Karli's Story - The Adventure Girl's Guide

For any budding photojournalist a blog is an absolute must - it's a place where you can practice your art and get people reading what you write. I've not done this myself (using a blog to launch travel / diving related articles), but I'm guessing it would be useful if you wanted to demonstrate to an editor exactly what you are capable of. I consider myself fortunate to have broken into the magazine world prior to the 'invention' of blogs and other forms of social networks as there was far less competition back then. 

if you are going to use your blog to showcase your skills I'd be careful not to go down the road many bloggers have gone down. Their sites become littered with the sorts of information some people lap up (what I had for breakfast, my thoughts on the doggy act on Britain's Got Talent, Why do some people...)

My advice, ask yourself before you post an article if it is of a standard which would acceptable for publication in your list of target magazines.

For the blogging world I guess this might be a challenge - posts are often written up in five minutes with few drafts. But with that comes all the issues in respect of grammar, structure, the use of appropriate words and phrases and all the other considerations you need to take into account when you pitch to a magazine. 

I've just read back what I've written so far, it doesn't flow as well as it would if I spent 30 minutes on it, however, I don't have the time to do this.

So, there's the conundrum. Do you have the time to spend on your blog so that each post is an example of what a prospective editor would like to see in their magazine? Or is it hastily penned and only entertaining to those who recognise it for what it is?

Ask yourself, why am I going to blog? What's my end game?

Karli has provided me with a short paragraph on her motivation for setting up a blog site: The Adventure Girl's Guide  

It's worth a look, in my opinion the articles posted so far could slot into quite a few travel / adventure magazine titles (check this site soon as I'll be featuring some of them).

Pre adventure cuppa

I've wanted to set up a blog for some time now and, after getting in touch with you and starting on the journey to getting published, I finally got the motivation to take action. I love adventure and travel and thought it'd be a great way to share my passion, but also get ideas from readers too. That's what seeing the world is all about isn't it? Sharing your experiences and getting tips on where to go and what to do next. So I hope that The Adventure Girl's Guide will become a place where people go to get ideas and throw in their thoughts as well. Of course, blogs can sometimes be great for a good ol' rant - I've already abused it for this, but I hope my outbursts will do some good - my latest post is about the plight of Green Sea Turtles in Marsa Abu Dabbab. A lot of writing a blog, for me personally, is about not being able to switch off the journalist in me. I just love story telling and hope that people enjoy soaking up the tales from near and afar!

The Adventure Girl in action

Karli sent over a few pics to illustrate this post and following this we have exchanged e-mails on is the type of pictures you need to use to go with your writing. More about this on a future post. 

Keep Writing...

Brendan

 

Comments

[Karli Drinkwater]

Some top tips there Brendan. Your comment about keeping blogs protected from brainless witterings is something I'm trying to do with my site. There are plenty of places to chat inanely with your mates about what you had for breakfast (although I don't personally go in to such detail anywhere online!) so I want to keep this site free from social spam.

For that reason, I try to take a little longer with my posts. This means more work obviously but I think it'll be worth it in the end. I don't spend days crafting the content but I do sit down and try to keep away from distractions for an hour so that I can really think about the adventure I want to bring to life.

I think getting published in a magazine has to mean putting in the mileage - and it will all be thanks to some great mentoring when my name is eventually in print!