I'm sometimes asked how I come up with ideas and where to
publish them. It varies.
When I started
writing for magazines in 1996, I tried out the suggestions made to me by writer
Gordon Wells. An established writer, Gordon suggested that I made a list of
everyone in my life, starting with family members. He recommended that I would
come across stories relating to these people. I did this, and remembered that
my grandfather George Wiseman, had a horse drawn narrowboat collecting milk for
Cadbury in the 1920’s. To cut a long story short, this led to my article ‘Chocolate
on the Shroppie’ being published in Canal & Riverboat magazine.
Other stories came in different ways. I approached a number of
different magazines offering to write reviews of websites relating to their
speciality. I had around eight commissions including ‘Skin Deep’ magazine and ‘Mad
about Dogs’ magazine. Another success were three website reviews for ‘The Art
of Bonsai and Japanese Gardens’ magazines.
Another way of finding potential outlets for feature articles is
by studying the current editions of the ‘Writers & Artists Yearbook’ and ‘The
Writers Handbook’. The most recent ‘leads’ gained from the former was ‘Dogs
Today’ magazine. See the ‘LATEST WORK’ section of my website.
I sometimes put an ‘appeal’ to hear from people in Facebook groups
and pages. This was the case when I asked for suggestions from people using ‘Assistance
dogs’. This led to the feature in ‘Dogs Today’ and ‘Able’ magazines about
18-year-old non-binary and autistic Eliot Best.
Another possibility is that people simply suggest ideas to me and
this is where you come in. Do you have an idea that might interest me?
Alternatively, do you know of a publication looking for freelance
contributions? If so, please send me details at sloughwriter@gmail.com . I would of
course acknowledge your assistance.
But of course, the most rewarding way is for you to write the
article yourself. If you need some basic guidance, please see me online article
‘Writing for Magazines’ which you can find at: http://www.richardhill.co.uk/talks/
Best of luck!
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