You may think that your career in journalism is the key to free speech. Finally, you have the platform to be able to report on and talk about whatever you like. Right?
Wrong.
Because increasingly, journalists have to pander to the requirements of the sales and advertising departments and whether you like it or not, [...]
One of the keys to magazine writing is being able to target to different readers. As any good journalist knows, you must always keep your target reader in mind whenever you are writing a piece for a magazine as this will help to produce a piece that the readers will find interesting.
This is why [...]
A good way of knowing whether you are a talented writer is thinking about whether it comes naturally to you.
If you can sit down and write something within a reasonable amount of time and without struggling and the resultant piece of work is of a good standard, then it’s safe to say that you are [...]
A lot of people seem to think that magazine writing is an easy profession. But in order to write features that engage the reader and encourage them to read the entire piece, you need talent, skill and knowledge of this type of writing.
The main thing is to know the angle of your feature before [...]
Writing is one of those professions that people seem to leap on. If someone asks what you do for a living and you reply by saying you’re a writer, you will find that the majority of the time, they will say something along the lines of: ‘oh right, yeah, I’m thinking of going into writing.’
This [...]
Most full time authors (think J K Rowling, Margaret Atwood, Bernard Cornwell etc) will tell you that they have to treat writing as you might any other occupation: you need to have work time, and home time. Obviously if your writing doesn’t pay the bills (and, given you’re reading this, I presume that means [...]
One of the most important parts of working as a freelance writer is building relationships with editors. This process starts when you first pitch an idea and continues as long as you work for that publication.
With this in mind, it pays not to burn any bridges. You might be displeased with what you are being [...]
Here’s a question for you: where did I write all my best articles?
If you think the answer is ‘at the computer’, you’d be wrong. You probably didn’t say that though because the title of this post rather gives the game away.
Maybe you think I wrote them on my phone or on a laptop on the [...]
As a freelance writer, it might sometimes be tempting to submit an article you’re not entirely happy with. If you know it will be accepted, you might want to submit it and move onto the next project. Don’t.
The reason why this is a bad idea is because your articles are more than just a certain [...]
Freelance writing rates can be misleading. If you work as a freelance and tell people about the rates you charge, people are often amazed. They will probably think you’re really rich when the reality is that you’re barely getting by.
Why is this?
Think about it for more than a second and you’ll realise that it’s because [...]
