ten floors which reflect ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System. Choose from: technology, social sciences, literature, languages, math & science, history, the arts, religion, philosophy and general knowledge. Better yet—each floor has a variety of subcategories which focus in on a section of the main theme. Each room features themed art and provides guests with a hand-picked selection of books that are related to the subject…

… Continue Reading