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WRITING TIPS
How to write for magazines Illustration: Lucy Daniella Scott has been a writer and journalist for over five years and is currently Senior Entertainment and Lifestyle Writer at Cosmopolitan UK magazine. Starting as an intern and working her way up, Daniella has had some great advice along the way; here, she shares some top tips on how to write for magazines.
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fell in love with writing as a kid when my older sister made me read her favourite books. he’s five years older than me so I often didn’t understand much, but as I grew older I began to appreciate how writers put a story together and take you on a journey, and from then I knew I wanted to be a writer and journalist. Writing features is modern-day storytelling, and that’s basically the oldest skill in the world. If you’re interested in writing for magazines, here is some of the most useful advice I’ve learned over the years. Coming up with ideas The ideas stage is about building the right habits. he first thing is to read as much and as widely as possible – magazines,
newspapers, books, news reports, all of it. Some of the best ideas come from small, seemingly insignificant snippets of news. Next, proactively get into the habit of coming up with ideas. Start by committing to noting down at least one feature idea per day. From there you can build up to two or three. This helps train your mind to look for a story in everyday life; your brain will start spotting a potentially great idea in what normally would have passed you by. Pitching Pitching can be tricky because it’s different from editor to editor, but the general rule is to know who you’re pitching to. Make sure the publication you’re approaching is the right place for the piece. Have a look at their
