You have researched the marketplace, decided on a topic, have jotted down useful stuff in your notebook, and you are ready to enter the world of Freelance Journalism.
A Few Tips to Jumpstart Your Writing
What do writers do? They write. You have chosen a topic and now it’s time to do some writing. There’s a saying in the business: ‘Don’t get it right, get it written’. What this means is don’t worry over how good your writing is (that comes later) just get everything you want to say about your topic written down. When you start to write, capture your main ideas as quickly as possible. If you are struggling over a particular word or even the first (very important) opening sentence, type **** and search for the right words later. Proceed with the part of the article you find easy to write. It will all fall together eventually.
Have confidence to put your own words on paper. Think about what YOU want to say and get it down in any form. You can always smarten it up later, and often some very good writing comes out of sponteneity. Confidence is the key. Just tell yourself that nobody need ever see what you have written if you don’t want them to.
Let Yourself Go
Try to LET YOURSELF GO. If you are doing a strict factual report on something then this may not apply, but for most articles it can be very helpful. Even for straightforward reporting you can do a bit of ‘free writing’ i.e. you could begin a factual report with “Perhaps, like me, you had always thought that .......... and give a paragraph on your own personal view ..... and starting the next paragraph with something like - But John Doe of Sussex University says I’m completely wrong and the true story is something quite different, etc.
Contacting the Editor
So, you feel you have done the best with your article and are ready to share it with the rest of the world. The usual way of contacting editors is to send a short proposal describing the main point of your article (see example below).
Although this is the professional approach it can be difficult for new writers to break in. Editors need to be sure that writers can deliver the goods as described in the proposal and will often ask you to send an example or two of your published work.
At this point you do not have any published work, but there is a way around this and that is to send your complete article to the editor with a covering note. You don’t need to say anything about your not having published anything. Just say: Dear Mary Smith, I am sending this article on spec. Please let me know if it is of interest to you. (If you have photos, mention this too). If your article is good enough she will take it. And if it is rejected, immediately send it out to the next contact on your list.
The following example of a proposal is short and to the point. If your idea is a bit more complex and takes more space to explain, that's fine. Take as much space as you need but remember... you are not telling the whole story - just your angle, the point of view you are taking. Try not to write more than two paragraphs consisting of around 200 words max.
Example of Article Proposal
IT'S NOW OR NEVER AT WHISTLER
The Whistler ski resort in British Columbia, Canada, is considered one of the best in North America. But how would a middle-aged, nervous ,unconfident skier like me get on there? I'll find out next January when I attend a women only clinic designed by two female World Cup champions (especially for people like me). I haven't been skiing for ten years - it's now or never. Might be a nice story for all those wimpy skiers out there?
How to Be a Freelance Journalist - Structure of your article
