Having enjoyed a level of success in a wide range of writing genres, I thought that it might be helpful to share my hard-won knowledge, gained over the past couple of decades, to help others to learn the necessary steps.
Hopefully I can offer some snappy insights that will speed you to publication.
Over the next few weeks I’ll discuss writing magazine articles, corporate and content writing, non-fiction books, fiction and screenplays.
I don’t know everything about these subjects but can share my experience and what I have learned with you.
Writing Workshop #1 – Articles for Print Magazines.
Writing articles is a fantastic way to strengthen your writing muscles. I don’t mean those in your fingers – although that may help – I mean being able to control the tone of your writing; rounding up your thoughts and herding them in a particular direction. Good preparation for writing a book.
There are loads of opportunities on the web to contribute to forums, create your own blog, guest blog or write articles for sites – all good writing practice.
But let’s look at getting published in the print media – get in now while it’s still around!
The biggest blunder amateur writers make is to write an article about something they are interested in and then struggling to find a magazine to publish it.
So, let’s say you want to write an article about something you are passionate about and see it in print. Here are the steps to getting your article published – notice that writing it is at the bottom of the list!
1) Find
Go the newsagents and buy a range of magazines that publish articles on your subject.
2) Read
Read it from cover-to-cover to get a sense of the tone and style of the magazine.
3) Study
Magazines have a set structure of articles of a specific style and length. They may have a section for ‘readers stories’ that are written in the first person and relate to a personal experience but most stories will be more objective and provide a well-researched and original take on the topic. You may need to study more than one issue.
4) Analyse
Find one article that is the format and style of the one you would like to write. Now analyse the structure of it. How does it open? How is the information ordered? What is the style of the piece? Most importantly – what is the word count?
5) Research
Now check the website of the publication. Many publications have submission guidelines on their website that will tell you what sort of material they are interested in (or not) and how they would like it submitted. For example, most publications will only accept submissions by email but require it to be in the body of the email – not as an attachment.
6) Plan
Give some thought to the timing of the magazine’s deadlines, if you want to write a ‘Christmas’ themed article for a monthly magazine you would need to submit it around the middle of the year for December publication.
7) Write
Draft, revise, check, double-check. Every time you make a revision, read the story from the start again. Keep doing that until it is polished and perfect. Now it’s ready to submit.
Case Study: The Last Swim
I had wanted to write an article about my daughter being caught in a rip at the beach to let parents know how quickly it can happen and how important it is to swim between the flags. I drafted the article at a time when the experience was still very raw for me and almost forgot about it.
Identifying an appropriate magazine, I studied it, checked the submission guidelines, wrote the article to the right word length and submitted it mid-year.
I got an automated response saying I would hear back within 12 weeks. A few minutes later I received a personal email from the editor saying, intrigued by the title (they actually retitled it), he had read the story - despite being up against a publication deadline. And – he would like to purchase it for the December issue. Sold!
Hope your story sells too 
