Make freelance writing fun
"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/