“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
It’s a Friday evening in Dublin and misty showers are casting a glorious sheen across the stone houses and streets. Dublin reminds me of Kyoto in this way – a place that seems more beautiful in the rain.
I’m standing in a pub drinking my beloved Bulmer’s cider – “apple nectar,” as it was recently described to me by an Irish friend – and am basking in the glow of good company. The dozen or so friends I’m with are all in town for the same reason as myself: for TBEX Europe, a travel blogging conference that aims to connect various parts of the industry.
And standing next to me is my friend Mike Sowden, who spoke at TBEX earlier in the day about telling good stories through social media. But that isn’t what we’re talking about right now.
We’re talking about travel – about getting to the heart of it – and about going beyond the how and the what and the where to a single word:
Why?
“It’s a question that isn’t asked enough,” Mike says. I couldn’t agree more.
* * *
The next morning, Mike and I are sitting together as Don George takes the stage to talk about creating engaging content on your blog.
Yes, we are hyped on too much coffee and these little chocolate granola bars packed with enough sugar to make a diabetic shudder, but let’s be real: The true source of our excitement is the anticipation of hearing a hero speak.
I’m incredibly thankful to have heard Don before – at Book Passage and at other workshops as well – so I recognize a few of his points: sketch out a skeletal itinerary before your trip, use details that reveal something about a place, look for the small truth that illuminates the larger truth.
But when discussing pre-trip research, Don says something I haven’t heard him say before: “Ask yourself, ‘What excites me about a place? Why do I even want to go there?’”
It was this exact question that fueled my decision to go to Bosnia and Herzegovina last week. I realized I was planning to spend time in countries like Serbia and Bulgaria simply because they were on the way to Turkey, but the thought of going to Mostar? Now that literally got my heart racing.
And yes, there was that word again:
Why?
* * *
Six hours later, Audrey Scott and Dan Noll from the travel blog Uncornered Market are on stage, giving their keynote speech that will end the conference.
The focus of their talk is on honoring our travel experiences through four acts. They begin with the first act, the what – the actual experiences we’re interpreting. Act two is the how – how are we telling our stories? – and act three is the who – not forgetting who we’re writing for, and the people involved in each experience.
But it’s the fourth act that my pen races to record.
Act four is – you guessed it – the why.
As they talk about the transformational power of travel for travelers – as well as for local communities in the places we’re traveling – I can feel it all coming together; these various threads of conversations that have been taking place all week beginning to weave their way into one great quest for meaning in our stories and in life.
Why?
* * *
I wasn’t planning to write a TBEX follow-up post (at least not until this current sketching trip is over!). I figured there would be enough of them floating around that I didn’t need to add one more to the mix. But as this theme of asking why emerged throughout the conference, I realized I wanted to highlight it – to say, this was a positive result from the week and I’m glad I got to be a small part of it.
I’m leaving Dublin reminded of what great stories do – they ask why. Why does a place matter? And equally as important, why does a place matter to you? In my humble opinion, the chance to explore our personal connection with a place is one of the best things a travel blog has to offer.
It frustrates me when I see blog posts that read like they were lifted straight from a tourism brochure; when they don’t tell a narrative – be it through words or photos – and connect events in a way that creates meaning. Couldn’t we have just read that on, well, a tourism brochure?
But what I found surprisingly refreshing this week in Dublin was that among all the speed dating and socializing, there was a real emphasis on telling meaningful stories – in both official presentations and during off-the-stage conversations. I’m grateful to speakers like Mike, Don, Dan, and Audrey, for the inspiration to keep asking why, and I’m grateful to TBEX for giving their message a platform.
To ask why is to go deeper, to seek the significant and look for connections. It takes time to draw meaning out of an experience, to go beyond the obvious, but it’s worth it.
For ourselves, and for the stories we’re wanting to tell.
I have been acquiring some accidental training in content strategy, that wonky term that helps you decide what goes on your website. I got to talking with a project manager I’ve done some projects with, she’d just returned from a content strategy conference.
