Week 3

A far wiser person than myself, I think it was my father, once said that there are three major components to just about everything in life; hard work, talent and a slice of luck. In this last week, luck has dangled a rope and hopefully through hard work and a bit of talent, I’ll be able to climb it.

I’ve previously stated that I wanted to try my luck with the Bath Chronicle, and having bought a copy I opened the front page to find the masthead. Over the past week or so I’ve been mulling over a few ideas and I wanted to pitch one in particular, about a fairly new website called Freecycle, to the assistant editor. I looked through a list of departments and phone numbers and decided that the best desk to call would be the features desk. Pen in hand I dialled the number; the conversation went something like this:

Features Editor: Hello, Bath Chronicle
Me: Hi there, am I talking to the features editor ?
F.E: You certainly are
Me: Hi there, my name’s Jake Tupman and I’m a freelance writer, I was just wondering if you accept freelance submissions?
F.E: What kind of thing do you have in mind?
Me: Well I’m writing an article about a relatively new website called Freecycle......
F.E: Yes I’ve heard of Freecycle, you’ve got the wrong desk, you need to write to ................. at the news desk, here’s his email address.
Me: Thanks.

(At this point he’s about to put the phone down)

Me: Oh excuse me; I don’t suppose there’s anything that you need doing in the features department? I live in Bath and I’m interested in writing for the Chronicle in any capacity.

(Silence for a moment)

F.E: Well we are looking for someone to review some amateur drama, it’s not the most glamorous job but you’ll get free tickets and twenty quid for each review; assuming you like us and we like you.
Me: That would be brilliant, I’ve studied Drama and I love going to the theatre.
F.E: OK then, send me an email with your name and contact details and we’ll sort something out.
Me: Brilliant.

(He gives me his name and contact details and says goodbye.)

Needless to say, immediately I put the phone down I sent him all my contact details.

A crack in the door to the publishing world; I’m just glad I carried on asking him questions instead of letting him put the phone down. Perseverance pays off. Now all I’ve got to do is wait for an opportunity; and then write a review. How difficult can it be?

Task 2

Take out your Writers and Artists yearbook and begin to desecrate it. I use different coloured highlighters and post its; you might have your own method. What you want to do is identify magazines/journals for the subjects on your list. Keep your journal open while you do this, and make notations about how it feels to think about submitting work to the various possibilities (i.e. the thought of emailing the Guardian makes me want to hide under the bed for a week).


A Revew of the Exercise


When I opened the Artist’s and Writer’s, and read about how many millions of Newspapers are sold each day, it sent me into a mild state of panic. These are mainstream, industry newspapers which require a journalistic identity and years of experience, therefore a year two Creative Writing student is hardly likely to register on the Richter scale. Small fish in a big pond doesn’t really do it justice; I am a tadpole in the Pacific.

Taking this into acccount, I begun to search out the lesser known newspapers; predominantly publications local to the Bath/Bristol area. Two papers that stood out were the Bristol Evening News and the Sunday Independent (not the same as the Independent on Sunday). The Bristol evening news especially “takes freelance news and articles” or so it says in the A and W Handbook. I was disappointed not to find my local paper, the Bath Chronicle in the handbook but I have bought a copy and shall pursue it as my first avenue into the world of freelance journalism.

It’s not just the Newspapers; the magazines too are a daunting prospect. Although I’ve thought of a few hatchling ideas for features, it is difficult to see how a magazine like say, Conde Nast, could possibly be interested a few random travel stories. I think it’s fair to say that any massive publication is, for the moment, a pipe dream.

Having said that, I was excited to find such a diverse list of publications; aside from your major ‘shelf’ magazines that you find in most newsagents, there’s a whole underground network of publications which focus on different aspects of writing. There are magazines for short stories, poetry, real life features, erotic fiction. The list goes on. At this early stage in the publishing process, I didn’t want to narrow my possibilities and so I found myself highlighting magazines as diverse as Dog World and Erotic Review. Why not? I’ve kept dogs my whole life and I’m sure I could write as decent piece of erotic fiction as the next man. These magazines might not be as socially acceptable as Wanderlust and Empire but I’m just not that discriminative. If writing a piece of erotic fiction is the first step on the achingly tall ladder of the publishing world, then so be it.

Although the whole ‘getting (I hate that word) published’ thing still seems very daunting, looking through the A and W Handbook is encouraging. When I first started this module I was thinking only of feature writing, but now I’m looking forward to sending off poems and short stories as well as articles.

The next step is to write down some ideas and start thinking about potential articles. I’ve already written to Lucy English to ask for guidelines on getting (I hate that word) performance poetry published and I’ve submitted an idea to the Weekly News. We wait with baited breath and crossed fingers.




