It’s not about you: how to avoid using “I” in writing
Sometimes you, the writer, are the biggest distraction in your story. Here’s how to avoid using “I” in writing–and ultimately get that article published.
Jennifer Stevens is the author of The Ultimate Travel Writer's Program and architect of Great Escape Publishing’s annual Ultimate Travel Writer’s Workshop. The Executive Editor of International Living, Jen has gallivanted through 27 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, and Asia, writing about the best locales for overseas travel, retirement, and investment. She has decades of experience in both writing and publishing travel articles.
In past incarnations, she lived in Paris and wrote market research reports for the Foreign Commercial Service - and she spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer on a spit of sand between Madagascar and Mozambique. She makes her home in the Colorado Rockies where, with her husband, she corrals three boys, a cat, and a dog (the toads, mercifully, finally met their end).
Sometimes you, the writer, are the biggest distraction in your story. Here’s how to avoid using “I” in writing–and ultimately get that article published.
You need to write an editor and ask for one. And if you have a firm article assignment, then it’s perfectly natural for you to do so. You simply get in touch with your editor and say something like: “Hello, Jim, I’m working on that article we discussed — on non-Disney travel in Northern Florida — and I wonder if you might write me a quick letter of assignment to flash around to PR folks and whatnot? Thank you.”
Click here to see International Living Executive Editor Jennifer Stevens’ simple formula for getting an assignment letter — your golden ticket to all-expenses-paid trips.
Stories are the best way of pulling in your reader. Here are some tips to enhance your stories and help sell travel articles.
Read from Jennifer Stevens, start thinking about your hometown and articles you might write about sights and attractions near you, it’s easiest to get started when you start locally.
Click here to see International Living Executive Editor Jennifer Stevens’ four simple steps to getting your first travel article published this week.
Click here and find out how successful you’ll be as a travel writer, based on a little quiz from Executive Editor at International Living Magazine, Jennifer Stevens…
Jen Stevens gives her expert advice on how to craft an engaging, specific and informative article title that will catch an editor’s eye.
Learn how to highlight an idea in the first few sentences of your query letter and target it for the right audience — and you’ll immediately set yourself up for travel writing success.
Hear Jennifer Stevens, Executive Editor if International Living Magazine, give great tips on how professional behavior can increase your article sales, and better your relationship with editors.