1    Introduction

Journalists … fellows with, in the main, squalid and unfulfilling lives, insecure in their careers, and suffering a considerable degree of dependence on alcohol and narcotics … (The late Alan Clark, MP, ‘Why I hold journalists in low regard’, The Penguin Book of Journalism. Secrets of the Press, Penguin Books, 1999)

A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it. (James Boswell, quoting Dr Samuel Johnson)

You have to be prepared to be unpopular if you’re a journalist or a politician. The important thing is that you’ve become unpopular for the right reasons. You’ve tried to tell the truth as you see it. It will help if you can keep off the booze.

Dr Johnson meant women too, of course. It’s a wonderful way to earn a living. You can write at any time of day and at any time of life. Within limits, you can write even when ill. Some writing talent must be assumed, but there is much scope for development. But you also need that doggedness, plenty of curiosity and a strong desire to communicate.

Doggedness means the determination to improve your skills by constant practice, and in particular the perseverance to write and rewrite (time allowing) until the article comes right. In journalism ‘coming right’ means satisfying not only yourself but your editor and the readers aimed at.

Curiosity means being interested in the human condition. You feed it by reading, meeting a wide variety of people; you keep it alive by thinking and writing. You maintain a lively interest in many subjects, however specialized the field you write about.

The desire to communicate is the fuel for the engine. You may be driven by a ‘mission to explain’ (not to preach though), or by a fire in the belly that makes you want to correct wrongs and demand retribution. You may be most interested in getting readers’ attention by entertaining them, perhaps making them see the funny side of things. Journalism, however, demands that imparting accurate information is the essential task that underpins those laudable aims.

THE BASIC SKILLS AND RESOURCES

The essential journalistic skill is reporting. You also need to have a shorthand system of some kind, even if it’s one that you’ve made up yourself. You need to be computer-literate with keyboarding skills and you need to know how to use the Internet. These subjects are the concerns of various chapters.

Getting trained

Most newcomers to journalism are armed with degrees these days, some with media studies degrees that include journalism practice. Newcomers may have in addition or alternatively National Council for the Training of Journalists’ (NCTJ) qualifications, or a diploma from a College of Further Education or private college. Appendix 6 gives guidance on training courses, some of which organize work placements as part of the curriculum. You don’t get paid but with luck you might get valuable experience in reporting, subediting and feature writing, as well as in making the tea and buying a birthday present for the boss’s wife. If you’re even luckier the work placement might lead to a staff job.

If your objective is freelance feature writing, a staff job for a while will enable you to build a network of contacts. The job is more likely to be subbing than writing at the outset.

Getting sorted

If you haven’t already done so, you need to turn your study at home into a well-equipped office, whether you’re a staff writer doing freelance work for non-competitive publications or a freelance (or prospective freelance). See Chapter 2.

GATHERING EXPERIENCE AND NETWORKING

Whatever degrees or diplomas you’ve got, whatever training and work experience you’ve had, it may still be difficult to find the post you want or get established as a freelance. When the economics are difficult and publications are downsizing, both staff and freelance work is harder to find. The staff made redundant join a growing freelance pool. The main lesson to be learnt, especially as a freelance, is that you have to promote yourself rigorously and suffer rejections without losing your self-confidence.

If you’ve had some work experience you may be able to develop the relationship forged with a publication, perhaps by some casual subbing. To repeat: it’s usually best to work in a salaried post for a while before making the plunge into freelancing.

Take any opportunity to network. Go to parties and other social events where there will be journalists who may be useful contacts, who may give you work or introduce you to someone who may give you work. Try getting personal recommendations from friends, relations, former fellow-students, colleagues who have connections with the business. But don’t pitch too strongly and desperately to an editor at a social event. Your later pitch will benefit from even the briefest of introductions. Discover the best means of pursuing your claim to attention.

Make the most of any opportunity offered to meet an editor to discuss ideas. A young journalist, having got printed in a woman’s magazine, was invited to meet the editor with ideas. She gave forth with passion.

But they weren’t what he was looking for. ‘What I have in mind,’ he said, ‘for example, is a feature on 20 things every woman wants in a man”.’

She said, ‘That sounds a bit banal to me.’ The meeting was not a success and he published no more of her work. The lesson is that at an early stage give editors what they ask for when they won’t take what’s better (and riskier) from you. Later, when you’ve proved your worth, you’ll get more of your own ideas accepted.

