WRITE ABOUT WHAT YOU KNOW by Carol Anne Strange

Writing about what you know is sound advice when you’re starting out as a freelance writer but many would-be scribes flounder at the thought and don’t think they know enough about anything in particular to warrant publication. Yet we all have the potential to specialise by accessing the wealth of knowledge gained from our past and present experiences.
By specialising in a subject area, it is easier to become known by editors and you can quickly build up a strong reputation in the publishing world. This can escalate your career from writing a regular column in your local newspaper to writing features for a national title to being commissioned to write a book on your subject. Even if you are capable of writing anything and everything, being known for a particular topic area is more likely to win you commissions.
When I started out writing professionally nearly 20 years ago, I focused on health and well-being because this was the field that I was interested in and involved with at the time. I read widely on my subject, took courses and did all I could to learn more. This resulted in me securing one of my first regular columns and feature commissions for a martial arts magazine titled ‘Fighters’, which I covered for several years. From this, I started to explore how I could use my knowledge in the field to write for other publications and I picked up many more commissions before going on to publish a book on martial arts. Later still, as I took on new interests and expertise, I diversified and was able to add to my specialist subject areas. This continues to provide endless scope for freelance opportunities.
You too can become a specialist writer and pick up regular contracts quite early on in your writing career. So start off with some active reflection to set you on the right path:
Make a ListTake some time out to make a list of all the subjects that interest you. Include your hobbies, skills and areas of expertise. Write down what you’re passionate about. It might be films, gardening, food, travel, music, home, art etc. You’ll be surprised how many areas of interest you have. Now highlight what excites you the most and what you’ll enjoy writing about.
Consider Your Life SkillsA new writer once told me that she didn’t think she had any specialist knowledge as she’d spent years bringing up her three children and hadn’t had chance to develop a career. Yet parenting is a specialist skill. When she looked a little deeper, she realised that she had mountains of material on issues and anecdotes concerning parenthood. She decided to specialise in writing parenting articles and went on to be widely published.
Don’t underestimate your knowledgeYour experiences in life can make interesting and informative material for publication so don’t overlook this potential.
Research Your SubjectAnother writer had a profound interest in gardening yet assumed that he didn’t have any real specialist knowledge in the subject. After all, everyone knows something about gardening, don’t they? Well, that’s not so. Even if you’re not an expert, you’ll be surprised just how much you do know when it’s a subject that you’re passionate about and, what you don’t know for sure, you can research. You don’t need a degree in your subject to write about it – you just need passion for the topic and a willingness to learn more as you go along. Take the opportunity to study and build up a good reference library. Subscribe to specialist journals that will give you inside knowledge.
Join an AssociationOnce you’ve decided on your specialist subject, see if there are any organisations that you can join that will provide you with access to news and information that might otherwise be difficult to obtain. For example, if you’re a writer specialising in all things equestrian, you could join the British Horse Society or similar bodies that will give you access to people and the latest developments in the equestrian world.
Promote Your SpecialityStart working on your article outlines to prepare a body of material. Make sure editors are aware of your specialist area when you contact them. Start out by writing a column for a local newspaper or magazine. This is a great way of establishing a reputation. Work on creating a name for yourself so that you become known for your expertise.
Think LaterallyIf your specialist subject is food and wine, don’t necessarily aim for the food and wine magazines. Usually, they already have long term experts in place. Instead, think laterally and consider how your expertise can be used to write articles on your subject for a diverse range of magazines. Taking food and wine as an example: how about an article on party food for a parenting magazine? Or consider a seasonal food and drink feature for a general interest magazine such as Prima or The Lady. There are plenty of angles to approach; you just need to think creatively to use your expertise to the best advantage.
The benefits of being a writer who specialises are quite significant. It is much easier to focus on a subject that you’re passionate about and you’ll find that you are never short of ideas for articles. Even if your subject is quite narrow – for example, focusing on ‘cats’ rather than ‘pets’ – you’ll still be surprised how many markets are open to you. The secret is in being able to think laterally and being creative enough to write for a diverse market place.
Writing about what you know can provide you with consistent work for years. Your expertise can even lead to the publication of books and many specialist writers have been asked to give talks or appear on television.
So, if you’re not already known for a specific subject area, do give it some serious thought. There’s nothing stopping you from taking on board ‘general’ writing commissions, but once you’ve got yourself a specialist writing role, then you will find that more publishing opportunities open up for you.

