The role of an EitM writer or general creative bod, we feel, is non-intrusive, shadowy and vague. They record facts and present them as is, without conjecture, opinion or placing themselves in their content.

We’re not big on writers having profile pictures or real names, or talking about themselves. All we want to do is present a topic and let the reader make of it what they will, without worrying about hot air or background noise.

Phrasing to avoid

It’s mostly a case of avoiding overused buzzwords, as listed below. These terms tend to turn up a lot, especially on social media, and it all feels a bit lazy and cynical – strategic informality designed to increase engagement.

Words have power, and overusing or misusing them robs them of that power. And when you can predict, fairly accurately, what a travel account will say, or at least how they’ll say it, then a lot of mystery and fun has been lost. We appreciate there’s probably a formula for success and precise wording is a part of said formula. It all just feels a bit uniform.

We’d rather something is natural, even if it’s badly worded and stylistically flails around like a harpooned whale. On an unrelated note, welcome to Eye in the Middle: (In)Expert Travel Advice for all your travel content needs.

Anyway, thanks for letting us vent and shout at the clouds. We avoid using the following (in no particular order):*

Heaven / Paradise

• We respect people’s rights to worship, and these two loaded terms represent the absolute peak of experience for the faithful. They can’t be diluted by overuse
• In fact, they’re so powerful that you’d only ever use them once, upon finding that place, state of mind or whatever form those two terms might take. Ideally you’d forget either word existed after using them
• Point is, don’t use these terms as shorthand for ‘this place or thing is really good’
• Burritos are great, for example, but calling that burrito joint down the road ‘paradise’ feels a bit wide of the mark
• Acceptable uses:
  • When it’s officially used, such as in a name or title
    • Paradise City (e.g., the song)
    • Paradise Lost (e.g., the band or epic poem)
    • Heaven’s Gate
    • Heaven Can Wait (e.g., songs, media)
    • And so on – use your judgement

Grateful / Blessed

• A bit cheesy and faux-profound

You guys / Y’all / People like you

• Overused and overly familiar
• We wanted to update you guys with our new plans; Y’all keep asking me where I book flights; I just want to inspire people like you to travel to new places
• It seems unlikely that a person knows literally every consumer of their work, so phrasing like this is redundant. More likely, you don’t know what the readers / viewers / listeners want, what they’ve done, where they’ve been or why you’ve got their attention. You don’t even know if they’re human, really

Epic

• When used as an adjective. That waterfall was epic
• Perfectly fine to use when discussing something with a huge narrative scope: the Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer’s epic poem The Iliad, etc

Awesome

• Same logic as ‘epic’, above: The food is awesome, Ten awesome co-working spaces in [Place]. Don’t use it as an adjective that suggests how great something is
• Perfectly fine to use in elemental contexts. The awesome destructive power of Mount Krakatoa, the awesome height of the Colossus of Rhodes

Adventure

Proud

• Gotta be careful with words like this. It’s good to hype people up, but there’s a fine line between support and being a bit patronising. Sadly, ‘proud’ seems to fall into the latter category. I’m just so proud of [So & So] for laying down roots and building their fifth villa in Bali

Present / showing up

• It’s good to do/be both of these things. As a reader, though, it feels more informative to understand the circumstances and motivation behind a person being present or showing up, so focus on expanding the point rather than using the terms on their own

Focused

Manifest

• Feels a touch too performative and faux-spiritual
• Manifesting is pretty much a buzzword for the combination of hard work, good luck and circumstances – and fair play to anyone in that position who has the chance to make a success of themselves
• Talk of manifestation, though, illustrated by a moody landscape picture, comes across as a bit derivative

Home

• As in what is home?, home (illustrated with a picture of a beach hut or similar), I’m home 🥹
• ‘Home’, as in finding somewhere where you feel you belong, is a nice notion, and not to be taken lightly. That’s especially true for people who have trouble fitting in or tend to feel a bit out of place
• It’d just be nice to see a variation of the ‘home’ theme when reading travel stories or looking at related content

Aura farming

• Ever since that fella on the boat in – where was it? West Papua? He did it well, and it was cool. But most references to the original have since pushed ‘aura farming’ firmly into ‘overused bandwagon jumping’ territory, which feels faddy

Vibes

• As in good vibe, it’s a vibe etc
• Too vague and doesn’t really explain anything

I / Me / Mine / My

• This falls into talking-about-yourself territory
• Fine for recorded speech – even then, it might be better to rephrase the quote to avoid using the first-person
• I, Me, Mine is an underrated Godflesh song

*In the interest of fairness, we’ve used more than our fair share of cliched tropes and phrases over the years, so we’re not above censure or better than anyone else. Hidden gems, off-the-beaten-path, stuff like that.

Tone

EitM isn’t looking to inspire anyone, aside from producing stories that readers hopefully like or find useful. With that in mind, we prefer a detached but friendly tone of voice, like a well-meaning newsreader, university lecturer or someone like that. We present the information, hopefully well researched and definitely from lived experience, clearly (kind of, most of the time). That way, the facts can soak in as people process what they’ve read.

That probably doesn’t translate into relatability. But as long as the tone of voice isn’t aloof, that lack of engagement won’t matter too much. Be distant all you want, just don’t talk down to people or pretend you know them. Above all things, avoid insincerity.

We also fully admit to playing with the narrative thrust of a story every once in a while. As in, make things a bit fictional. When we do, we alert the reader. Feel free to mess about the same way, as long as it suits the story. Don’t force it. A nice bit of magic realism sometimes works really well.

Please get in touch via hello@eyeinthemiddle.com or the form below with any story suggestions.