Freelance journalist Eugene Smith looks at how the best place to get started writing and selling non-fiction articles is exploring your interests.
FREELANCING: Finding your feet
‘Write about what you know.’
This advice has been given to writers ever since Neanderthal man stared at a blank cave wall. But if you examine the phrase, what does it actually mean? For fiction writers especially, it would seem very limiting, unless Stephen King really does possess telekinetic powers. And has met vampires. Fiction, by its nature is about the unknown, a tale which has yet to happen. When we read a story we generally want to escape, or at least retreat from reality, not to be reminded of it.
Of course, like so much advice it’s not meant to be taken entirely literally. If we look at Stephen King’s work, much of it is set in his home state of Maine, and often features writers. Charles Dickens channelled his childhood experiences of poverty into almost all of his books. Delia Owens used both her zoological career and Southern background to create the world of Where the Crawdads Sing. Maybe the advice should be ‘use your known experiences to provide verisimilitude to your fictional writing’. Accurate, although not terribly catchy.
Finding ideas for your features
What you’re currently reading isn’t fiction. I don’t write fiction, I’m a freelance writer of non-fiction articles. How does the advice relate to this?
What interests you? Name three or four of your interests. What do you mean you don’t have any interests? We’ve all met that person, the one who when asked ‘what interests you?’ will shrug and say ‘not much’. You’re not that person. You have interests. Anyone reading this magazine is going to be interested in writing. It doesn’t have to be a hobby, there doesn’t need to be an active or creative element. If you’re interested in something you can write about it.
Does your article have to be about something people consider exciting? Absolutely not. Firstly, excitement is often subjective. You might become highly animated about a football match, while the same game leaves me cold. And I could show you my favourite film, only for you to be bored rigid. Part of your job as a writer is to make your subject interesting for the reader. Think back to school. Was there a teacher who engaged your interest in a subject you previously had no empathy with? Conversely, was your youthful eagerness stifled by a teacher who simply wasn’t much good? What was the key difference between these two educators? Enthusiasm. And we’ll be seeing that word a lot.
Your interests are yo
