This Just In: Starting out as a freelance journalist

The denotation of the word magazine dates back to the fifteenth century from the Arabic makhazin, or storehouse, and khazana, “to store up.” It was originally linked to stocking weapons, munition, or tools, but has since passed the salad days of this first meaning to denote periodicals, journals, and other publications. These magazines are storehouses of articles and information, which unlike newspapers, tend to have longer shelf lives and are literally more suited for saving.

While most publications used to also have a wide stock of staff reporters to keep their magazines full, today a different approach is proliferating in the marketplace— freelance reporting. Rather than rely on stock people, magazines are finding that there is less expense, more ideas, and, for many, more statewide and cross continental coverage from freelance writers all over the world.

If you want to get into magazine writing, most likely, there won’t be a publication officially storing you per-say, which is why the aspiring journalist must maintain an ongoing arsenal of stories to stay in the competition with other writers. Remember to keep in mind the clandestine code name, “evergreen”…alright it’s not so secret; trying to find ways to make your initial story pitches less time sensitive, so that they are able to run regardless of a particular date, holiday, or season, will give you an upper edge in the first steps to getting your words in print.

Yesterday April 18, the Scribbler Suite was very excited to co-host a question and answer discussion panel on the basics of freelance writing with Emerson College’s Atlas Magazine. Emerson students came to hear from Chris Faraone, Boston Phoenix reporter and author of 99 Nights With the 99 Percent: Dispatches from the First Three Months of the Occupy Revolution,  and Morgan Baker, a nonfiction writing professor at Emerson College and feature writer and essayist with pieces in The New York Times Magazine and The Boston Globe among other publications. Attendees and the two speakers sat in a circle, and after brief introductions the discussion took on free form conversation. We at The Scribbler would like to share some of both speakers best bits of wisdom with you.

One of the first questions that students had was how and where to start out as a freelancer. Everyone knows that to get your name in print in a premier glossy publication you have to have the clips to prove your abilities first. The beauty today is that clips can come in all forms. According to Faraone, even well established blogs like Word Press pages can count. Sample articles should be any piece that you are proud of and may range from blogs to items in small magazines or newspapers. One word of warning…at first you best be prepared not to skirt from writing for free. Faraone said that he has written hundreds of articles without pay. For many it is necessary to establish a freelance style and presence to begin reaching out to higher caliber publications.

Baker also advised students not to try and fudge their writing or reporting experience in the interim of landing their first article assignments, also stressing that with any story you attempt to take on, be sure you have the body of work to back it. Both speakers said that in addition to ample research it is vital to have access to story interview contacts and to be able to name those individuals in a query letter, not just descriptions of types of people or names of work titles.

And what of the quake inducing query? Baker did admit that it is one of, if not the most, difficult aspects of writing an article, joking that she would rather compose another story instead. She offered the comparison of a job interview and explained that the key in a query is to remember that, unlike speaking in person, this sort of interview on paper requires complete attention to detail, from word choice, style, and phrasing, to accuracy in spelling and grammar. There’s no turning back once you press the send key.

A word of advice…keep in mind that Spell Check is not fool proof…seemingly innocuous errors that go unnoticed by your computer’s all knowing eye can ring fowl to publishers. Case in point, here fowl is spelled correctly therefore it is an acceptable word by Word’s standards, but “A gallinaceous bird kept chiefly for its eggs and flesh; a domestic cock or hen,” is a far cry from    something offensive to the senses, depending on your opinion of gallinaceous birds we suppose.

To get your foot in the door both speakers said that it is best to focus on forming a strong queries to show that you have the writing abilities and knowledge to produce your piece and add the credentials as they come. In the subject line and body of these email it is crucial to get straight to the point of your story topic, and figure to type between 200 and 500 words detailing your angle, plan of action, and established contacts.

The closer you can get to the magazine section your article belongs in the better. Faraone explained that getting an article straight to its designated editor is half the work of achieving publication, because unlike the majority of story submitters you are making a proactive and informed effort. Three things to keep in mind when making those contacts: First, be sure that you know your magazine well. Baker said that she would suggest reading up to a year worth of material to get a feel for the content, tone, and style of the publication. Second, as you are reviewing possible publication options keep in mind that with so many magazines in the marketplace there are titles focused on virtually anything from people obsessed with sneakers to Barbie dolls. The closer you can get to your article’s niche the better. Third, assuming you know your magazine you should have a good handle on the articles its most recently released, but it’s still a good idea to do a quick Google search of your topic suggestion to be sure it wasn’t already run. In each query you write the goal is to directly appeal to your magazine of choice, and to show that you know the publication.

Finally if you want to write freelance it’s important that you get to know people. Stay in contact with the editors who publish your work and use those contacts to link with other publications. And, keep the articles coming. Both speakers agreed that though it can be difficult starting out as a freelance writer and waiting for responses to queries, once they come in the life of a reporter depends on beginning one story and, in the process, finding another. Each topic you tackle should be able to branch off to another three or four if you want it to. The more you report the more you will develop an eye and ear for news, and a sense of where one article has the potential to go. Each story has an angle, and the beauty of that is each story is a multifaceted figure.

Scribble free!

