About Writing and How to Publish. Cathy Glass

of time and will gain confidence from watching your work take shape and reach fruition. This book is not long enough to explain in detail how to write in all the different genres, so I will give you a taste of each, hopefully with enough information to whet your appetite and make you want to find out more.

      I began my writing career by writing short articles, first for the school magazine, and then freelance for local newspapers and national magazines. At that time there were only paper publications (there was no internet), but now, in addition to paper publications, there are thousands of interest-led websites and online magazines, which offer a wealth of opportunity to publish articles. Article writing can be very satisfying. I still write articles now. It allows you to write on a subject you feel passionate about, or learn about a topic you previously knew little of from researching it for your article. Editors of printed publications usually pay for the articles they publish, online publications not so much, but for a fledgling author, to see his or her work published is often reward in itself. I say more about how to publish articles in section three of this book, so now let us look at how to write an article.

      You have chosen the subject matter of your article, done your research and have all the material you need to hand, including any photographs or artwork, so you are ready to begin. Bear in mind your target audience – for example, are you writing for teenagers, gardeners, builders or parents? Knowing your audience is crucial, as the content of your article, its tone and style will vary to suit your intended reader. Writing for teenagers, for example, is clearly very different in subject matter and style to writing for parents, financiers or trainspotters.

      Choose a snappy, attention-grabbing heading to start your article. If you are not sure of the length or are short of ideas, look at some of the articles in the publications you are going to write for. Under your main heading write your opening paragraph. This will be a brief summary – an overview – of your article. Here is an example: