It’s no secret that I love being on WritingUp (despite the frustrating downtime) - and now I’ve got one more reason to love it. I’ve said elsewhere that blogging is good for writers. One of the reasons is because it gives them a chance to show off their writing skills. The other benefit comes with [...] [...more]
I’m just starting a new gig for a writing website. (Sneak preview is available here.) While I was checking over my articles, I noticed that some strange characters had appeared in the text. I knew immediately that the error came from Microsoft Word. Word is one of the best of Microsoft’s programs, but all its [...] [...more]
If you’re a freelance writer, then you need contacts. Contacts are either people who can give you stories or people who can give you work. Let’s have a look at these in more detail. Contacts who can give you stories Many of the stories in magazines are spin-offs of events that have made the news. For example, [...] [...more]
Many people who decide on the freelance writing life are thinking of writing for magazines. If that’s you, then you’ll need to know something about feature writing. Most feature articles do at least one of four things: Inform Help Entertain Persuade Feature articles have almost as many structures as there are writers. Throw out the inverted pyramid common to news stories [...] [...more]
In the very first tip in this series I talked briefly about structuring articles. Now it’s time to go into that process in a bit more detail, starting with news stories. In many ways, news stories are the building blocks of journalistic writing - and they’re quite useful for other forms as well. That’s because [...] [...more]
In the previous tip, I suggested that freelance writers have a recording device and a notebook at every interview. These are basic tools for any writer. Recording devices are relatively easy. In the old days you used a tape recorder. Now you can choose from a range of devices, including minidisk recorders, mp3 recorders and digital [...] [...more]
As a freelance writer, if you want to be published in a magazine or newspaper, sooner or later you’ll have to talk to someone. Sorry, but journalism is not about sitting in a dark room and making up stories in your head. If that’s what you want to do, write novels or short stories and [...] [...more]
Copyright protected works (see the previous tip for a definition) are known as intellectual property. Intellectual property is a bit like real estate - it can be bought, sold, transferred and inherited, though only with your written permission. The key thing to remember as a freelance writer is that ideas themselves are not protected but [...] [...more]
As a freelance writer, you’ll need to be aware of the legal protection your work enjoys so you don’t sign away rights that you should retain. Here are some some key aspects of UK copyright law you should be aware of. In the UK, copyright is an automatic and unregistered right. That means there’s no need [...] [...more]
When an editor agrees to hire you to write an article, try to get the details of the commission in writing. If the editor won’t send you a letter confirming the details of the writing assignment, then you send one confirming the agreement you’ve made. That way, you’ll have some comeback if there’s a query [...] [...more]
