When it comes to media and the news, everything is fast these days. Last weekend I went to an event called The Sunday Papers Live and one of the speakers was Jon Snow from C4 news. One of the most fascinating aspects of his (informal) lecture was his telling of how they used to get world news back to the UK. By the time it reached Heathrow, the news he had reported on was generally two or three days out of date.
Oh, how things have changed. Now there are stories that can be published on the web and 10, 30, 40 minutes later it might be out of date. The beauty I suppose is that it can be easily amended without the print costs, but is fast news/comment/reports/features always a good thing?
This morning, before settling down to my day of work, I read a feature about a freelancer that had set up his own quarterly, online magazine. Adam Westbrook, the author of the feature, calls it 'micropublishing'. He was working solo and funded it himself. For many writers, I'm sure this would be the dream, but what I really liked about his project was the idea of the 'slow web' which beautifully contradicts how we usually consume internet based information. Adam Westbrook wrote:
'In a world where blog posts are scribbled off in 20 minutes and skimmed over by readers in 20 seconds, I wanted to write something that stuck.
I wanted to spend weeks researching essays, designing bespoke illustrations and scouring lost books. The result, I think, is a magazine made with love that demands your attention. I begin each issue suggesting the reader clears an hour from their schedule, switches off their 3G and pours a coffee.'
I love this. One of my favourite things to do at the weekend currently is to buy the papers and pour over them for hours, reading each section and the magazines/supplements. My chap asked me the other day, "why bother?" Obviously he was implying that it's easier and quicker to get it off social media, or the paper's website, but it all feels so frantic. It still feels like you're only getting snippets, or you have to read it quicker because it's on the web and comments are being constantly added, or the article might be modified by the editors at the touch of a button, so then what you're reading might change completely. At least with the papers it remains static. There's more of a chance to take it all in.
For me, print journalism still has a greater air of authority. Maybe because amid a huge amount of free media, you still have to pay for your print. Anything committed to this format feels more final. Know what I mean? I like the idea though of an alternative 'slow web', where there's a reminder that not all writing has to be hashed out in an hour or less.
Friday 29 November 2013
Thursday 28 November 2013
A new challenge
So, since my last post I've been thinking a lot about my "personal branding". I reckon one thing I need to be better at is put myself about more. At the moment, I think the number of publications I'm contributing to, especially online, is fairly limited. Considering how many different outlets there are I should be doing more and writing more for more of them. It's all about getting my name and face in as many places as possible. I've even recently had new head shots, so here's hoping that will help.
The challenge I want to try and under take is to get a feature in a different publication (online or print) every month. Don't want to go too extreme at the moment and set myself up for failure. I'm also going to update my blog every day. I had a friend do this a couple of years ago and although she sometimes found it tough to find inspiration, or the energy after doing a full day at work, she stuck to it. I'm hoping it will help me hone in on a few more ideas about being a freelancer, what I like about the career and how to be better at it. I think eventually I'd like this blog to be a useful resource to other young freelancers, plus it will give me a bit of a break from talking about sex all of the time.
Of course there might be a bit of a catch to this challenge: not every publication I approach, or write for may pay. Bit of a problem when you're only source of income is your writing. Needless to say I'll be taking a hit along the way. I just hope my accountant isn't reading this.
One of my uni lecturers said about freelancing: "you should never write for free." Now, in the thick of it and having been a freelancer for over a year I can see both sides of the coin. Plus, when that little nugget of wisdom was passed on to me and my class mates, the idea of e-zines, blogs and media on tablets was literally only just on the rise.
So, there we go, challenge set. Lets see how it all plays out...
RoseC -x-
The challenge I want to try and under take is to get a feature in a different publication (online or print) every month. Don't want to go too extreme at the moment and set myself up for failure. I'm also going to update my blog every day. I had a friend do this a couple of years ago and although she sometimes found it tough to find inspiration, or the energy after doing a full day at work, she stuck to it. I'm hoping it will help me hone in on a few more ideas about being a freelancer, what I like about the career and how to be better at it. I think eventually I'd like this blog to be a useful resource to other young freelancers, plus it will give me a bit of a break from talking about sex all of the time.
Of course there might be a bit of a catch to this challenge: not every publication I approach, or write for may pay. Bit of a problem when you're only source of income is your writing. Needless to say I'll be taking a hit along the way. I just hope my accountant isn't reading this.
One of my uni lecturers said about freelancing: "you should never write for free." Now, in the thick of it and having been a freelancer for over a year I can see both sides of the coin. Plus, when that little nugget of wisdom was passed on to me and my class mates, the idea of e-zines, blogs and media on tablets was literally only just on the rise.
So, there we go, challenge set. Lets see how it all plays out...
RoseC -x-
Friday 22 November 2013
Personal Branding
Found this on www.journalism.co.uk today offering tips to freelancers on personal branding. Reckon it really is relevant to anyone that works for themselves though, so you may find it useful too.
Taking a read, there's some good ideas...granted it did make me go, "ah, crap! I don't do any of that," when I first read it and I felt a bit lousy that I've been such a bad marketer of myself, but at least now I have something to kick my arse into gear to sort my "personal branding" out. Basically, I think I need to put it about a bit more...
