The book’s goals are:
- To convince readers that writing well is an integral part of success in life.
- To share writing hacks that make it easier to write well.
Here is your first look at a rough draft of a small section in Part One.
It’s Okay to Be a Poser
Our first press trip while on assignment for Yahoo Travel was a pretty big deal. We went to Milan to preview Expo Milano 2015 while it was in the final construction phase. (Expos are what we would call the “World’s Fair” in the states; pretty much everybody else calls it an Expo.)
We were on the first press trip. As in, no other journalists had been invited by the Expo peeps. At all. And there were only three Americans invited. The two of us and a food writer from National Geographic Traveler. There were journalists from Italy, Germany, Russia, and France—all representing top-tier publications.
I felt like a total poser when the email from my editor hit my phone on a Sunday afternoon while I was on a road trip with two friends shopping/researching a story at IKEA (yes, I actually wrote How to Do All Your Travel Shopping at IKEA). I read and re-read the email a couple of times, probably with a puzzled look on my face.
Friend One asked if I was okay.
“I think my editor wants me to go to Milan,” I replied.
“Milan, Italy?” Friend Two asked. “How cool!”
“When? And can we go too?” chimed Friend One.
I looked again at the phone in bewilderment. “Next week,” I said, trying to sound as if it were a normal thing in my life beyond the confines of rural Texas (where shopping at IKEA is a road trip).
“Next week?!” they shrieked together. “She wants you to go to Milan, Italy next week? Are you going?”
By then we had reached the second-to-the front spot of our parallel checkout lines and we each began stacking our drawer organizers, light bulbs, and rubber whisks onto our conveyor belts.
“I don’t think I can go,” I said softly, but not so softly that they didn’t both hear me and jerk their heads in my direction. “It’s Milan,” I said in defense. “What the heck would I wear in Milan-Fashion-Capital-Italy?” There may have been an expletive in there somewhere for effect.
There was silence, followed by the checking out, the filling of giant blue and yellow IKEA bags, then the purchase of drinks and snacks for the road trip back home—all without another mention of Milan.
They knew I was a poser.
The instant the three crinkly blue bags disappeared into the trunk, Friend One said, “You’ll wear any flippin’ thing you want to wear. You aren’t going there because you’re some fashion goddess. You’re going because you write like a beast and your Yahoo editor knows it and wants you there.”
Nods all around. It was apparently settled.
Gary, who echoed the fashion goddess sentiment (making me suspect that neither my friends nor my husband had any faith in my ability to dress myself) has never felt like a poser in any circumstance his entire life. He told me a long time ago that the secret to walking into a new place was to walk in like you own the joint, and that is exactly what we did.
For a week our exclusive little troupe of journalists was whisked around the city in a fleet of black Jeep Grand Cherokees. We visited museums, attended presentations, ate at Micheline-star restaurants, and wore hard hats as we walked the construction site where the Expo was beginning to take shape. We drank coffee with the secretary to the Mayor of Milan. We toured behind the scenes of Milan’s famed opera house, Teatro de le Scala. At night we slept in seven-star rooms overlooking the inside of the Galleria.
There were a couple of moments when the feelings of not belonging in such high-ranking company, covering such an important event snuck back into my brain. One of the other journalists got a little attitude-y with me half-way through the trip. Her problem was most likely a case of my-publication-is-better-than-your-publication. (My writer friend Mary Chong says: “There’s one of those in every crowd. And if you can’t figure out who the ‘one’ is, then it could be you.”) The “one” on that press trip bullied enough to stir those imposter feelings in me.
After Milan, our Jeep caravan was off to Lake Iseo, in the heart of the Franciacorta wine region (Franciacorta is Italy’s only sparkling wine produced by the same process as Champagne). We were wined (seriously wined) and dined for two additional days before we returned home where I wrote four stories for Yahoo Travel—one of which (the one about Franciacorta wine) won my first Gold Award from the North American Travel Journalists Association.
Poser that!
Everybody feels like they are a fake when they jump out of their comfort zone or tackle something new—especially if it’s something that has the power to change life forever the way writing can.
The old saying, “Fake it ’til you make it,” is on point. The hard part is to push beyond that voice in your head whispering that you don’t belong while you do the faking.
Writing well is not some exclusive club; it is a talent you can develop—one that can change the direction of your life.
And in case you are wondering: The answer is black. I wore black.
I could be a fashion goddess if I wanted; I prefer being a kickass freelance writer.
Thanks for stopping by!
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