“Sum it up for me,” I asked.
“Ask why until you get an answer that makes sense for your readers,” she said. “Or, uh, until your customer is so annoyed they fire you.”
Sometimes, in making business decisions, we compromise on the why being “because the client is paying me for this.” It’s an asnwer that doesn’t really serve the audience, but, uh, okay.
But when we compromise on the answer to “Why?” in our own creative work, well, we know how that plays out.
Team “Why?” FTW!
And see you soon. 🙂
One of the things I love that you say, Pam (for instance, in the post you just wrote last week), is never forgetting who our audience is – who it is we’re *actually* writing for. So I appreciate what your project manager said about asking why for the sake of our readers. I think this provides a huge amount of focus and really sharpens our stories.
And yes, I’m so excited to have some of these conversations in person pretty soon! Can’t wait 🙂
Odd, i was just in the process this morning of sketching out a post on the whys of travel albeit in a different context after talking to a friend about several different options that have presented themselves to me. I don’t always agree always about knowing the “why” before you go to a place. Sometimes you go to find the why perhaps, but the real why that connects you was something different or doesn’t even present itself until after you’ve left. Generally the why for me is curiosity about something I just don’t know and I want to learn more about, a place that I didn’t know much about, or who had a problematic past and my information about it stopped when the news sources moved on to the next crisis.
I agree that I get frustrated with those same blogs too. One of the reasons I hated blogs over the years on several occasions. There is no story, no compelling argument or narrative that makes me feel connected to the traveler or the location. I think there is a place for blogs like that, but not a place for all of those blogs. But a good story, the world always needs a good story. It is the reason why I think your blog is so fantastic, the compelling narrative.
I totally get what you’re saying, Anwar, and I suppose I should have clarified that a bit more here! You certainly don’t need to know why you’re visiting a place before you go – but I think that it’s nice to have some sense of excitement or anticipation, even if you don’t know the exact reason for it. As you probably know by now, I’m a huge fan of discovery and of stumbling across things you didn’t know to expect 🙂 Thanks as always for taking the time to share your thoughts!
I agree, having a reason why you are excited or anticipating is great. But I always feel the pre-travel why is more of a catalyst than the connection perhaps. Maybe I’m just embarrassed about my pre-travel whys, they are always so nebulous. You clearly are open and love the discovery, it definitely shows in your travel and your writing. Being curious and open is such a great way to travel. Allowing ourselves to be affected and pulled along by the experiences that manifest themselves. I think the “average blog” issue is trying to find the right thread in the experience and pulling out the story that needs to be told. The one that links the whys, the hows, and whats. The ones that we know are weaving our life into our unique tapestry and we are just trying to show the reader even just a corner of it, hoping to inspire them as well. That’s so hard and exposing and so it’s easier just to write a me-too type blog post. It’s what I always struggle with, the analytical engineering mind that I view the world (and writing) with and why I’m always so in awe of writers who are so talented in this capacity.
Thanks for putting all of that so eloquently, Anwar. I especially love what you said about catalysts and connections – and I wonder if the two aren’t the same thing? Or if a pre-travel why can be both catalyst and connection? There’s lots to think about and process, and I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts here!
Totally I would agree they may or can be the same thing. But sometimes or often times for me the why I was there felt to be something I had not originally went seeking. Or didn’t know it was what I should have been seeking. If you don’t find the pre-why would the voyage have been a waste? That’s a lot of pressure for a little place to perform to. OK I write too much, your post is quite thought provoking and like the rest of your writing is inspiring me to me be better in my own.
This is fantastic – and exactly what impression the conference left on me as well. I do think it’s true someone who didn’t go to the “storytelling” (as I’ll call them) sessions might have come away with a completely different experience, but I’m glad I came away with this.
