5 Ways to Jumpstart Your Freelance Writing Career While in College

A former journalism profressor and now friend recently asked me to speak to her writing for magazines and ezines class about becoming a freelance writer. I made up a hand-out for the students incase they did not remember what I said-- it was a Monday morning.

I introduced five ideas that worked for me-- here they are:

1. Become a Stringer- Cover Local Meetings
2. Other Local Daily Paper Opportunities
3. Other Local Publications: Think Alternative!
4. Go Niche, Regional or Trade- Smaller Publications = Bigger Chance in Magazines
5. Writing for the Web

Becoming a Stringer: GOOD FOR FUTURE HARD NEWS WRITERS

I got my start in daily papers by covering local municipal and school board meetings for a daily paper in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. The Greater Wilkes-Barre area is unique in that it has two local papers. What this means is that both papers want to be everywhere-they are in competition for the best coverage. This is impossible without a slew of correspondents that can be in the 70+ municipalities in Luzerne County alone. Both papers are in need of reliable people to cover meetings, which usually happen Monday-Thursday starting around 7 p.m. Meetings last anywhere from 15 minutes to three hours and stories have to be filed that same evening. Pay varies from paper to paper, meeting to meeting. Note: Meetings can be boring. But, they get you lots of clips! If you want to be in the news side of papers, this is a GREAT start. Plus, you learn a lot about local government.

Other Local Daily Paper Opps: GOOD FOR FUTURE FEATURES WRITERS