I am writing myself into obscurity. Each sentence feels more meaningless than the last. No direction, no forethought. Questioning every prose and wondering if people would scoff at the pointlessness of my work. It’s an expression of self-doubt that has caused a longwinded hiatus for Geordie Travels. I search for purpose in my writing. For a worthwhile hook, a great introduction, a compelling story for the middle, and that perfect ending that’ll tie things up nicely with a succinct metaphorical bow — gift-wrapped for your pleasure.
And so. I tell myself the same thing — as 2024 draws to a close — as I tell myself every year. Next year, I’ll break free of these self-imposed shackles. Next year, I will write much more often. I’ll write like never before, in fact, and if only 5% of my writing can be considered stellar, then at least that’s 100% more than my current output.
I’ve had a blog post in the works for the last two years. TWO YEARS!!! My wife and I took a road trip through southern Brazil and Uruguay—and I’ve wanted the retelling of our adventures to be perfect ever since. Too perfect. I’ve gotten roughly halfway through regaling our trip on no less than five separate occasions, and each time I’ve been thwarted by the demotivation that comes with the constant imposing internalized pressure to create a “banger” of a piece. It’s my first challenge for 2025. I will finish that blog post and decide whether to share it here on geordietravels.com or theworldisaccessible.com.
Beyond that, I’ll endeavour to treat geordietravels.com as a personal weblog, sharing tales and anecdotes from my travels and insights into my life as a wheelchair user. theworldisaccessible.com will remain the main focus of my work — as our community grows, we must continue to put out high-quality, wide-ranging content on the topics of accessible travel and accessibility more broadly.
I hope you’ll not only bear with me but you’ll also keep me accountable in ensuring that geordietravels.com lives on. My wife is quite right when she often reminds me that I spent too many years trying to build this blog site to be something not only recognisable but interesting enough whereby readers revisit from time to time and check in to see what’s new.
Write about what you know, Anthony. Write without fear or self-judgement. Share your stories and readers who feel a connection to you will enjoy them for what they are. Overthinking things is stifling your creativity. It’s ok for something not to be perfect.
I am now laughing at myself over the irony of this post. Another thoroughly needless post in which I complain about my writing being without focus or importance.
See you in the new year. I promise.
Happy Christmas.