I’m so glad to have met you last week, Kerry! And I love that you termed these sessions the “storytelling” ones – that’s a perfect way to describe them 🙂 I’ve also been thinking a lot about that – that someone who focused more on the marketing side of things (i.e. speed dating!) could have had such a different experience. But maybe that’s a positive thing about the conference? That you can create your own TBEX experience, depending on what your priorities are? I’m glad to have surrounded myself with people who care about the same things I care about – I’ll definitely be leaving Dublin inspired because of it!
This is a question I sometimes struggle with – why will it matter to anyone but me? Why will people feel compelled to read and share? Why must I try and write for SEO when it’s not me?
Bummed I couldn’t make it to TBEX again this year (and it was even in Spain last year, ugh), but I’m sure to hear loads about it on blogs soon!
I’m also sad you couldn’t make it to TBEX, Cat! It would have been so fun to finally meet you in person 🙂 But thanks so much for sharing a bit about your struggle with asking why here… Personally, although I can see how writing for SEO makes some sense, wouldn’t the best SEO for our blogs simply be to tell the best stories possible and let them speak for themselves? I definitely don’t have all the answers, but I’m grateful to be talking this out with you and others!
As Pam says, Team “Why?” FTW.
Most of the things of value in my life, particular with my career, have come out of sinking a Why question sufficiently deeply into myself and hauling up the answer so I can take a good look at it. And when it comes to travel, I usually find Whys are essential.
Q: Why do I love to travel?
A: Because I haven’t yet found the right home for me, or a special someone/a bunch of other people to share it with, and like most people with an urge to see the world, there are things in my past I want to deal with by feeling more connected with the world, feeling like I have earned a place in it and a measure of relief from the demons that haunt me.
Q: Why?
A: What do you mean “why?” I just told you. Don’t be asinine.
Q: Why?
A: What, are we playing that kid’s game where you just keep saying Why? I’m not falling for it.
Q: Why?
A: BECAUSE I’M AN ADULT….oh damn, I fell for it. Anyway, I forgive you because the Why is vital.
Q: Why?
A: Because it’s direction. It points towards endings. If you know why you’re doing something, you understand the personal journey you’re on, the arc, and you get a better grasp of your past, present and future as a result. You gain an strong sense of identity. More importantly, you get to fit your Why into the wider Whys. That’s the most important thing of all.
Q: Why?
A: Because we’re all in this together, and when we forget that, we hurt and we break.
Good word, “Why”.
My friend, I could not love this any more than I already do. Understanding the journey we’re on, fitting our Why into the wider Whys…what you said is just SO GOOD. I am ridiculously, unbelievably grateful that we got to catch up in Dublin, and feel so lucky to be able to have these conversations with you. Can’t wait to catch up again soon – wherever that happens to be!
I think we all have heard at this point that the travel blogging market is (over)saturated, but it has always saddened me that it seems to be overflowing with those “travel brochure” blogs you mention, the ones that just throw up Top 10 lists or just put up trivia and facts about places without ever really connecting the writer—or the reader—with them. When I am doing quick down & dirty research on places that I might want to visit, posts like this might initially catch my eye (especially if they have pretty pictures), but ultimately these aren’t the blogs I have any interest in reading long-term. They aren’t about journeys or storytelling and they inevitably fail to hook my in the end. Travel is such a transformative experience, but I honestly believe that as bloggers, we can experience that transformation twice if we put the time and effort into the posts we write and also extend it on to our readers. Even if they haven’t taken every step in our shoes, we can make them feel as though they have, but that kind of writing requires hard work and requires really thinking critically and deeply about the experiences we have had.
Amen, Steph! You pretty much just nailed it 🙂 I’ll be honest – it has taken me a while to learn this myself. Hannah (whom I think you know from Further Bound!) was very instrumental in helping me open up and tell more of my story here on my blog, and I know that engaging in people’s stories is what keeps me returning to other blogs. I also love what you said about experiencing the transformation twice. That’s something that Don George talked about in his talk at TBEX – that we experience a place twice: once on the journey itself, and again when we write about it. It’s yet another reason I love what we do!