Taking a read, there's some good ideas...granted it did make me go, "ah, crap! I don't do any of that," when I first read it and I felt a bit lousy that I've been such a bad marketer of myself, but at least now I have something to kick my arse into gear to sort my "personal branding" out. Basically, I think I need to put it about a bit more...
Wednesday 20 November 2013
Sex Journalism: A crazy ambition?
Doing face to face interviews is a rare occurrence for me. I'm not sure why this is as I always enjoy them more if I can sit and chat with the person. Anyway, today was one of those rare times when I got to actually go and see someone and do an interview with them. It was with a male porn star - I think only the second male adult performer I've ever interviewed, so it was quite an experience and nice to get the other side of the story. The majority of the time it's women from the adult industry that I interview.
Sadly, I can't go into the in's and outs of my interview with him here (at the moment) as it all needs to go to press and stuff first, but we got on well. Cheekily he tried to turn the tables a few times and get me to answer a few questions, most of which I did in a very broad manner without giving too much away about myself, but there was one question he asked and it kind of threw me. He asked, "What's your ambition, there must be an end goal and something you want to achieve?"
At the time I wasn't sure how to answer it. One of the reasons I started this blog was in the hope that it would give me somewhere to put down a few ideas and maybe from that a direction would emerge about my career and what I want to do. It is starting to...I think.
Sitting on the train home, I thought about this question more. I thought about what it is that I enjoy writing and why I write. Looking at my portfolio my subject of choice is pretty obvious, although there are times I crave to write abut stuff other than sex, but why do I choose to write on this subject primarily? Well, thinking back to a slightly drunken conversation I had with a friend of mine last year, what I really want and what I think my ambition is, is for people, everyone, to have good sex.
Mostly I write because there's a lot of bad sex journalism out there. I don't want to be a "sexpert", I don't want to be a psychologist, a relationship councillor or body language expert. My ambition is to be the journalist that takes the time to properly hunt out those people to give good, honest sex advice and create features, articles, stories and books that bring the right, best and most enjoyable aspects of sex to the page.
I want to do this because I give a shit, because I think sex gets a lot of bad press or seedy press or is just used as a fad and so often everything that's fanfuckingtastic about it is overlooked.
So there, I guess that's my ambition. I want to be that journalist.
Sadly, I can't go into the in's and outs of my interview with him here (at the moment) as it all needs to go to press and stuff first, but we got on well. Cheekily he tried to turn the tables a few times and get me to answer a few questions, most of which I did in a very broad manner without giving too much away about myself, but there was one question he asked and it kind of threw me. He asked, "What's your ambition, there must be an end goal and something you want to achieve?"
At the time I wasn't sure how to answer it. One of the reasons I started this blog was in the hope that it would give me somewhere to put down a few ideas and maybe from that a direction would emerge about my career and what I want to do. It is starting to...I think.
Sitting on the train home, I thought about this question more. I thought about what it is that I enjoy writing and why I write. Looking at my portfolio my subject of choice is pretty obvious, although there are times I crave to write abut stuff other than sex, but why do I choose to write on this subject primarily? Well, thinking back to a slightly drunken conversation I had with a friend of mine last year, what I really want and what I think my ambition is, is for people, everyone, to have good sex.
Mostly I write because there's a lot of bad sex journalism out there. I don't want to be a "sexpert", I don't want to be a psychologist, a relationship councillor or body language expert. My ambition is to be the journalist that takes the time to properly hunt out those people to give good, honest sex advice and create features, articles, stories and books that bring the right, best and most enjoyable aspects of sex to the page.
I want to do this because I give a shit, because I think sex gets a lot of bad press or seedy press or is just used as a fad and so often everything that's fanfuckingtastic about it is overlooked.
So there, I guess that's my ambition. I want to be that journalist.
Monday 18 November 2013
The Winds Of Change
Currently I'm experiencing something new in my freelance career: the (potential) cancelling of one of my regular columns. It sort of came as a surprise, but not entirely and I have mixed feelings about it. Columns, contributions and commissions get cut all of the time I'm sure, but it's yet to have happened to me and I'm what? Two years in at the most? That's not bad going really.
At the moment I'll avoid saying which publication may be canning the feature I write as it's not 100 percent confirmed, but when the issue was raised last week I felt a little bit crestfallen to begin with. They had sort of thrown it open to me, in a very round about way, asking if I'd like to continue writing it and part of me did and part of me didn't. In the end I decided to think on it for a few days.
So I took the weekend and stewed it over. Mostly I've come to the conclusion, depending on the editor's final decision, that this particular feature has run it's course. Realising that actually gave me a bit of a thrill. It's been a while since I've approached any new publications - online or print - and flexed my digits around some different writing styles. There are a couple of projects that appear to be drawing to a close at the moment and on the whole, rather than feel panicked, it's actually quite refreshing.
I apologise for sounding hugely clichéd right there.
Pretty much since my freelancing career began I've been writing for the same titles. This is partly for financial security reasons, partly because they've been on-going projects that have afforded me opportunities to develop a few new skills. It would have been silly to stop any of them in their tracks just because I'd been working on/for certain companies for a year or so.
