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|  Writing For Magazines
With Helen Edwards Each month our resident Magazine expert, Helen, will explore different ways of getting your work into print. Part 1: Getting Started
So, you want to write articles for magazines, but what are you going to write about? Where do you get ideas for features from? Much like fiction, ideas for non-fiction will come to you when you least expect them. You might hear about something on the news which interests you, and which you’d like to explore further. You could observe something at work; something in your everyday life will occur, which you will want to write about. And that is the key to getting ideas for articles, looking to your own life and the experiences you’ve had, and are still having. Writing about what you know is a very good starting point.
Work could potentially be a big source of information. Think of all the jobs you’ve had, and the knowledge you’ve acquired as a result. If there has been a period in your life when you haven’t worked, due to caring for someone, long-term illness, studying and/or research, raising children, redundancy and so on, you will also have gained in experience.
What hobbies and interests do you have? Writing is obviously one, so write about it (just like I am). Do you belong to a club or a society which you could use for material?
Think about events in your life, such as planning a wedding, buying a house, having a baby, being made redundant, relocating or retiring. Other people could benefit from your advice. List all the holidays you’ve been on, all the places you’ve seen.
Once you have thought about subjects which interest you, and upon which you’d like to write about, narrow down exactly what you want to cover: Be specific. For example, if you want to write about photography, what aspect of photography do you mean? Traditional film or modern digital? Black and white or colour photography? What to look for in a camera? Subject matter?
Make lists and conduct a thought shower. Draw on the plethora and wealth of your life experience. I can’t emphasise this enough, so apologies if I am being repetitive.
Anyway, I hope I have given you some food for thought. Be creative! Happy writing.
Part 2: Research - Do Your Homework! 
Which should come first, the article or the market research? Do you write an article on your chosen subject, then hone it to fit your target magazine’s requirements, or do you research the magazine and then write the article accordingly? We all work in different ways, and ultimately it’s your choice what you do, but I would recommend the latter option.
Research is absolutely crucial if you are to have any chance of success, and if you want to be taken seriously. Admittedly, it is boring, but it’s a must.
Research means more than just reading copies of your chosen magazine, although that is important too. It means learning about the readership and the style of the magazine.
You need to examine copies of the magazine to ascertain the average reader. Look at the cover, the advertisements and the subject matter of the articles featured. From these you should be able to discern the typical reader’s gender, age, likes and dislikes, the type of life they lead in terms of home and family, income and work, and their point of view on current affairs.
Next, you need to do a detailed examination of articles in the magazine. You need to study the language and words used, tone, sentence and paragraph length and so on. How is each article angled, and do they give useful information or are they there purely for entertainment purposes, or a mixture of both? You should be able to send for guidelines regarding, for example, word-count from the Features department. The Lady magazine publishes guidelines in each issue. Your article needs to be able to slot into the magazine seamlessly.
Before you write the actual article, I would suggest pitching the idea to the Features Editor of your chosen magazine. It makes sense to see if there is interest in the article, before you actually write it. I will talk more about this next time. In the meantime, good luck with the research.
Part 3: Making Your Pitch
You’ve had a brilliant idea for an article, but what is your next move? Do you write it, and then send it to your chosen magazine, or do you pitch the idea to the Features Editor first?
 You could indeed write the whole article and submit it, along with a covering letter. As long as you’ve done your research and the article meets the magazine’s requirements, it has every chance of publication.
In my opinion, however, it would be better to send a query letter first, putting forward your idea and asking if it is something they would be interested in. All being well, the answer will be in the affirmative (you may even be advised as to the angle), and you can write and send the finished article.
A third option is to write the article anyway, but to hold off submitting it until you’ve had a response to your query letter. At least you’ll have the security of knowing you’ve got something ready to send. And if the magazine does not choose to see your article, you can always pitch it elsewhere, though you may have to revise the article in order to fit the requirements of a different magazine.
Sending query letters may seem old-fashioned, but they enable you to build up a good working relationship with the Feature Editor. They also save you time in that you won’t be wasting precious minutes and hours writing an article you can’t interest anyone in. Do find out the person’s name and job title to whom you’re sending your query letter to. Consult the latest edition of Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook and / or the magazine itself for up-to-date contact details.
