One reader asked, "How do I get started? I have journals galore covering a magnitude of subjects. I love doing research. Where do I start? Do I decide to write a magazine article and then go for it? How do I get
started? It always goes back to the same question, huh."
Writing often requires a lot of research, so if you enjoy doing it, that's great!
Loving research can backfire, though (and I think the reader who wrote in is noticing that). It's easy to get bogged down reading ... and reading ... and reading ... without ever writing anything.
"Do I decide to write a magazine article and then go for
it?"
In a word ... yes!
I doubt you're ever going to feel completely "ready" to begin, especially if this is your first article. There'll always be another book you could read, another expert you could interview, another source you could explore. At some point, you need to simply go for it.
Here are some practical suggestions on first steps:
#1: Pick a magazine (or
a blog or other publication) to write for. Ideally, this should be something you read on a regular basis; if not, at least check out a few recent copies. Make sure they are open to freelance contributions. (With magazines, you'll often find information such as editors' email addresses in the inside front cover; many also have submission guidelines on their website.)
#2: Brainstorm some potential article ideas for that
publication. You'll want them to be on topic, of course, but also make sure they're ideas that (a) you'd enjoy writing about and (b) you can write about (without doing a ton of extra research).
#3: Choose your strongest idea and draft a plan for the article. If you don't already know how long the article should be, figure that out! A double-page spread will probably come out to around 1200 - 1500 words but it depends
on the magazine's format.
#4: Once you're reasonably confident that you'll be able to write the piece, pitch it to the editor. Send them an email outlining the idea, and briefly mentioning any relevant credentials you have.
You might think it would make more sense to come up with a brilliant idea, then look for a publication to submit it to. The reason I do it the other way round is to make sure that the
idea and the pitch are spot-on for the publication (the magazine or blog) that I'm pitching to. If your pitch is turned down, you can always tweak the idea and send it elsewhere.
If you're still feeling resistance to getting started, these are a couple of simple tricks I use:
- Set a timer for 30 minutes. Work on the idea, plan and/or pitch until those 30 minutes are up. (You might be surprised how much you can get done.)
- Tell yourself that this is
just practice: if your pitch gets turned down, hey, it was good practice at pitching.
Do you have a question about writing or a topic suggestion for the newsletter? Just reply to this email to let me know about it.
