Reflections on World Travel

Should Your Profile be a Mixed Drink, or do you Double Down on expertise about Scotch Whiskey?

A revised title about defining one’s presence as a writer on MEDIUM in an effort to define your audience

Is it better to find your niche on MEDIUM and simply stay on script? Do successful writers on this platform develop a brand and stick with it?

I’m relatively new to MEDIUM. My current profile was established last July as an extension of a WordPress blog I’ve been keeping for about ten years. All said I’m quite pleased to have gained a couple of hundred followers in that time, and a decent number of substantive comments.

But here’s the rub…

My wife and I are naturists. (Some say nudists, but we don’t care for that nomenclature.) And we also love to travel and spend most of our discretionary income on finding our way to the far corners of the planet. We have tales to tell about safaris in Botswana, the medinas of Morocco, train rides across South Africa, wandering the streets of Sri Lanka, New Years in Rio, snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia — and the list goes on. That’s to say nothing of a year living in France and many summers in Europe, including the one when we drove from Barcelona to Crete.

Truth is, we would have never embraced this spirit of adventure had it not been for our interest in naturism. Most naturist places are in remote locations that draw you away from the urban centers and onto those back roads most tourists would never think to seek out. Suddenly, you find yourself at a small bistro in a quaint village, surrounded by locals, none of whom are able or even care to speak your language.

Yesterday, I received nearly a dozen comments from one reader who was absolutely effusive about my recent article on restaurants in France. One of his comments was genuinely apologetic in that he couldn’t follow me as “our paths are incongruent,” implying that my interest in naturism was at odds with his own identity, and it is probably best if our blogs don’t become entangled with one another. Fair point. No hard feelings. He even went on to say that he’d subscribe by email and keep reading my stuff. I thought that was unusually forthright and kind, and I genuinely appreciated it.

HERE’S THE QUESTION OF THE DAY!

Is it better to find your niche on MEDIUM and simply stay on script? Do successful writers on this platform develop a brand and stick with it?

I think naturism and travel are inextricably linked, as our naturist stories almost always involve travel to some far-flung destination. (Did you know there are several naturist resorts in Thailand?) And that’s to say nothing about my fascination with sociology, psychology, and by association, the current political cluster-f**k we’re all living through right now. To me, it’s all part of the same narrative as you really can’t visit anyplace in Africa without giving serious thought to racism, colonialism, elitism, and the ongoing debate about the legitimacy of the British Monarchy. I know some people like to compartmentalize, but I’m one of those college professor types who makes a living at drawing connections between things that, at first, appear to be “incongruent,” but in truth — it’s all connected!

So I’m hoping this piece will draw a few comments. I realize asking for advice about MEDIUM in a MEDIUM article is something akin to taking a poll on online shopping while standing outside the CVS store in a suburban mega-mall. But I do love to write, and I’m eager to broaden the scope of my narrative.

And should you be interested in the “other side of the story,” from my blog that specifically targets the naturist community, you might want to give this piece a look-see…

That said, I mainly write for my own catharsis so I really shouldn’t care if it offends people and followers start dropping off. I’m not doing this for a living.

But on the other hand, if a writer works feverishly at his desk, and nobody reads his stuff, does he still make a sound?

Eager to hear what people are thinking.

P.S. While I wouldn’t dare call myself an expert, I do have quite a selection of single malt whiskeys and I’d love to write about those as well. May I should change my handle to @naturist_traveling_whiskey-loving, world curious and politically concerned_Dan. Seems like that would go viral overnight!

P.P.S I should also write a piece on stories with Titles that are too long! LOL