List of Potential Newspapers and Magazines

General/Features Fiction/Poetry Reviews Travel
Bristol Evening Post Aesthetica Apollo Conde Nast
Bath Chronicle Agenda Empire Traveller
Sunday Independent Ambit Radio Times Wander Lust
Aesthetica Best Total Film
Acumen Library Erotic Review Venue
Ambit Granta
Antiques HQ Poetry
Apollo Literary Review
Big Issue London Magazine
Big Issue South West Men Only
Bizarre New Writer
Folio Other Poetry
Four-Four-Two Outposts Poetry
Granta Poetry London
Hot Press Poetry Review
Maxim Readers Digest
Mayfair Rialto
New Humanist A Shop - Poetry
Prospect Stand
Shoot Starburst
Weekly News Take a Break

Task 1

Task 1

For your first task, I'm going to ask you to make a long list of things about which you are qualified to write. (You won't believe you are qualified to write about them, at first, but don't worry about that right now. Just go on blind trust, that's the best way to get through these first few weeks!!!). Then, I'm going to ask you to find a magazine about something from that long list.

Response to the Exercise:

This was an interesting activity for sure. It makes your whole life look a little thin on the ground, after all a three page list isn’t much for twenty five years but nevertheless it got the creative juices flowing. In fact, I was bowled over by the monumental amount of nostalgic memories that crammed their way back into my mind, a symphony for the senses. I can taste that vomit inducing vodka red bull bucket on a beach in Thailand, I can feel the swipe of a newspaper after trying to sell charity to a hobo in Liverpool and I can see the tribal leader of the Vedda, with his beard, sarong and axe slung over his shoulder. So, there are plenty of experiences to share, plenty of stories I look forward to getting (I hate that word) down on paper, the only question is, who’ll have them?

Towards Publication
Week 1: Beginning Monday 29th September

1. Every Place I’ve Lived:

London:
Kirkstall Road
Somerset:
Westcombe
Redlynch
Cardiff:
University Hall
Cogan Terrace
Thailand:
Chiang Rai
Korat
Roi Et
Bath:
Caledonian Road
Rooksbridge Walk

2. Every Place I’ve Worked

Hollingsbury’s Farm – Oddjobs
Montgomerie’s Farm – Potato Picking
Natural Selection – Warehouse Clearout
McDonalds – General Staff
Anglian Home Improvements – Cold Caller
Creation Nightclub – Barman
Angeloni Expeditions – Expedition Documenter
Media Kids – Recruiter
Dragonfly – Coordinator
Stree Suksaa School – English Teacher
Dialogue Direct - Fundraiser
Bath Spa University - Ambassador
International House – Activity Leader
Herschel Museum – Steward

3. Cultural Interests:

Music:
Old Rock
Hip Hop
Reggae
Indie
Folk

Favourite Bands:
Matisyahu
Blue Scholars
Pink Floyd
Everlast
The Who
Guns n Roses
Bob Marley
Dire Straits

Film:
Action
Drama
Fantasy
Epic
Black Comedy
Offbeat

Favourite Films:
Gladiator
H.O.F Daggers
Big Lebowski
City Of God
Amelie
Casino
Forest Gump
Platoon

Books:
Epic
Offbeat
Romance
Different

Favourite Books:
Exodus
Love in the time of Cholera
100 years of Solitude
Time Travellers Wife
The Book Thief
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
God of Small Things
The Alchemist
Perfume

4. Things I’m Good at:

Teaching, Meeting and chatting to people, English Camps, Thai, Selling, Talking, Creative Writing, Poole, Swimming, Tennis, Darts, Squash, Arguing, Performance Poetry, Traveling, Interviewing

5. Interesting People I’ve Met

Mel Smith
Jon Plowman
Cameron McIntosh
Dominic Rouse
Jamie Reid
Prince Harry

6. Subjects I’ve Studied

Art, English Literature, English Language, Maths, French, Spanish, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, History, R.E, Technology, Music, Communications, Creative Writing, Meditation, Recorder,

7. People/Animals I’ve been Responsible for

My students when I was a teacher,
Children I’ve babysat,
I kept snakes when I was a child,
The family dogs,

8. Places I’ve spent more than 2 Weeks

U.K:
Manchester
Bradford
Liverpool
Leeds
London
Ipswich
Cornwall
Scotland

France:
Chateau Tennesseau
Uzes
Various Ski Resorts

Spain:
Barcelona

Greece:
Corfu
Paxos
Zakinthos

Thailand:
Chiang Rai
Chainat
Maha Sarakham
Ubon Ratchatani
Chayaphum
Nakon Phanom
Phang Nga
Koh Phang Ngan
Koh Samet
Koh Chang

Rest of the World:
Laos
Cambodia
Sri Lanka
South Korea