Questions raised by Lichfield and District Writers

A BIG thank you to Jan Green at Lichfield and District Writers, who invited me along last night to chat about The Greatest Freelance Writing Tips in the World and making a living as a writer.

It was a fun evening and certainly made me long for the days of getting out more. Everyone was very welcoming and interested in what I had to say. As ever, I felt more at home answering specific questions on writing as a career as opposed to talking about me - even if they had clocked that according to this month's Writing Magazine, I'm a celebrity!

Questions raised at the meeting included:

How can you have work accepted by an editor if you have no writing samples to show them?

Everyone has to start somewhere.

If you have the right expertise and experience in the field you wish to write about, you can be commissioned without showing writing samples - I know I was in the early days - or you could give links to pieces of writing online on your own site or blog.

But remember that your pitch is your 'shop window' - so it could convince the editor to give you a shot. Only send that pitch if you are totally confident you can deliver.

For example, as a teacher with insider knowledge, some could argue you have a good chance of being commissioned by a specialist education publication.

But what happens when the editor says: "Yes please, can you do 1,500 words by lunchtime?" If you aren't confident of meeting the brief, then don't pitch in the first place. Aim high but start low - by the time you have built up more writing experience, you will have the cuttings to show an editor what you can do.

What if I have a personal story and it's not "current"?

Find a 'hook' to make it current. What's in the news? Is there some new research, a new law or even a plot in a new film or soap opera that makes your experience relevant to readers now? Hang on to your story until the right time. The more specific you can be about why you are the one to write the piece, the better. There are bound to be many more aspiring journalists wanting to recount their personal experiences, so prepare your pitch as well as you can, to suit your target market at that specific time, and go for it.

There were many more questions asked and perhaps I can return to them at a later date. Thanks again to the lovely people of Lichfield, especially to Sylvia who put up with me turning up half an hour early and spilling my water over her carefully prepared notes.

Comments

[Nick Daws]

Glad you had a good time at L&DW, Linda. I was a member for over ten years, and still have a lot of affection for the group.

And yes, I'm always glad when these sort of sessions reach the Q&A stage too!

[Jan Green]

Gee - it's great that you enjoyed coming to meet our group, Linda! Because we very much enjoyed both your very informative talk and your company (water spillage and all) and very much hope that you will join us again.