Fellow freelance, Linda Jones, has asked me to guest on her excellent blog www.freelancewritingtips.com. You may want to pop over there to read my tips as well as all the other useful advice that she provides on her site.
Some writers are specialists, others generalists. I’m the latter.This is partly a matter of personality and partly one of fear. Although I trained as a news reporter in the early 1990s, I soon realised that the rigours and confines of writing hard copy for news did not allow me the creative freedom I desired – so I became a freelance feature writer. Naturally, I pitched for work in areas that interested me. The problem was, lots of things interested me… Read more.
Due to other writing commitments, including the success of a non-fiction writing career, Linda is withdrawing from editing her blog. However, she’s looking for another successful freelance writer to take over the site. We wish her the best in her future plans.
This is the seventh instalment in my eight week course on non-fiction writing. Last week we looked at how to write a feature article for magazines; this week we will be discussing:
Continue reading ‘Non-fiction - how to write a proposal’
I am delighted to be invited to give a workshop on Writing for the Magazine Market at the Tynedale Writers’ Festival in Hexham. The festival runs from Friday 2 to Sunday 4 November and offers a plethora of talks, workshops and shows on writing, music and theatre. Check out the full programme at Tynedale Writers’ Festival. Don’t forget to sign up to my free workshop on Sunday 4th, 10.30 - 12.30. We will be looking at how to find out if a magazine takes freelance work and how to put a proposal together.
In this first session of our eight-part course on non-fiction writing we will be looking at what opportunities there are out there, finding ideas and how to write letters to the editor. So, without further ado… Continue reading ‘Getting started with non-fiction writing’
A couple of years ago I had one bad month with two copyright infringements in a row. The first came with the morning post. It was a corporate brochure for a holiday company I had recently done an article on for a women’s magazine. I paged through the brochure, wondering if I’d ever be able to pay to go on one of their weekend getaways, when something very familiar jumped out at me. It was my article, word for word, picture for picture, as it had appeared in the magazine. I couldn’t believe it. Continue reading ‘Protecting your copyright’
Following on from How to get started in feature writing the Crafty Writer would like to introduce you to the basics of writing for magazines and newspaper supplements. In the previous article I stressed that you should get yourself some training then work on building up a small portfolio of work by doing freebies for charities or student publications. Once you’ve done that, you can approach an editor and hopefully get your first paying commission. Continue reading ‘The basics of feature writing 1′
Ask any freelance and they’ll tell you one of their biggest worries is payment: when they’ll get paid, how much they’ll get paid, if they’ll get paid. When I first tried freelance work after being a staffer, I soon discovered I had to become a hard-nosed businesswoman as well as a top-class journo. For some, this comes more naturally than others. Continue reading ‘What to do when you don’t get paid’
I’m often asked: ‘Can anyone learn how to write a feature article?’ I usually answer with another question: ‘Can anyone learn gardening?” The answer to both questions is ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Continue reading ‘How to get started in feature writing’
Welcome to The Crafty Writer, published by Fiona Veitch Smith, a freelance journalist, author, playwright and writing teacher. This site is full of information and resources to help you on your journey to become a better writer. 
