Blogs & book authors, are you walking to write them?

Melensdad · Apr 22, 2015

Just curiuos but it seems lik so many of the people I encounter who walked a Camino, or intend to walk a Camino are planning to/have already written blogs or books.

So if you plan to do it before you walk, are you walking, in part, to become an author?

cher99840 · Apr 22, 2015

I don't think maintaining a blog and writing a book are the same thing at all. People do blogs for various reasons, but seldom to sell. Their blogs are comparable to journaling and is a good way to share their experience with friends and anyone else interested in following their adventure. I did a daily FB post instead of a blog.

dougfitz · Apr 22, 2015

I maintain a blog, mainly to keep my family and friends informed about what I am doing. I don't intend to take that any further and publish a book.

yolanda Mejia · Apr 22, 2015

dougfitz said:
I maintain a blog, mainly to keep my family and friends informed about what I am doing. I don't intend to take that any further and publish a book.

I feel yo dougfitz. Thank you!

C clearly · Apr 22, 2015

I enjoy blogging when I travel - I get to communicate to family, friends and miscellaneous strangers about whatever "adventure" I'm having. (Sometimes the miscellaneous strangers are more interested than the family!) I jokingly say that I need to go on a trip in order to having blogging stories, but that's not really true.

Keeping a blog is more like writing a public journal than being an "author." I don't expect to publish a book.

Suzanne S. · Apr 22, 2015

Ditto above. I have a small personal blog for my friends and family who like knowing what I'm doing, and, sometimes unfortunately, thinking!

jeffnd · Apr 22, 2015

I was going to do a video blog along the way, but I decided not to, for various reasons, time being the main one.

I have decided to write something though. Not a guidebook or a blow by blow account of my Camino, just a short little booklet, probably under 100 pages, about some people and events that took place and my thoughts on them.

Edit-On my next pilgrimage though, I am doing the video blog thing.

gmonkey · Apr 22, 2015

I'm a freelance writer, so of course when I walked last year I had "well, maybe I'll pitch it to someone" in the back of my head, but that wasn't the purpose of my trip. I wanted to experience it for myself. If there was a story to be told, then great, but I didn't manufacture one while I was walking. I took copious notes on everything of course.

I did end up selling a story to a magazine eventually. But that kind of fell into my lap, I didn't actively pitch it to the magazine directly.

(I won't self-promote here, but if you'd like to read it, feel free to PM me and I'm happy to send you the link)

Julio Gone Camino · Apr 22, 2015

I keep a blog - have done for a while - which features Caminos and other walking stuff.

There are several reasons why I started it. Sure, I wanted to have something to look back on in my dotage, and something that my parents could look at now they are in theirs and can't travel any more.

But I also started it for me. I used to play in a band, but not longer do because my work schedule makes doing so difficult, and I'm of an age myself where burning the candle at both ends on a regular basis just doesn't compute!

So instead of playing music, I wanted to use my blog as something of a creative outlet for my enjoyment of walking, travelling and photography, and I really enjoy the creative process of writing. OK, so the standard may not be very high and I wish I could devote more time to it than I do, but the change to the daily routine it offers is a valuable respite.

ManyMiles2Go · Apr 22, 2015

We did a blog, as others above have said, just to keep our family and friends "in touch" with us and to let them know we were OK. It is also nice to go back and look at it ourselves

LaurenceE · May 30, 2020

My wife did a daily blog (Camino Assets) for our 2019 trip (May and June) and our son presented her with the book version, with captioned pictures etc, at Christmas. He must have spent hours putting it in order and it is a lovely reminder of the trip, especially in lockdown.
I did an occasional blog post. But, having written and edited for a living for 40 years, it felt like work. But, I have since drafted a murder story about the Camino. Never having written fiction before, it was an interesting exercise but the editor in me knows it is awful! Not sure I will ever finish it.