Here I am at last, after months of silence! What better way to break my undeclared hiatus than by drinking down some chilled chai and drooling by watching Anthony Bourdain gulp down takoyaki–so jealous of that guy’s life! After weeks of reading travel blogs / writing up some articles I plan to publish, decided to finally revamp the ole flailing blogge. The stuff posted up on World Hum and Matador has a way of guilt-galvanizing the neglectful writer. So in the interest of revival, I’m forcing myself to sit down and reevaluate my goals here. What is this blog? What are my hopes for it? When I first established this blog, way back when–good lord must’ve been 2007 or something–it was mainly for my family members to keep track of where I was and informing them I hadn’t been kidnapped/mugged/impressed by privateers. When I graduated from university in 2010, I began to morph it into a travel blog, edumacating myself about twitter and blogosphere and SEOs and all those goodies. Still, I felt I was lacking some clear sense of direction and professionalism. Then I left for a few months to pursue a job in South Korea, publishing here and there. Gradually it became a once-in-2/3-months thing. My readership, what little I had, was dropping off.Now it’s 2012. I’ve been back for six months.And I’m reading. And writing.
Somehow, I have more direction. Maybe it’s all the Colin Thubron or Patrick Leigh Fermor books I’ve been spending candlewax on. Somewhere down the line, it suddenly hit me that if this is going to be my serious Career/Life path, not just travel writing but WRITING, my dream since I was a little girl, there was no one to tell me get off my ass except for ME.
So what if these posts are crappy. Each one is a step to better writing, a better feel for my now-latent voice, a better grip on my “field.” Wake up, graduate, let’s get started. I have reapplied to the MFA program in Creative Nonfiction at PSU. When not reading other blogs or travel books, I am researching things for my travel articles.
Of course I still spend way too much surfing the web unproductive, or working a money-only passionless part-time job, but I feel like I’m moving forward. This dream of mine is no longer unattainable, no longer at a unreachable level. I’m looking forward to the future. Don’t know what it will hold, but I don’t know if I don’t go looking for what I want. Inchallah.
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Anyway, here are some details for the blog I’m restating for the revamp: a description, a tone, and goals.
Description. This is a travel blog. Covering aspects of travel including reviews, articles, itineraries, diary entries, or just knocking around some travel-/culture-related ideas.
Tone. It is personal and low-key, not meant to be so much as a guidebook as a portfolio of my writing/ideas. Featuring chiefly travel articles, but including literary/theatrical/cinematic reviews as well. Take from it what you will, reader.
Goals. I know if I make unrealistic goals, I will never find the time or motivation to fulfill them. So here are some basics:
1) I ultimately plan to publish 12 posts per month. As I would describe that a bit cannonball-into-the-water however, I intend to ease my way into this. February – 4, March – 6, and so on.
2) I commit myself to a weekly feature, including: Architecture Photo of the Week, because I am obsessed with Architecture and Buildings and Arts, especially religious ones, and especially Islamic ones. I dub this the Monday Masterpiece. I know, catchy and corny right?
3) I intend to revamp the site. Done! What do you think? I love the minimalist style and customizations that come with this theme!
