I’d read roughly ten adventure memoir books when I realized that I could take my love of the genre and spin it into a career. That’s when freelance writing became a twinkle in my eye. But let me back up.
I got into adventure memoir books when I moved to the Pacific Northwest. The green rolling hills of my homeland on the East coast turned into jagged, toothy monsters. I ogled over their majesty. Outdoor recreation is a lot more visible in this northwestern pocket of the U.S. I know it exists just as prominently on the East coast, but it never sat as plainly in front of me as it did when I arrived in the Cascades. Armed with this newfound awe of recreation, I dove into books covering everything under the outdoor industry sun. Trail running, hiking, backpacking, thru-hiking, conservation, cycling, and more. You name it, I’ve buried my nose in it.
Living in a place nestled among so many mountains made it easy to leap off the page and get my physical body outdoors, doing the same activities I read about. I quickly became a backpacking aficionado and spent eight days in the backcountry of Mt. Rainier. All of these good feelings I felt after discovering the outdoor industry didn’t match the feelings I had about my office job at the time. It gave me a stable income with reasonable hours, but I was bored. I wasn’t passionate about the work. Deskjockey politics were a dime a dozen, and I found myself yearning for something more. So I squirreled away six months’ worth of savings and quit to become a full-time freelance writer.
Content writing became my way into the outdoor industry because I didn’t need clients to do it. I just started writing about my own adventures and interests. I figured that, if I did this consistently enough, it would lead to client work. At first, I started with personal essays. These were words from the heart about my own adventures. I decided to expand my content writing library and churn out blog posts, trail guides, trip reports, and interviews with other adventurers and collect it all into one monthly newsletter. That newsletter is called Humans Behind The Miles.
What makes a good outdoor content writer? Someone who has a deep understanding of and appreciation for the outdoors. You can have all the writing chops in the world, but if you don’t have the lived experience, it will poke glaring holes in your work.
None of this has been a walk in the park. It is hard work to prove you’re worth your salt. It’s something I’ll likely be doing for many years to come. That’s because the outdoor industry has made strides, but it still has a gatekeeper culture that makes it hard to bust through.
Take it from me–you don’t need to be a pro. You just need to love the outdoors and have the grit to keep going until you’ve broken into the industry.