For the month of July, we’re launching into traveling. Who doesn’t want to escape into a romantic getaway as we have spent months sheltered in place? While travel had been fairly restricted during the heyday of March through May, did you daydream of an exotic island, sipping on a cold beverage of choice, and listening to the ocean waves crashing onto the shore?
I did.
To inspire us all, let’s get into our imaginative 747 and fly overseas, somewhere inviting and beautiful. And make sure to take your journal and pen. We will make time to write!
The first stop? Rome, Italy.
Last April 2019, my friend and I traveled to Italy on a eight-day excursion. I absorbed the sights, journaled throughout the trip, and returned inspired to write.
Today’s blog is the writing lessons I discovered on my tour of Rome.
In this blog, you’ll learn:
- The value of immersing yourself in your surroundings and how that applies to writing.
- Power of passion to provide authority and enrapt readers.
- Practice using passion in your own writing.
Rome is a city literally built upon layers of history. Instead of removing or bulldozing antiquity, the builders developed on top of the old layers. Fortunately, this allows the city to excavate antiquity, and allows us to discover the customs, culture, and civilization from Rome’s past.
I’ve never had an urge to visit Rome. When my friend and I booked our Italy trip, we wanted to visit Sorrento. But we found an irresistible deal that included three days in Rome after our five days in Sorrento. Yet, we didn’t plan any excursions for Rome. When we arrived in Rome, we followed the advice of friends who had visited the city.
On the second full day, we found the I Love Rome Hop On/Hop Off bus. We got off at the Colosseum but didn’t want to spend money on touring the gigantic stadium. It is an incredible structure considering all it has survived over thousands of years, but we heard mixed reviews, so we spent our euros on a different tour.
After noticing tourists standing in line in front of the Roman Forum; we bought tickets for a tour to see Palatine Hill and the Forum.
Our guide was a young English man, handsome with light blond hair, deep blue eyes, and an English accent. He started the tour exploring Palatine Hill, known as the Beverly Hills of Rome since where the patricians and emperors lived during antiquity. We finished the tour exploring the Forum.
For $20 euro, it was well worth the money. While we enjoyed the sites, our tour guide was the star. His passion for history was palatable and helped make the history on the Hill and the Forum come alive. His energy and knowledge translated to the site itself. He barely took a breath as he shared history of these famous places. And he was interactive as he’d ask questions and laughed with us throughout the tour.
Passion is something that you can’t teach because it comes from within. However, you can change your attitude and outlook to hopefully discover that passion.
We all have it, but sometimes it’s buried under layers of grime, dirt, and repressed memories and trauma. It’s sometimes difficult to find.
If you can find your passion for writing, your readers will reward you. Just like we rewarded the guide with tips after the tour. He was thorough and energetic, I didn’t feel like he was just “going through the motions”. Others on our tour rewarded him by booking his Vatican tour for the next day.
Reading should be informative, energetic, and pleasurable. By writing about subjects or stories you’re passionate about, your readers will reward you. They’ll sense your love for the subject (if writing non-fiction) or for story (if writing fiction or memoir). The world you create through your book comes alive.
When your readers feel as though they’re traveling on a journey with you, they’ll not just buy your books, but follow your social platforms and consider you an authority on that subject or story.
Activation:
If you have written content:
Go through a particular section you felt was lackluster. Put yourself in the reader’s shoes and ask yourself, “What does a reader want to experience as they read this?”
You can liven up your content through tools such as:
- Anecdote (a brief true story) that will connect the principles or story line for the reader better.
- Visual like a graph, picture, GIF if you’re writing an instructional book.
- Humor to liven it up and give entertainment value to your book.
- Poignant moment such as a difficult lesson in your life or someone else’s that drives the story home.
Exercise:
- Think about using one of those tools mentioned above to liven up a section in your manuscript-a section you think lacks luster and passion.
- Set a timer for 15 to 25 minutes depending on how much time you have available.
- Use one of these tools to transform that section. Write without criticizing or editing your work.
- Once the timer goes off, stop writing.
- Read the revised section out loud. Not to judge it, but ask yourself, “How did this addition enhance the passage?” Or “How did I tap into my passion when I used this tool?”
- Perform this exercise on any section you think needs luster.
If you don’t have written content:
- Think of an amusing anecdote or personal story that moves or amuses you.
- Set a timer for 15-25 minutes.
- Free write about this memory without editing. Just write and don’t correct any grammar, punctuation, or spelling.
- Once the timer goes off, read your work without judgment but just to see if you enjoyed sharing this story and if it is pertinent to the book you’re about to write.
- Write what you felt during this exercise. For ex: joy, peace, love, longing, happiness, sadness, or anything else. This helps you to understand the tone you want to establish in this book. And it helps to tap into your inner self and find the passion for the book you’re about to write!
Share any portion of this exercise in Comments below. I would enjoy reading your work!