Part 4: Beginning, Middle and End
The opening paragraph of your article is very important. If it does not do its job and intrigue the reader immediately, then there is a risk that they won’t bother to read the rest of your work, and will instead move on to the next feature. The first paragraph serves as a ‘taster’ if you like. It needs to introduce the subject of your article in an interesting manner, telling the reader what they can expect if they choose to read on. The language used, the tone adopted - all must work together to entice the reader.
It is hard to advise you upon the writing of the middle section of your article. Do you have enough material? Have you done your market research and studied articles in your target magazine? After doing an initial ‘thought shower’ and having noted down everything you can think of about your topic, choose your angle and draw out the relevant points you need to cover. Group them if appropriate, put them in order, and write away. Each paragraph should add to the argument or move the article on in a logical manner.
The ending of your article is again, extremely important. It must sum up your argument, refer to what you promised to deliver from the outset (making the links and showing the reader they’ve come full-circle), or even advise the reader as to what they can do next if it’s an information piece.
As for your article’s title, don’t spend too much time pondering upon this; magazine staff will more than likely change it. Your title simply needs to tell them what your article is about. For example, if you’re writing a piece advising people upon how to get started making cards, call it ‘card making for beginners’, or something similar. This will be sufficient.
Part 5: All About Angles Before you start to write your article, you need to decide upon the angle (or slant). You can’t possibly cover everything about your chosen topic in one article, so think about what you want to say. What is going to be your ‘hook’, your way in? I would suggest beginning by making a list of all the different angles you could write about, and follow this up by conducting your market research. When you can match a piece to a particular magazine, get writing! You can always go back and write a piece on the same subject, but with a different angle, for another magazine which you feel is appropriate. Say for instance you want to do a piece on the subject of writing, here are some potential angles: 1. Writing in a specific genre; 2. Advice for beginners; 3. How to self-publish; 4. Technical know-how; 5. An interview with an author / a piece on an author; 6. Course information. To give you another example, I have recently been working on an article regarding the history of a large town. Writing about the history of a town is a big subject, and so I narrowed down my choices and decided to write about the history of a specific part of the town. This alone resulted in a piece long enough for a single-page article, which I intend to submit to The Lady magazine. And there is so much more to write about this town; I could write more pieces for other magazines. Choosing an angle will depend - to a large extent - upon your target market. It is worth looking at what is currently being written about the subject you’re interested in, to see if you are able take a fresh look at it, and whether you can come up with an unusual angle. If you can, you would be maximising your chances of getting your piece published.
Part 6: Style Everyone has their own writing style, however, there are still some rules to follow. As mentioned in an earlier section, you need to study articles in the magazine you are targeting, taking them apart in effect, making a detailed examination of the average number of words, sentence and paragraph length, how numbers and dates are presented, the language used etc. And it goes without saying - I’ll say it anyway - that your article should be checked for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. In the planning stages, it is a good idea to list the points you want to make about your chosen subject, so that you will know what each paragraph will cover. The sentences within each paragraph should be related. Check these sentences until you are happy that you have used the fewest amount of words possible, and that each one makes sense. Readers do not want to have to re-read a sentence or paragraph. Do not waffle, or labour the point, and choose a simpler word rather than a complex one. A phrase such as ‘at the moment’ can be cut down to one word, ‘currently’. There’s a lot to think about. Your article needs to fit in with the magazine’s style, it needs to be understandable and interesting, and you’ll still want to retain your own ‘voice’. Keep writing and practising – it gets easier!
Part 7: Legalities
I am not an expert on legal matters, and so I won’t be going into great detail here, but do read up on copyright. Basically, you own the copyright for everything you write. You should never actually sell your copyright (and you shouldn’t be asked to). When you submit an article to a magazine, you will be offering First British Serial Rights - the rights to publish your article for the first time in the UK. You can also try to sell the piece to any magazine outside of the UK, offering that country First X Serial Rights. On the matter of reproducing someone else’s words or photographs, you need to check that you are not infringing copyright. In many cases, you will have to seek permission. The NUJ run a course called Copyright for Journalists. For information go to: http://www.nujtraining.org.uk/page.phtml?id=1209&category=outline_pt&finds=0&string=&strand= If you’d like to check whether or not you are referencing correctly, try Cite them right: the essential reference guide by Richard Pears and Graham Shields. A quick word about libel. Be very careful not to write a libellous statement. It doesn’t matter whether they’re your own words, or whether you’re reporting upon what someone else has said. For the ultimate guide refer to McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists edited by Welsh, Greenwood and Banks.
For an interview with Helen > click here
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