Ples ("Dance") by Ivan Generalic
At last, I have finished my massive guide-writing project for Unanchor.
It’s a three-day itinerary that shows visitors the best places in Zagreb to see art.
And I finished it only two months over deadline.
Unanchor guides are meant to be more intensive than a normal guidebook. They don’t just list places to go, they take you by the hand and lead you there. I like this approach, because I have often been lost or confused by incomplete directions in guidebooks. And I know Zagreb pretty well by now, so I thought it would be a breeze to write.
WRONG.
Now I know why most guidebook writers don’t go into this level of detail: because they’re making less than minimum wage, and because it’s exhausting.
I had never done an Unanchor itinerary, so there was a sharp learning curve.
My guide has images of Croatian art from the ancient to the modern, and describes the best places in Zagreb where art can be found. It’s over 100 pages long.
I spent weeks refining, honing, checking information, and making sure all my links worked, while getting no sleep. Plus there are a ton of art photos and they all had to be optimized for the web. Adding my salty opinions was the easy part: making maps and writing out very precise directions, researching artists, and making sure everything was right was the hard part.
It nearly killed me. But it was fun.
At the end, when I submitted my work and Jason emailed me back with “Wow!” it was all worth it. I love wowing people.
If you’re planning a trip to Croatia, why not give my guide a try? Drop me a line and tell me what you think of it.
Exiled Stardust 