GoGirlfriend & Share your travel stories on GG in 2012!

Imagine being in a room with your best friends, your travel idols and all the time in the world to kibitiz, share and ask questions. You've just dreamed GoGirlfriend - the ultimate online traveler's cocktail party.

Becoming a travel writerSince 2007, GoGirlfriend has been dedicated helping the honeymooner, mom, executive and inquisitive globetrotter make the most of her travels. We dabble in the real, radiant, foodie-lucious and culturally stimulating travel stories from across the web and around the world.

Created for women of all ages and lifestyles, GoGirlfriend focuses on sharing personal travel experiences to help us all travel better. Our vision has always been to add color to our reader's lives through community based story-telling.

Isn't it time you shared your travel stories?

Your 411 on being a GG travel writer

Not sure you have what it takes to be a GG travel writer? Let's start with the basics. You know you're a GG Travel Writer if you:

• Lost your driver's license but never your passport.
• Plan packing space for the goodies you'll bring home from your travels.
• Can travel a full week with just a carry-on or take the biggest piece of luggage you own and fill to 49 ½ lbs. when you need a few extra niceties.
• Book your own flights after checking multiple airlines cause who wants to spend money before you get where you're going?
• Summer to you = travel. Actually summer could be replaced with any season.

Earn your travel writing chops

The best advice travel writing I ever received was toTravel writing advice explore my hometown like a visitor. And then write about it. Taking a topic I knew a lot about and explaining the details honed my ability to see the extra-ordinary in places and events I took for granted.

If you want to be a travel writer in 2012, feel free to steal the following advice and use it to your advantage:

Read something travelish every day

Dive deep into all things travel. Open your horizons with travel blogs, magazines and books that write with a voice you aspire to. Sure, National Geographic might be a goldmine of travel stories but if you enjoy the flavor of Vagabondish more, go with it. The best teachers are the ones you actually learn from, right?

Write something travelish every day

Travel writing basicsWhen I taught at the college level I told my students that, for many writers, starting a new story is disturbing similar to that feeling you get before you're about to be sick to your stomach. And like throwing up, you feel better afterwards. Give yourself permission to write horribly, with lots of spelling mistakes and grammar errors. There will be time to clean it up once your ideas are in front of you - instead of tangled in your thoughts.

Meet other writers

Use Twitter and Facebook to help you connect with people who can mentor your travel writing journey. Ask questions, comment intelligently and interact with the people they follow. Like joining a cocktail party when it's in full swing, it's all about working the room.

Avoid clichés

A cliché is an old story that everyone knows the end to already. Instead, crack open the cliché and make your analogies and metaphors unique to you. A few sayings that we can all live without:

• Best-kept secret - really? To whom?
• Don't miss and must see. Let your reader decide based on your story.
• Exotic. Anywhere can be exotic if you don't live there.

Commit to it

Like losing weight, travel writing takes effort and dedication. There will be rewrites, additions and sometimes some slashing and burning to get to the heart of your story. But every time you write something and edit it, you get better at it. Don't give up.

Break the rules

Forget high school grammar class - travel writing on the web is first person, personal and did we mention personal? Ruthlessly develop your own writing voice by taking risks with word usage and syntax. Telling a good story isn't enough to be heard above the cacophony of the web.

Get used to edits

Travel editors can be demanding...No one writes anything fully grown - well one person does, but we don't like her very much. Seriously, get used to editors wanting more from you than you first offer. And be prepared to put out.

We'd love to welcome you to the ranks of GG writers so you can write your own list of reasons of what separates a GG Traveler from a tourist. Check out our editorial calendar for 2012 and let your travel daydreams run away with themselves.

Is being a travel writer in your future? How can we help make your travel writing dreams a reality? Follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook and let's start talking!