Practice, Practice, Practice

This man has been hitting the keys HARD

If you read sites about or devoted to writing, they all say that you've got to practice.  As I've been scratching around for a new years resolution, practice is mine.  There's been a month between this blog post and the last.  That doesn't feel good enough, especially when I know that people are returning again and again to read the blog (Blogger stats back this up).  So from now on Sunday night is blog night.    If you're thinking of writing for a living, it's a good idea to practice.  I once wrote the first six chapters of a book by making sure I had an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening in front of a laptop.  Rules were, it didn't matter how many words I got down (but weirdly, there is something about sitting in front of a keyboard that will eventually produce something) and I could only eat something once the hour's work was done.  The carrot was literally being dangled. 

I need to practice because, to 'fess up, I've got little interest in writing presently.  I'm too comfortable.  The day job I took on the picture desk at the Mail, justifying to myself that it would only be for a year or so as I had a wedding to pay for, has come to be a regular 9-5.  I'm still freelance so there's zero job security but I have to admit, the regular paychecks make things easier for me.  It is stressful to be in debt and it's certainly nice to be able to pay for a wedding.  Not to mention going to the pub on a Friday, standing a few rounds and getting some grub because there's naff all in the fridge and you can't be arsed to cook after a long week.  In the current climate you feel lucky to even have a regular job.  Despite the money, the routine of the work makes life feel a bit dull.  I do the same walk to work every day, into the same office, with the same people and every week we put together a magazine that is more or less the same.

Which should, hopefully, prove motivation enough to get back to the writing.  There are not many jobs where you can work on a different subject every day, but journalism is one.   There is a plan of sorts and I'm going through the motions of that.  Even though I don't consider myself superstitious, I don't want to write it down here out of FEAR.  My fear is that if it doesn't work out, I'll look like a mug.  But equally, what is the point in caring what other people think?  And should we be afraid to fail anyway?  I think I've just given myself some subjects for the next blog post.  See, the practice is proving productive already.  See you next week.

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.

140 Characters

I've written before about Chris Floyd's '140 Characters' but that was before it had that title.  Previously it was his 'Portwit' project.  Chris social life had shrunk as the technological advances in his profession progressed.  Before he knew it, he was conversing more with people on Twitter than with some of his oldest friends.  So he set out to meet them, photograph them and find out what they thought of Twitter. 

The number of subjects soon racked up and an obvious number to stop at cropped up.  It was a brilliant idea that seems to have reinvigorated Chris.  It also inspired me to start thinking about how friendships were changing - pretty sure I've banged on about it on here before.  I was also inspired to tell the story of the 140 and it ended up being my first entry for the Huffington Post here.

The shot on the right is of Miranda Sawyer, one of the best writers around.  If you want something brilliant to read, particularly if you ever wondered what existence is all about,  you should find something thought provoking here.

What Kind of Writer Should You Be?

The answer to this is, of course, whatever kind of writer you want to be.  When I started, I didn't really have much interest in news.  I looked at headlines, without thinking about them very much and then decided I wasn't interested.  Take today's BBC home page for example.  'Armed guards to protect UK ships'.  Ok, there are pirates off the coast of Mogadishu - I know that and I don't care.  Let people wealthy enough to own yachts get mugged.  Trade ships?  What do I care if the pirates put a dent in some company's profits?  'Syrian President warns off Western intervention'.  Seems fair enough.  Would England like it if Syria meddled in their home affairs?

Behind the soundbite headlines, there are of course, people.  Who knows even where to start with Somalia?  Perhaps at Wikipedia, which tells you that it has no central government, is characterized as 'a failed state and is one of the most poorest and violent countries in the world.'  Imagine what it's like to live there - it must be absolutely desperate.  So then you start thinking about the people behind the headlines and you realise that maybe you are interested, out of sympathy for those less well off than yourself.  It also serves to bring welcome perspective to your own life.  We all think about how our lives could be better, but it's rarer that we consider how they could be worse.

I only wanted to write about the things I was interested in.  Travel, food, music, cycling...I could go on but basically, the things that make me happy.  I'm not sure I have the courage or the skill to report on subjects that need bringing to the wider attention of the world.  However, I'm grateful that those journalists are out there and I've even been privileged to meet one or two of them.  I recently got an email from a photojournalist called Robin Hammond that left me feeling humbled and in truth, a little ashamed of my own writing efforts.  Robin took the picture you're looking at on this page, of a mentally ill Somali man chained to his bed.  If you've read this far, I urge you to take 6 minutes out of your day to watch his film here.  I can't think of many worse forms of existence than being mentally ill in an impoverished country.  Give what you can and help Robin reach his goal.

