Make freelance writing fun
>> Friday, May 14, 2010
"You make learning fun."
Two people have said this to me in the past two weeks and I reckon it's a darn good rap. (Oh, would you look at that, my head is swelling!)
After all, you don't want people saying, "You know what Pam, you make education boring," or "coma-inducing", or "painful", or "more frustrating than sitting through 10 consecutive episodes of Big Brother: sober."
The first person to say it to me was my evaluator at a speech contest - that I won (I had to get that in here somewhere so I could show off my trophy up above) - which was run by my local toastmasters club.
The second person was one of my enthusiastic students from my latest feature writing course at the Sydney Writers' Centre.
Writing should be fun
'Having fun' is something I have always encouraged in freelance writers.
When we're regularly writing articles for newspapers and magazines we can run the risk of taking ourselves, our topics and life too seriously.
So, whenever it is appropriate (i.e. a cancer story is no laughing matter, neither is seeing Australia's Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in his budgie smugglers on prime-time television), have a little fun with your stories.
Here's how:
* Use quirky or interesting metaphors and motifs in your stories.
* Always look for a light-hearted angle to your story and, if there is one, use it.
* Inject humour and lightheartedness into your interviews so that your subject relaxes and responds in kind.
* Consider your target audience and use witticisms and puns that are relevant to them.
* Use your writing tools - alliteration, hyperbole, idioms, rhetorical questions - to spice up your stories.
* Above all, look beyond the deadlines and the sometimes dreary articles you have to write and see the job of a freelance writer for what it is - ripper fun and bloody interesting!
When you can inject a little lightness, fun and humour into your stories, you will make the task of passing on information to your readers fun.
So, go on, get waggish and witty.
Related articles
* Writing a feature is like going on a first date... it's about connecting
* What makes a story well-written?
* Forget reality TV. Try reality instead
Two people have said this to me in the past two weeks and I reckon it's a darn good rap. (Oh, would you look at that, my head is swelling!)
After all, you don't want people saying, "You know what Pam, you make education boring," or "coma-inducing", or "painful", or "more frustrating than sitting through 10 consecutive episodes of Big Brother: sober."
The first person to say it to me was my evaluator at a speech contest - that I won (I had to get that in here somewhere so I could show off my trophy up above) - which was run by my local toastmasters club.
The second person was one of my enthusiastic students from my latest feature writing course at the Sydney Writers' Centre.
Writing should be fun
'Having fun' is something I have always encouraged in freelance writers.
When we're regularly writing articles for newspapers and magazines we can run the risk of taking ourselves, our topics and life too seriously.
So, whenever it is appropriate (i.e. a cancer story is no laughing matter, neither is seeing Australia's Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in his budgie smugglers on prime-time television), have a little fun with your stories.
Here's how:
* Use quirky or interesting metaphors and motifs in your stories.
* Always look for a light-hearted angle to your story and, if there is one, use it.
* Inject humour and lightheartedness into your interviews so that your subject relaxes and responds in kind.
* Consider your target audience and use witticisms and puns that are relevant to them.
* Use your writing tools - alliteration, hyperbole, idioms, rhetorical questions - to spice up your stories.
* Above all, look beyond the deadlines and the sometimes dreary articles you have to write and see the job of a freelance writer for what it is - ripper fun and bloody interesting!
When you can inject a little lightness, fun and humour into your stories, you will make the task of passing on information to your readers fun.
So, go on, get waggish and witty.
Related articles
* Writing a feature is like going on a first date... it's about connecting
* What makes a story well-written?
* Forget reality TV. Try reality instead
For more information about Pamela Wilson or WriteSmart, log on to http://www.writesmart.com.au/
11 comments:
I enjoyed reading this article. I believe it is important to have fun in your chosen profession.
If you do what you love the money will follow.
Thanks for your article dude. Writing matters a lot. Our writing should de such like attracting other’s attention. Good day.
Just came across your blog on Google. Interesting post, you bring up a few good things to think about. Good luck with the blog.
I appreciate your site very much. Will read all. Keep up to excellent posting on it. Thank you
Checking out your blog and wondering if you consider songwriting in the process of "writing". I am a singer songwriter and the challenge is to write frequently and successfully.
Hi Anthony,
I have never written a song myself, but I can imagine it is the same as any form of writing in that it requires discipline, a good vocabulary and finese in saying something important/fun/interesting in a succinct way. The advantage you have is that you are dealing with the spoken language, rather than written language and have more of a poetic licence so you can write more freely, without worrying about the nuances of grammar so much. On the flipside, you probably have to be even more succinct and ruthless with superfluous words than most writers. But, yep, it's writing all the same.
Freelance ghostwriting is one of the most interesting and rewarding occupation in the world, but like others, it requires a little bit of guess and check.
I can imagine it is the same as any form of writing in that it requires discipline, a good vocabulary and finese in saying something important/fun/interesting in a succinct way.
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