Podcast: Download (Duration: 26:30 — 6.1MB)
I love travel and I love writing so I have been really looking forward to this interview! I have been following Alexis for a while and have been really impressed by her Aspiring Author blog.
Alexis Grant
Alexis Grant is a newspaper journalist writing her first book, a memoir about her travels in Africa. She also has a blog “Aspiring Author” where she talks about her writing and publishing journey.
In this podcast you will learn:
- How Alexis gave up her job at the Houston Chronicle to go solo backpacking through French-speaking Africa for 6 months. You can see her travel blog here
- How collecting stories and pictures along the way is helping Alexis to write her first book based on her travels. She wrote in notebooks and updated her blog whenever she could find an internet cafe. Writing a blog is a great way to record your work in progress.
- How journalism experience helped with writing notes whilst travelling
- Aiming to be in a new niche – women who are not looking for a relationship while travelling! (the anti-Eat, Pray Love?!)
- How going on a writer’s residency has helped Alexis to write her book and develop creativity
- The Alliance Artist Communities site . A very useful database of places you can apply to, the costs or whether there are scholarships, what is included etc
- Post by Alexis referred to in podcast: How to find and apply to artists colonies
- About Alexis’ time at Hambidge, a great place to meet people and network with other artists as well as being quiet and walking in nature… and writing!
- How 5 weeks at Hambidge affected Alexis personally. Why getting away and being in nature can help creativity, inspiration and clarity.
- Why taking a writing retreat is great, even a long weekend, but how you can also write where you are.
- On Alexis’ plans for getting a traditional publishing deal, but longer term plans for a lifetime of writing
- How having an active blog helps writing practice as well as attracting collaboration with other writers, and even attracting agents.
- You need to sell yourself with every blog post as someone important could be reading it!
- Travel writers can make money from speaking. Refer to Alastair Humphrey’s podcast here.
- On using real names with writing travel memoir (an important question!)
Alexis Grant in Timbuktu
You can connect with Alexis at her site www.AlexisGrant.com , or at her writer’s blog, Aspiring Author.
You can also connect on Twitter @alexisgrant
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Thanks Joanna for sharing your thought with us. Last week I treated myself to a do-it-yourself Writers Retreat. We used a simple setup– 2 writers, 1 apartment, 2 nights. I will explain what happened, with the urging that all you writers and artists consider setting up something similar. It is an easy, inexpensive, and powerful way to improve your craft and finish saleable pieces.