Epictetus, the Greek philosopher, determined
that “If you wish to be a writer, write”. This was
a reflection of his firm belief that people were
responsible for their own actions, and therefore
‘wanting’ or ‘dreaming’ to do something could
only happen if you actually did it!
Steve Gillick…writing away
When I was 14 years old, I took a five week
student trip to Europe. We travelled by ship to
various coastal cities and part of our assignment
was to keep a daily diary. I still have that diary
today and can see snippets of a budding travel
writer as I attempted to describe the incredibly
luxurious Hermitage Museum in Leningrad (now
St. Petersburg), or the amazing souk, or
marketplace, that we visited in Gibraltar.
And my writing got a bit of a boost when Mr.
Sperling, our teacher, asked if I would like to
contribute an article to the ship’s newsletter on
any topic I chose. I wrote about what was before
me: A huge ship that grew smaller every day as
we became more familiar with where everything
was located, and as we discovered short cuts to
get to the classroom or the theatre or the dining
hall. And then I used this as an analogy to talk
about the cities and countries that we were visiting
on the trip. I wrote about Copenhagen and how on
the first day it seemed so confusing and difficult to
get around on the bus tour, but when we had
some free time on the second day, we found that
it was easy to walk from one place to another and
in fact, the city had shrunk in size.
My article was published and I read it 40-50 times,
thinking that me—Steve Gillick—was a published
writer! And perhaps this was the
feeling of travel-writing-euphoria that lay the
groundwork for my love of writing. So when I
worked at summer camps, I wrote for the
newsletter; when I worked for a tour company, I
started a newsletter, and later when I worked for a
travel association, I revamped their newsletters
and became the writer, editor and publisher. No
This does not imply that you have to be born into
the role of ‘writer’. There are many avenues that
lead writers to success and in every
circumstance, that old adage that ‘practice
makes perfect’, comes into play.
matter how busy I was, I would always find time to
write—usually on weekends, and many times on
my home computer after a long day at the office
and into the wee hours of the night. It became my
way of relaxing and it still is a pleasant means of
escape from reality and routine.
But for me, writing is also an intellectual
challenge, based on my personal credo that every
word in the English language has a very specific
connotation and it is the travel writer’s task to use
the most meaningful words in each sentence to
express thoughts, emotions, vistas and people,
and try to capture the ambiance of a destination;
the exuberance of an event, the titillation of one’s
taste buds when partaking of unique foods, the
exhilaration of seeing a global landmark that has
always been on your ‘must-see’ list, and the
euphoria of discovering something that you never
knew existed.
Travel writing topics are sometimes directly in our
sight lines: If you visit Prague, then you may
choose to write about Prague. Or you can look at
specific aspects of the city which may be more
meaningful to readers with different interests.
Culinary. Our favourite lunch included grilled
sausage, served with horseradish and mustard,
fresh rye bread and dark beer (usually at U
Glaubicu in Lesser Town); while our favourite
dinner was at U Medvidku (In Old Town near the
Narodni Bridge) which consisted of grilled duck,
potato dumplings, sweet red cabbage and
different varieties of dark beer.