Editors are looking for feature writers who have some kind of profile and who can provide evidence that they can write. Getting into print so that you have something to show and being persistent will help you to get into editors’ sights. At first you may have a thin portfolio containing photocopies of one or two pieces in a student or parish magazine. Select the best pieces and send them to targeted editors to back up your approaches. As time goes by you’ll be able to broaden your range and you will have gathered a more impressive portfolio to back up your pitches.

Getting printed

Editors are looking for writers who have some specialist knowledge within their publications’ areas of interest and who know how to communicate it to their readers. As a new writer you will find it easier to break in with those qualifications. It’s a good idea to select one or two publications that you enjoy reading, select one or two areas of interest to specialize in, market-study the publications (see Chapter 5), and prepare to pitch. Make sure your selected subjects are not dealt with regularly by staff writers or established columnists. Your close study of several issues of your target publication will reveal those subjects.

Unless advised otherwise, send a proposal rather than a piece ‘on spec’(speculatively). Find out in what form and how long a publication wants a proposal to be, and whether they want it by post, by fax, email or on the phone. If by post, do they want a proposal to be backed up by cuttings of features published (likely) and a brief c.v. (perhaps, if you’ve not much else to show)? You may be asked to fax copies of pieces published. If a pitch by email is wanted, does it have a link to your website containing some published articles?

One way to get knowledgeable about both the selected subject areas and the latest controversies about them, and about the readership, as well as to become noticed by the editor, is to become a letter writer.

Writing for the letters page

Writing letters also trains you to study the ways in which a publication’s features, and especially controversial columnists, are followed up or argued about in the letters page.

You might want to experiment by widening your range of topics and readerships, to see what works best for you: social problems, human rights, class conflicts, the failures in the education system and the National Health Service, your views on TV programmes, especially the ‘soaps’?

Of course there are eccentric letter writers, some of whom notoriously write in green ink and who are printed to create controversy or amusement. So choose your publications carefully and type.

After getting several letters published, you may be getting into correspondence with the editor, paving the way for you to propose a feature.

Staff and freelance

You may prefer to remain a staff writer where your features may be spin-offs from, or an essential part of, your job; you may prefer to go freelance with little or no staff experience; or you may select any of the degrees in between. Let’s get a flavour of the differences.

Melody Ryall is Group Editor of the Kentish Times series. She graduated in drama and theatre studies. How did she get started in journalism?

‘I wrote letters to every editor in the land until I was offered “indentures”: a trainee reporter’s job with the Kentish Times under the proviso of the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ).’

She obtained the NCTJ Proficiency Certificate after covering Magistrates’ and Crown courts, council meetings and human interest stories. She began her career on the Kentish Times in 1989. She did general news reporting, arts editor, theatre reviewer, celebrity interviews and campaigns. As a freelance she has won awards as a campaign journalist, and worked as an assistant producer on a series of network documentaries for ITV.

Her features are mainly interview-based. ‘Easiest is the writing part of it. Most difficult can be sussing out the mood of the interviewee and extracting exactly what you want to angle the piece. Once my personality radar has given me an inkling of how my interviewee is feeling I know how the feature should go. As a feature writer I plan my day around the interviews I’ve fixed up, get the research done, arrange for pictures and then organize the time to write the piece.’ Initially she researches online but ‘I avoid recycling the Internet information that everybody has access to. I’m always looking for a fresh perspective.’

She has a free rein in finding and developing her own ideas. The Group Editor’s job is a matter of quality control. It’s hard work but she clearly couldn’t be doing anything else. The future? To paraphrase, she wants to get better at what she does.

Press Gazette’s regular feature ‘Seven Days’ gives you working weeks described by a selection of staff writers and editors, and freelance journalists in print and broadcasting. There are also full-page features from time to time on the world of the freelance. What comes through most strongly in those pieces is insecurity, and the remedy – willpower.

Writer’s block tends to be more of a freelance’s problem. Remedies: write anything, just keep going until you get it right. Or: plan the piece first.

Tim Lott, long-standing and highly successful columnist for London’s Evening Standard, interviewed by Dan Roberts in Press Gazette of 23 July 2004, says, ‘I don’t have to pitch any more, but I was a journalist for twenty years before people started ringing me to offer work.’

Encouragement from Dan Roberts? ‘As any creative person knows … crises of confidence and bouts of self-criticism are indicative of a serious, committed approach to writing. If you’re a perfectionist, a little misery is part of the deal.’ Read on for some more encouragement.