On the other hand, part of the beauty of freelancing is having the chance to chop and change and test the waters with lots of different publications should I desire to do that and I definitely think that's one area of this whole freelance journalism malarkey I'm yet to really put to the test and experiment with. Although it's sad to loose a regular column - and one that I actually really enjoyed writing - I'd rather see this as a positive. It will free up a bit more of my time each month so I can explore other avenues.
So, it's a little bit out with the current and in with the new and so far the breeze seems to be fairly warm and inviting. Will have to 'watch this space' though.
Over and out for now.
RoseC -x-
At the moment I'll avoid saying which publication may be canning the feature I write as it's not 100 percent confirmed, but when the issue was raised last week I felt a little bit crestfallen to begin with. They had sort of thrown it open to me, in a very round about way, asking if I'd like to continue writing it and part of me did and part of me didn't. In the end I decided to think on it for a few days.
So I took the weekend and stewed it over. Mostly I've come to the conclusion, depending on the editor's final decision, that this particular feature has run it's course. Realising that actually gave me a bit of a thrill. It's been a while since I've approached any new publications - online or print - and flexed my digits around some different writing styles. There are a couple of projects that appear to be drawing to a close at the moment and on the whole, rather than feel panicked, it's actually quite refreshing.
I apologise for sounding hugely clichéd right there.
Pretty much since my freelancing career began I've been writing for the same titles. This is partly for financial security reasons, partly because they've been on-going projects that have afforded me opportunities to develop a few new skills. It would have been silly to stop any of them in their tracks just because I'd been working on/for certain companies for a year or so.
On the other hand, part of the beauty of freelancing is having the chance to chop and change and test the waters with lots of different publications should I desire to do that and I definitely think that's one area of this whole freelance journalism malarkey I'm yet to really put to the test and experiment with. Although it's sad to loose a regular column - and one that I actually really enjoyed writing - I'd rather see this as a positive. It will free up a bit more of my time each month so I can explore other avenues.
So, it's a little bit out with the current and in with the new and so far the breeze seems to be fairly warm and inviting. Will have to 'watch this space' though.
Over and out for now.
RoseC -x-
Wednesday 13 November 2013
Twitchy
ARGH! I've got that thing this evening where I've been writing all day, but it's mostly been massively mundane stuff and now I feel I need to write something all insightful and creative, but because of the more cardboard writing I've been doing I'm actually a little bit brain dead. It's that thing where what you're writing is probably a completely ramble, but it feels so nice (from a writer's point of view) to just get it out of your fingers and your head and write something that, despite being a bit nothingness, at least requires a bit more thought and free flow than the rigid, dull, structured stuff you've been doing for the rest of the day. Any other writers/creative people reading this and know what I mean.
this is going to sound lame, but it's like you need to let all the lovely words and phrases pour out of your finger tips that you've been unable to use during the day. I guess now would be a good time to have a go at that 'flow poetry' malarkey, which I'm usually not very good at. Perhaps that's what I'll sit and do this evening.
Really I wanted to write a blog about networking and press events. I have this really insightful and thoughtful blog I'd like to write in regards to that side of my job, but tonight is not the night to do that. When I do write it, I'd like it to be useful, maybe even provoke some sort of debate between PRs and journalists. Ooh, me being controversial!
As it is, my fingers are feeling twitchy and my brain needs to splurge, so here it is and the more I type the more relieved I'm feeling. Reckon a few more sentences and I'll be feeling suitably satisfied. Writing blurb copy for sex toys all day just doesn't cut it in the satisfying stakes in the same way a juicy feature or blog would. Anyway, this is feeling good. My fingers and brain are beginning to feel appeased. I'm not even going to read this back you know until after I've hit post. I'm a rebel. I know! What can I say? Ooh...wait a minute...
Ah, that feels better :-)
Consider myself de-twitched (and I didn't even have any coffee today!).
this is going to sound lame, but it's like you need to let all the lovely words and phrases pour out of your finger tips that you've been unable to use during the day. I guess now would be a good time to have a go at that 'flow poetry' malarkey, which I'm usually not very good at. Perhaps that's what I'll sit and do this evening.
Really I wanted to write a blog about networking and press events. I have this really insightful and thoughtful blog I'd like to write in regards to that side of my job, but tonight is not the night to do that. When I do write it, I'd like it to be useful, maybe even provoke some sort of debate between PRs and journalists. Ooh, me being controversial!
As it is, my fingers are feeling twitchy and my brain needs to splurge, so here it is and the more I type the more relieved I'm feeling. Reckon a few more sentences and I'll be feeling suitably satisfied. Writing blurb copy for sex toys all day just doesn't cut it in the satisfying stakes in the same way a juicy feature or blog would. Anyway, this is feeling good. My fingers and brain are beginning to feel appeased. I'm not even going to read this back you know until after I've hit post. I'm a rebel. I know! What can I say? Ooh...wait a minute...
Ah, that feels better :-)
Consider myself de-twitched (and I didn't even have any coffee today!).
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