Yes, a terrible pun that has been used many times before… but it’s very accurate. This month (March 2018) in Encore magazine I did have two articles, on two different topics:
- The Marmalade Dog game convention at Western Michigan University
- Slot car racing at the Gilmore Car Museum
They’re both “nerdy” hobbies, that’s true, but that’s also something I focus on when writing for Encore (just recently I wrote about cosplay, and computer games, tabletop games and much more in the past). So it stands to reason that I’d write about them.
Actually writing the articles is one part of the process, but it’s actually toward the end of everything that needs to be done.
The Pitch
When people find out I write magazine articles, they ask if I have to come up with the ideas (and if so, how do I come up with them?). The answer is “sometimes, and other times they’re presented to me.” For this month’s articles it was one of each. I’ve attended the Marmalade Dog several times in the past — I’m a fan of tabletop games, and it’s very nearby — so I thought a profile on the convention would be a good compliment to the other “nerdy” articles I’ve written about before. Slot cars was offered to me by my editor, but I readily agreed to write it, since learning about obscure little hobbies is pretty fun for me.
The Interviews
This is the real part of reporting, even feature reporting like I’m doing here: talking to people. Pick up the phone, send an email, ask around about who to talk to in order to learn more. The internet has been the perfect tool for this; when I was starting out as a journalist, there were BBS and primitive sites like Prodigy, but they were definitely not the first place you went for information. Now, a quick web search turns up an email address or a phone number (note: if you want people to reach you, don’t require them to fill out a contact form, give them options so they can better explain what they want, instead of cramming it into your little form).
Figure out what you want to ask about first. I ask myself what a reader would want to know and ask that; even if I already know the answer, it’s good to hear it from an expert’s mouth (plus, I could be wrong). People are also protective of their time, and if you can’t explain the story you want to write, they’ll feel they’re wasting their time talking to you.
Ask questions that can’t be answered with a “yes” or “no.” You can’t write an article if you don’t have enough material to work with, after all. Also ask for statistics (number of participants, amount of money spent, length of time devoted to the project, etc.). Just like on a resume, everyone appreciates seeing concrete figures; it’s something to hold on to.
That’s where I start when I’m working on an article.