Freelancers and the internet by : JACKIE SHERMAN

Have you noticed how many features in some magazines and local papers are written by the same people? It's disappointing, isn't it, when the author of the theatre review page also covers his or her latest restaurant meal and gives you financial advice several pages further on. It makes you think the publication is being run on a shoe-string, and that you'd rather get advice on these things from an expert.Well, websites are just the same; they need fresh blood and new angles for their pages. When someone gets an idea for a new site, a key question is going to be: who is going to write the content of all those thousands of pages? Which is why it can be quite easy to get freelance work on a new magazine-style website, as long as you know your subject well enough, are willing to write new copy regularly and don't expect to be paid! Yes, sadly, making money from writing for lifestyle websites doesn't seem to be easy in the first few years, but without a presence on the web these sites haven't a hope of becoming financially self-supporting in the longer term. It's a real Catch 22 - without a viable, well-visited site, no advertiser is going to put an ad on the page, and without ads on the page, no website can survive, develop and get the money to pay the contributors. So you need to view writing for the Internet as a long-term investment which will hopefully pay off some time in the future.However, a presence on the web can offer quite unforeseen if non-pecuniary advantages. For a start, your name and work are on show. If you want to, and especially if you haven't got around to creating a personal website, you can put the web address of your page on business cards, headed notepaper or at the end of any other contributions you make. No one will then be able to doubt your ability and you can save time explaining your special approach, if enquirers are directed to your articles on the Internet.Secondly, if more permanent or full-time work dries up for a while having a regular column or even occasional piece on-line will give you the appearance of being "in work" when you try applying for another job. Freelancers have always had the luxury of being able to avoid that dreaded "provide a reference from your current employer", but if your field of expertise enables you to put work on the web, then you are clearly keeping up-to-date and (they may believe) being paid for your skills.A third advantage of an Internet presence is that it allows you to test yourself in a new area. In my case, I started writing for an over 50s website some years ago purely by coincidence, as I was more concerned with the content (advice about using computers) than the age group of my readers. However, when I applied to a magazine covering the same target audience, being involved in a similar enterprise on the Internet gave the appearance of my having an expertise with older people, as well as in my specialist field and I ended up with a regular column. This gave me the idea of specialising further and so when a new website aimed at the retired population appeared on the web, I wrote straight away suggesting a similar column which I have now written for three years. Even more exciting, this lead to my writing a book on my subject aimed at older people and published by Age Concern, as it filled a gap in the market that no-one else seemed to have spotted.The fourth reason to write for the web is that it will force you to learn skills that everyone is going to need in the future. If your accompanying pictures are too large, or in the wrong format, for example, you will be told - or will have to find out - how to convert them to a file type known as a JPEG. You can no longer write long, text-based articles but will need to think about hyperlinks, graphics and animated GIFs, and all the other technological razzmatazz that comes with the Internet. Who knows, it could lead to a whole new career e.g. in teaching others what you have learned, writing books on working on the Internet or web authoring etc that you might otherwise never have considered.A fifth reason to work for (almost) free on the Internet is that you can link your pieces to a personal website and any services or products that you want to offer. If you contribute to a prestigious site - company-based or popular with a wide audience - it is likely to have thousands of visitors a week. Most websites will include links for their contributors to personal websites so that any of your items could lead to people clicking a link to your page. This is where you can display the rest of your work and even conduct a business. Having only a personal website, visitors will be very few and far between because, let's face it, who are you? So now we've established that it can be a very good idea to contribute to magazine-style websites, you need to know how to get started. The key question is - what is your specialist area? If it is anything that would appeal to a wide audience of surfers, then there are probably one or more slots you could fill. The best way to approach getting a job is to write to your chosen webmaster offering your idea for a feature or regular column and provide them with a sample of your work. Here are a few different ideas for a contribution, bearing in mind that you need to stick to the same length and style of current contributions as far as possible:Questions and Answers - either real or imaginary queries about your area of expertise can be answered in a short, snappy, jargon-free way. Many websites have features that take this form, so you need to visit a range of similar sites and make up a few questions that you feel would be of interest to the target audience. It is likely that you would be required to write new questions once every month or so, as this will keep the website fresh and worth re-visiting.Personal accounts - if the style of the site allows for anecdotal pages, then your background or job knowledge might form the basis of a few good features. Clearly, you need to study the style of current accounts before contributing a piece, so they can see that it would fit in.Factual articles - the How To column is often a vital part of any website, so that any topic that has not yet been covered but would fit in well with the potential audience could be tackled. Some websites have their articles set out as a series of numbered steps, or they might prefer to publish a chatty item that covers the basic skills in a more general way. In-depth information - you may feel that your knowledge of an area of the world (work, leisure or education etc) might be of real interest, and if it hadn't come up before on the site, would certainly not duplicate anything already covered. On the other hand, you may find a previous article mentioning something you know about that could justify being covered again in more depth. In both cases, it is possible that this type of item could be repeated over the months e.g. looking at different roles in an organisation, looking at varied markets for work or following up different types of training course or qualifications. Entertainment - if the site is light-hearted, you may be able to contribute jokes, cartoons, photos etc that would fit in well and fill a gap.Audience-related - you may feel that you have something to offer teenagers, women, older people, lone parents, ethnic minorities etc and can find a relevant website that would welcome your contributions. Each website is competing for an audience and someone interested in your field may visit a site which seems to speak to them in their situation, or at their age, more personally than one that is content-based.You may have other ideas for contributions, so whichever route you take, I hope that you manage to find a niche. With perseverance, you should be able to get on the web and eventually, you may even make a living working in this way