I second what Steph’s says. I look at the blogs I’m really excited to read and feel compelled to comment on (hard when you’re lying in bed “typing” on an iPad) and realize they are writing a story I couldn’t have found just anywhere on the Internet. I’ve read about places I never would have considered, but seeing it through someone’s passionate story makes me excited about it. It makes me excited about the writer. Then there are the blogs I sort of follow and it feels more like I *should* read them because…well, they have pretty good information, I guess.
Get to the why…I like it. I’ll definitely be asking myself that more often as I prepare to write.
First off, I just have to thank you for leaving a comment while on your iPad…I so appreciate you taking the extra time to follow along and comment even while on your own adventure 🙂 And secondly, I love the way you put that – “get to the why.” I’m putting that phrase on a post-it so it’s there every time I sit down to write. For me, it’s all about pushing beyond the obvious and pulling people into our stories. Why should they care? Heck, why do *we* care about what we’re writing on? These aren’t always easy things to answer, but I think they’re worth it.
Thanks for this post, Candace, and for summarizing your thoughts for those of us who weren’t able to attend.
I agree on asking the “why” and that’s probably why I now find writing “list” posts a bit of a chore – unfortunately, readers also look to those to plan their trips. The key, in my humble opinion, is to put yourself and your passion into any piece you’re writing, whether it’s a list or a narrative.
And often, the answer to ‘why’ you’d like to visit a certain place is curiosity. Nothing else. When I first visited Belize some years ago, it was curiosity that led me there. I followed my gut and turned down an alternative trip to Panama. I ended up returning to Belize many times, as you know, and connected with it at a level I never expected at first. And it’s now it’s a huge part of my work.
I think the key is always passion and digging deeper into a destination. Every place has something to offer.
Happy travels!
Thanks so much for reading this, Lily, and for sharing your perspective! It’s interesting you mention list posts, as I was just talking about them with Mike Sowden last week. I think the thing that bothers me with many lists is that you can tell they were written solely with SEO in mind – that they’re simply an attempt to get as much traffic as possible. But Mike and I both agreed that it’s absolutely possible to write lists that are still engaging, and even to weave a narrative through them. You nailed what it comes down to: passion. Your passion for Belize shines through everything you write, and I loved hearing that it was curiosity that first led you there!
Can’t wait to catch up with you again soon, and I hope all is well 🙂
I always think about the why on the flight home from destinations!
I definitely do as well, Andi! But I also loved what Don said on thinking about the ‘why’ even before we’ve reached a destination…I think it’s an interesting way to be looking for points of connection from the very start of a trip. Thank you as always for reading 🙂
Hey Candace,
It was a pleasure to meet you during my hols! Hope you had a great time at the conference. I like this particular entry you have made – about asking why. I think it’s the “why” which drives us – the goal/objective of what and how we do things. Without a goal, the entire exercise of doing without purpose might perhaps at times be meaningless. There is always a reason for things to happen and when we see connections, it appears to lend a depth and meaning to our life, reassuring us that we are on the right track and keep us going forward. Thanks for highlighting this important fact and I look forward to getting more inspirations from your thoughts.
Keep safe during your travels!
It was lovely to meet you as well, Clarice! I really appreciate you taking the time to check out my blog and leave such an insightful comment…I couldn’t agree more about how looking for the ‘why’ adds meaning, both to our travels and to life in general. Thanks so much for sharing that, and I hope to see you here again 🙂
We try very hard to talk about a place with a personal spin. In essence, it’s so easy to do. But, the ones with the top 10 lists that read like brochures, for some reason, get a lot of followers the quickest. I’ve been keepin’ it real since early this year and still lots of blogs are soaring ahead. Point here is: people love the cliches, they sell better than the narrative.