It's OK to say 'No'

In order to write for a living, you'd better be writing, which is something I haven't been doing a whole lot of recently.  Worse, I've been turning down opportunities to write.  'Why, you doughnut?' you might entirely reasonably ask.  There are two reasons; the first is I don't have the time and the second is that I don't have the interest.  The first reason is the most galling.  Travel writing has scored me some good bylines recently, both in this month's Sunday Times Travel magazine ('Lone Star' about Texas - no weblink because of the Times paywall) and also at MailOnline.  As a result I've been offered trips to Thailand, North Carolina and Texas recently but haven't been able to do them as keeping the 9-5 (and it's oh so important regular money) has had to take priority.  I can see a time when I can give that up (when I've paid for a wedding for one), but it ain't now.

I learned something about myself with the second reason.  About a year ago I would have taken any writing opportunity, so keen was I to garner bylines and contacts.  What I've learned is it doesn't do anybody any favours if you say yes to something that you don't have any interest in.  The first time it happened to me, I was so flattered that someone had wanted me (ME!) to write something for them, I said yes right away.  It was the blog for Square Mile .  No money in it, just writing something for someone who had a bit of faith in me.  After struggling to write about 400 words for each of them and then leaving a period of about six weeks in which I dreaded an email asking why I hadn't filed the next installment, I bit the bullet and wrote to them explaining why I couldn't continue.  Thankfully, the Editor was very understanding but if I'd have said no in the first place it would have saved all concerned a lot of time.  It's OK to say 'No'.  Probably better to miss out on one byline than have people think you're unreliable.

I really admire people like copy writers and business writers who can be given a project, let's say 'washing machines' and fulfill a brief, making the client happy and getting paid.  If it was me, I'd be sat in front of the laptop, probably having sat in front of one sentence that went something like 'Washing machines are the greatest invention of the 20th Century' for 20 minutes before getting onto Twitter and any number of subsequent websites that all the people I follow had posted links to.  I got into writing because I like to write, but also because I really like writing about all the good, interesting stuff of life: food, travel, movies, theatre, achievers, believers, deceivers...many, many topics.  But the point is that I have to write about stuff that is interesting to me.  Can't do it if my heart's not in it. Life's too short for that.

Reasons to Write - Luxury, Challenge and Freedom

It's happy week here at CIWFAL as my cup has been somewhat overflowing of late.  If you're looking for reasons to write, this is the post for you.  Writing has brought many new experiences (not least interviewing Jazzie B) but the last month has been something of a succession of gifts.  It's been like being courted.  First up there was the press trip to Costa Navarino in Greece for the Daily Mail.  If I hadn't pursued writing, it's unlikely that I'd ever have experienced 5 Star - my room had its own pool for God's sake.  Throw in 7 course tasting menus, picnics under the olive groves and a beach with the clearest water I'd ever seen and it was like all the chips thrown in on the karmic craps table had at last come home to roost.  The cherry on top was getting a commission from the Sunday Times Travel Magazine while I was there.  Not only will the money and byline be useful, but it's interesting to see how different Commissioning Editors work.

Firstly, it was cool how they found me.  The Commissioning Editor, Katie Bowman, contacted the Texas Tourist Board and they mentioned me going last year for Square Mile.  Then she checked out my website - so if you write and you haven't got one, why not?  Katie got in touch having checked out some of my work and the result was me getting the commission.  Getting my original copy sent back with strike throughs and suggestions for tweaks always leaves me wondering if the recipient thinks it was a pile of crap, even thought I'm assured this is pretty normal practice.  Luckily for my ego, Katie was encouraging and flattering in equal measure, which left me very open to her suggestions for improvements.  They made sense and I learnt that a good Editor will help you to up your game and improve your writing.  Not only was the commission a stimulating and challenging experience, it's another new title in my portfolio.  Bonus!

Writing has also brought me a new bike, albeit a loan for two months.   The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea are pushing cycling, maybe because most of the residents hare round in stupidly big 4x4s.  Blue plaque tours were the borough's first attempt at getting the posho's to try two wheels and because I went along to that I got asked if I wanted to be a 'bike hero'.  Disappointingly this did not come with a superhero outfit, not even a blimming cape or mask.  On the plus side, we now have a racing green Brompton (in its folded form) as the new centre piece in our living room. It's the kind of ingenious invention that makes you come over all patriotic in these times when the haters keep going on about Britain not producing anything anymore.  Though she's a bit nervous of London drivers, I'm hoping the Mrs will get the cycling bug so we can traverse the city together.  If the smile on her face as she road tested it around the manor is anything to go by, it won't be long before she's seen the light.

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.