Once Upon a Writer’s Desk

The clock strikes twelve, and you aren’t about to let go of this fairy tale moment, when you and your muse are finally waltzing together across the pages of your latest manuscript. You have tapped into your creative psyche, and moved past the planning stages of the story to begin funneling inspired ideas from your brain to the page. You pause to admire a line of work, sweet in sound and appearance. The writing gods are smiling upon you, as the sentences practically form themselves.

Fast forward eight hours (ok more likely five). You wake up and cast aside the heap of covers on your bed to go assess your writing desk… and cry out in utter distress. Who is the fiend that came upon your fairy tale land whilst you were sleeping? There are papers and pens strewn everywhere, a stained coffee mug, a bag of chocolate chip cookies, and a notepad with illegible scrawling following hill like slopes down the page. You open the word document of your manuscript to find the place where you left off, only to discover that the last seven pages are missing. You must have forgotten to hit the save button before you went to sleep. In the interim your computer decided to shut down the word processing program under the command of an evil error statement that might as well be written in a foreign language, save for the emoticon of a little man with ex’s for eyes who appears to be chocking on your lost manuscript pages with some variation of the words “system error” written below.

Alright…this may be a wild exaggeration. Or perhaps it is an excerpt from your actual life, and if that is the case we express our sincerest condolences! The point is, we will all at some point face the consequences of poor planning and organization; both of which are too often clouded by the creative process when it calls upon our entire brains to become absorbed elsewhere in story realm.

We at the Scribbler would like to embrace the spring season and take this time to offer a few grains of wisdom for a neater desk, clearer mind, and most importantly computer backup.

Some suggestions for a tidier writing life (you’ll be whistling while you work by the end of these):

To begin organizing your writing life, we suggest tackling messy work spaces first. Note— even the most meticulously organized desk can be deceiving. Organization goes beyond the surface of neat paper piles, notebooks,  pens, and pencils. Part of the work space is your computer and all of the storage power that it encompasses. To save yourself from the misery of losing seven of your most spectacular pages, we suggest investing in an external hard drive if you haven’t already. Yes, CD’s and USB sticks are also very nice, but both are somewhat small and easily lost in house or, the writing gods forbid, while out and about elsewhere. If you are working on a major manuscript we suggest the rule of three. Save your work three times and so saved it shall be. Of course the initial save will be on your computer, save a second time on an external hard drive, and the third either on a USB, CD, or if you want to go old school try paper. In the world of organized editing you will also be much more likely to catch minuscule grammatical menaces on the printed page… but that matter is for another blog post.

Our next suggestion as far as desk organization is to de-clutter. Are there papers on your desk from months ago, even a few weeks? Do you need them? If you don’t, have a game of waste paper basketball to clear your space and your mind. If you do need them; do they have to be in arms reach? If not, we suggest making use of a file cabinet or other work crate etc., and while your at it, make sure everything is arranged for ease of use. Label the items that you keep by old projects, finished pieces for submissions, works to edit, and whatever you have in the works. (If you keep all of your paperwork digitally, organize it in digital folders.) By physically separating your writing, you will be able to see a clearing through the trees of ideas that have been sprouting to life in your brain and on the page, to determine which require your immediate attention for cultivation, which need some re-planting so to speak, and which are ready to be harvested and sent off to agents, publishers, and literary submissions outlets.

Speaking of submissions…have you been keeping track of yours? You may not have to abandon your muse when the clock strikes twelve, but you will have to kiss your next shot at publication goodbye if you don’t send your work out on time and in the proper format. We suggest starting an Excel spreadsheet submissions dock to ensure that your relationships with publishing outlets go smoothly. Include a description of each submission you have in your pre-sendoff stock, their due dates, and a link to the webpage of the journal, agent, or publisher that you are or hope to write for. You may also want to include a blurb about each publishing target detailing their submission requirements, style preferences, and any additional information you want to stay abreast of. This blurb can be replaced with updates on correspondence you receive regarding your submissions once they are out in the world. You may also choose to create a column for upcoming publishing opportunities (writing encouragement!).

Here’s a great website for open submissions:

http://fictioncontests.info/

With all of these submissions in line the next step is to be sure that you are making the most of your time. Have you set writing goals for the spring? Many of the most successful writers stick by self imposed deadlines, even if it’s only a page a day, the key to Simone de Beauvoir’s writing process. Set your writing schedule and stick to it! Mentally it is also helpful to keep a journal about your writing, which can include details of your character and plot related research and discoveries, or can be as simple as a list of major story points, to offer you a bread crumb trail to follow back and forth on the story journey you have begun. This trail will be especially helpful when you enter the first stage of editing, which brings us to our next organizational suggestion; this one will take you further into your story.

Whether you are working on fiction, nonfiction, or memoir, a timeline can be a simple yet extraordinary organizational tool to focus your writing. Mark major plot points that you have or need to hit on the timeline, as well as information encompassed in flashbacks, or even the unwritten history of your narrative. When were your characters born? Where and when did they go to school? Fall in love? Get a job? Having a visual representation of this time continuum will help you to determine the next steps for your characters, and to be sure that the life you’ve laid out for them makes sense. In fiction especially it is important to make sure that your story, unless fantastical in nature, is believable in the real time.

More to come!