Thanks so much for your honesty here, Nicole. While I know it seems like people love cliches, I’d also like to think that people love a story – especially a story they can connect with. I think it’s about finding that personal spin, and then relating it in a way that is universal – that people can see themselves in. I personally feel that is the great challenge of travel writing – and actually of memoir as a whole genre…it’s your experience, but it’s also *everyone’s* experience. There will always be top 10 lists floating around, but I hope you keep writing about your personal connections to a place 🙂
I couldn’t agree more. The reader wants that why, otherwise they aren’t going to continue reading. Travel brochures are marketing copy, but we don’t want that as travelers or readers. We want more. Good stuff to think about no matter what you are writing.
-Mark
Great to hear from you, Mark! I love what you said about how this applies to all kinds of writing – I think that’s absolutely true. TBEX definitely reminded me to ask why and dig for deeper threads of meaning, no matter what story I’m working on. Thanks again for your comment, and I hope all has been well with you since Book Passage!
I think several of my posts are written to help me figure out the ‘why’ – it’s usually there is my head somewhere but writing about an experience, place or trip and just seeing what comes out probably happens as often as me starting a post with a clear ‘why’ or reason behind it…
Yes! Exactly. I love writing my way towards the ‘why’, and using the entire writing experience to dig out meaning. I think as long as we’re looking for it, we’re going to get to some level of meaning – whether we had it in mind from the start or discovered it along the way. Hope all is well in Thailand, Alana 🙂
My first word as a baby was “why”, and it’s a habit I haven’t broken–although I may not say it aloud, I’m always wondering, always curious, always determined to get to the truth of things–the value.
And it’s actually a bit thing for me right now, because I’m writing a book about a women who feels like she can’t follow her dream of traveling–she isn’t quite sure what she really wants. I’m at a crucial scene where she meets a gathering of travelers who range from photographers, cinematographers, or just people who wander to experience something new. But I have no experience of that yet–I haven’t had travel beyond family vacation, really. So I’m always asking myself as I”m trying to write, “What is the core of these people? Why do they do what they do? What is it that they SEE? What they feel? What changes them?” So blogs like this help answer that, to an extent. Still digging though.
Hopefully soon I’ll be extremely blessed and I can take a trip somewhere. Meet people like you and others in person. 😉
Thanks Candace!
Thanks so much for your comment, Elora! It’s fascinating to hear about your book-in-progress. I’ve got my fingers crossed that you’ll be able to hit the road for some research soon 🙂
This post is fantastic, Candace. I was so sad to have just moved to Dublin but still be missing TBEX.. great to get a bit of an inside opinion! I think we all have moments (mine has been quite recently) where we wonder what the point is of doing this. A few of your thoughts/comments here really spoke to me about why I might be in it, and where I need to be going. Headed back to the drawing board to come up with a plan. Thanks and keep posting 🙂
Thanks so much for saying hello, Olivia! That’s such a shame you weren’t able to make it to TBEX, especially since you just moved to Dublin, but I’m glad this post could give you a bit of insight into some of the discussions that took place there! Believe me when I say I ask myself, “What’s the point?” all the time – I think some element of doubt is a big part of the creative process and can actually be quite useful. Thanks again, and I look forward to seeing you here again 🙂
I’m so glad that we finally had a chance to meet at TBEX. Really enjoyed moving from the virtual “knowing you” to the real life giving a hug. Thank you for summarizing the core lesson of TBEX in such an eloquent way. And, we really appreciate the kind words you said about our talk as well.
When we get frustrated or discouraged about the travel industry or blogging, we come back to our personal why to ground us and motivate us. And like we discussed in Dublin, that why is bigger than ourselves and creates purpose.
As I look at a massive to do list waiting for me upon returning from Ireland, I’m thinking “why” to help prioritize and focus…
I couldn’t agree more, Audrey! It was so, so great to finally meet you and Dan in person, and I can’t wait for our paths to cross again. I’m really grateful to you both for ending the conference where you did – bringing our focus back to the bigger picture and to our bigger purpose in life. Hope all is well back in Berlin! 🙂
Beautiful write up Candace, as always… x
Thank you, Helen! I’m so glad our paths crossed in Dublin a couple of weeks ago, and can’t wait to keep following along your adventures 🙂