Freelance Writing.

[Mumlar]

Am trying to set myself up as a freelance feature writer. Have had a few knock backs and the latest, very politely, suggested I hone my style. I am looking for a course,( just signed up for Mumsnet Academy), that I could do to improve my writing skills. Would need to be distance learning due to location and young family. Any ideas? There are loads out there, but I don't know whether they are worth doing or not. Any recommendations? Also, does anyone know of any good books on the subject? Thanks.

Tbh, you're going to find getting a regular income from freelance writing very hard.

I presume you've worked as a feature writer before going freelance?

No, I haven't worked as a writer before, I have been a secondary school English teacher which is why I need to learn how to write in a totally different way from what I am used to. I don't think it will be easy, in fact I am finding out the hard way that it isn't!

Hi there,

Good luck with your new career move.

I have been both a freelance and in-house feature writer. The thing you need is generally experience and evidence that other publications have accepted your work.

I wouldn't consider commissioning an article from anyone without a great portfolio, so that is your challenge. Most freelance writers are really familiar with picking up the style/tone/audience of any new publication they write for. This is tricky with no professional journalistic writing experience.

I'm not sure what training can be done from home but I believe you can do an NCTJ course (the basic journalism course) as a distance learning one. So there are options out there if you want to retrain.

Have you done any work experience or written anything already that has been published? What area of feature writing are you keen to get into?

If I were you I'd first try to get editorial work drawing on your teaching experience - trade press, educational websites etc. You need to think about transitioning in a sensible way.

Most editorial work is hard to get and poorly paid. You've got to remember that in features in particular, people would write them for free, so why pay you? You also need to think of where the money is - newspapers and many mags are not making a profit, but communications (writing for companies) can be a better gig.

My advice to you is to think about where you would be really useful - are you a fabulous sub editor, for instance? Forget about the mor glamorous jobs unless in your case, money is no object.

don't mean to be negative btw, just would hate you not to see journalism as the overcompetitive, underfunded field that it is....

Thank you all. Think I am probably living in cloud cuckoo land a little. A bit like when you pick up a guitar and think you'll just be able to play it like Jimmi Hendrix.

I have not had anything published but have had some reasonable feedback about my style, am beginning to wonder whether everyone just being nice though. Am certainly developing skin like rhino hide.