City Olympic Heroes

I've been pretty happy this week.  Getting your name on the cover of a magazine will do that for you (it's the small stuff you can't read in the red ink).  It feels like another step in the right direction - if someone had told me that I'd get a cover byline a couple of years ago when I started writing it would certainly have instilled some belief. 

The feature came to me the way I hope all commissions come my way in the future.  Square Mile's Editor emailed me with the idea and asked me if I'd like to write it.  Wouldn't that be good, if you didn't actually have to pitch ideas to Editors and they came to you to put the feature together?  That's happened twice to me recently so karmically, I need to get some ideas to people.  Can't see them continuing to give me work if I'm not giving something back.

One of the most stimulating things about writing is the people it introduces you to.  The two people I interviewed for the City Olympic Heroes feature had very different personalities but they both exuded a clarity of purpose that, if I'm honest, I don't think I have.  As potential competitors at the London 2012 Olympics, both Phil Wicks (marathon) and Nick Brothers (hockey) know that a unique achievement is within their grasp and that they have the talent to get it.  The only difference between them is that Nick, as part of a team, is dependent on his team mates to perform as well as he no doubt will; Phil, as a marathon runner, only has to rely on himself.  A place in the history books, not to mention the love of a nation, awaits them.  You can read the feature here.

The Great Twitter Portwit Project

The photographer Chris Floyd has made a great film about his Twitter Portwit project.  I think I've written before on here about how the nature of friendship is changing due to Facebook and Twitter.  Chris is very articulate on the subject - if you click the headline above you can read about his reasons for investigating. Whether you think Twitter is 'A huge free-flowing endless conversation with lots of witty, intelligent people' or just a lot of people posting inanities about their daily life, you should find something that will interest you.  You can find the video here.  And if you get to about 8 minutes in, you'll hear me talking about 'false electronic intimacy'.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to be a part of the project and Chris' portwit (portraits of wits? I don't know) of me is here.  Never had my photo taken by a pro before don't think, bar the odd candid taken by Stephen Perry.  I've got my favourite shirt on and I've got no idea what I was talking about that made me put my hands up by my head like that.  I honestly wasn't doing the Steps dance to 'Tragedy'.  Honest.  In other news, Square Mile commissioned me to write about Microfinance Institutions.  They're not charity in the traditional sense.  They loan small amounts to businesses in the developing world so that people can make a living for themselves.  Loaning to some of the poorest people globally is not without its controversies of course.  You can read the feature here.

Sociable Networking

As much as I gripe about always having to look at a screen (monitor at work, Iphone on the tube, TV if I'm weak when I get home) one positive thing about social networking is, if you want to, you can get to meet some of the people that like your stuff.  In the case of @40before30, she started following this blog, then I started following her on Twitter and the other night we got to have a drink together.  Nothing dodgy about it (I've put on here that I got married in any case), it's because I think she might be good for a column I read regularly in a magazine.  I thought her job was pretty interesting (she gets to fly all over the world for a living) so even if the mag I've got in mind isn't keen, the interview will probably end up on here.  I mention the meet up because there are lots of features popping up stressing how lonely social networking can be.  You know the sort of thing; people have 376 'friends' on Facebook but they can't think of a single person to call when they're feeling a bit pissed off or they're on Chatroulette because they've formed an umbilical cord to their laptop and can't get out to the pub.  If you want to read a good blog on how the enjoyable social aspect of work has been removed for one bloke, you could do a lot worse than read Chris Floyd's blog on it here.

As I've never been formally taught how to pitch stories (does that happen?) and I was getting frustrated at not having placed a story that I had in mind, I went on Susan Grossman's 'Pitching to Editors' course.  If you've googled those keywords and you've ended up here, you're basically wanting to know if it's worth the money.  It is.  Susan breaks pitching down into a few very simple rules, you're left with a template for future pitches and her energy and enthusiasm is infectious.  Plus it's likely that she'll be holding the course at RIBA, which is a beautiful building that you've probably never been into (unless you're an architect).

Lastly, I'm ending the year with a bang.  The commission that I mentioned in an earlier post is out now, in Square Mile magazine.  Not only that, but it was their cover feature.  Ideally I wouldn't be defending fat cats in print but the truth is I enjoyed the challenge of writing about someone whom I knew nothing about when I took the commission.  Proved to myself that I could do it.  Lastly and for no good reason you should check out the wonderful, Burial produced 'Night Air' by Jamie Woon.  I'm hoping if I it gets into your head, it'll come out of mine.