I have been nominated by the lovely Beverley of Pack Your Passport to take part in a Blog Hop. I have been watching and reading as Blog Hop has skipped around the blogosphere and seen some of my favorite travel blogs, dish out what goes on behind the scenes of their blogs. So now it’s my turn to show you what goes on behind the scenes of The Little Backpacker and how I fit blogging around a full time job (or at least used to, I’m soon to be a student… )
My desk often ends up being my bed or the sofa but I do try to work at a table.
Q1. What am I working on/writing?
At the moment I have a very long list of blog posts to write. I have been doing a fair bit of ‘holidaying’ along with moving across the country so haven’t been keeping up with everything I want to write very well. My list looks a little like this:
Finish writing up about the Edinburgh Fringe festival and put together a video of the festival. I took a lot of footage on my Go Pro because I had planned to put together a video but now the task of using iMovie seems a bit more daunting…
Start writing up about my mini Scottish holiday, I spent four days on a mini break and have so much to write! Luckily I took notes the whole trip so writing it all up shouldn’t take me too long, I just need to find a quiet place to write as I’m back at my parents and can’t seem to get a moment of peace.
I also have a few last blogs about Glasgow and Scotland now that I have moved away, as well as blogs which will come from my current trip motorbiking in Devon.
Q2. How does my work/writing differ from others of its genre?
I tend to write exactly as I talk and think, which often makes my sentences are a tad long but otherwise I like to think it is all pretty honest. I aim to inspire people to travel, stir up wanderlust and show my readers that everyone can travel if they want to.
I try to make my posts as informative as possible so that people can see how easy it is to do everything. I tend to break things down with costs and important information to make them as helpful as possible. I like to plan and organize a trip in depth so I feel I might as well share my hard work with my readers. Despite this I have been known to throw in the odd honest, rambling post about life too – I mean we are all human after all and where would the fun be if you knew nothing about me.
I prefer to mix writing with a glass of wine and ice cream but normally I just settle for a cup of coffee.
Q3. Why do I write what I do?
I first started my travel blog in 2012 before I set off around the world for a year long trip. I had plans to keep my family and friends up to date but also admired many travel blogs and thought I’d give it a shot. My travel blog has always been and always will be about the photography as much as the writing. Partly because I’m dyslexic and so writing isn’t as easy for me but also because my dream job would be a travel photographer.
I might not love the editing process that comes after writing so much but there is something therapeutic about putting pen to paper and writing down exactly what I have been doing. I carry a journal with me and tend to write a lot when I’m on public transport but I have also been known to write half a blog in my head while I’m walking around.
Q4. How does my writing process work?
This process has really developed over the last year as I have become more and more involved in my blog. If I am catching up on blogs like at the moment then I have a list of posts to write and notes from the day of the travel, that I either wrote in my journal or on my phone. I will then write up the posts as and when I have time before scheduling them. I would love to be able to write a fresh post every few days but some times work commitments get in the way and this just isn’t possible. So I find the best way is to spend a day at the weekend and few evenings a week putting things together.
However having said that I have been known (especially in the last few months) to scramble about putting a blog post together early in the morning. This tends to happen because I like to post on certain days of the week and either two or three times week (a little OCD I know, but I like it that way) so if I get behind with that I tend to stress myself out.
Normally I will write a blog in one go and then come back later to edit over my grammar, add in headings and all that jazz. Occasionally when I put together a blog that involves a lot of research and work, I will make a plan and work through in a logical order.
Blogging on location always sounds ideal but in reality you can never see the screen when the sun is out.
So there you have it, a behind the scenes of my little blog. My nominations to carry the Blog Hop on are:
Helen in Wonderlust – I have fallen in love with Helen’s blog over the last few months and hang off her every word about Africa.
AM Travel Times – Alex is a personal friend of mine and writes such short and sweet posts about travel in day to day life and further afield.
Backpacks and Bunkbeds – Neil’s blog was one of the first I discovered and he manages to fit A LOT of travel around a full time job.