D is for Diaries

Last Episode: We Flirted in the Danger Zone of Local Press Audiences

Since that time we are no nearer to getting published. You haven’t told me of your successes and our letters have been passed over but editors lacking taste and discrimination – never mind, let’s press on.

Press on. *Chuckle*. No? Oh well, please yourselves.

Diaries.

Are they important? Well, I have been keeping one for years now. I tend to write a page each day – sometime longer if it’s been a brilliantly interesting day or the sound of my own voice in my head doesn’t drive me to despair. These days the entries are getting shorter. I don’t, as it were, enter nearly quite as much as I would like.

I suppose as a writer, diary writing does help you do that, cultivate your voice. If you know your voice, it’s easier to slip into personas that are not really you.

But it’s effort, isn’t it? Every day to sit down with a blank piece of paper and fill it with inky daubing. And I have a pile of books gathering dust on a shelf in my office.

I suppose I write in the hope that somebody might want, one day, to use them to dramatise my life…you know ‘Diary of a SuperAddick: The Wilderness Years.

To test what it might be like, I have selected a volume and page, totally at random and here reproduce it for you, slightly edited. What do you think?

Random Diary Entry.

Yes, you’re right. Dostoyevsky it ain’t. I don’t think this is going to get me published in the West Briton.

All this is by way of hedging before the real focus of the blog-entry: news diaries and how to use them. Some news genuinely happens or is a result of investigative journalism. These are called off-diary stories.

So, in that case, what are on-diary stories? Is there such a thing? Can the budding feature writer anticipate what might sell to a newspaper?

In the news room, the diary is an information storage system that journalists input events that might become news or make a story. Readers are also encouraged to submit forthcoming events that might be newsworthy. In this way, news can be anticipated.

I suppose we can help ourselves by doing something similar – look at trends, locate upcoming events and think of story or feature ideas.

Therefore, because I am working locally (and so are you) I will now search for forthcoming events at a local level. I know there’s an election coming and that William and Kate are having a baby, but I don’t think an article about the benefits of breastfeeding will make it past the reader, do you? No, we need traction engines, Cornish coasts and idiot tourists.

So, what’s ON in Cornwall? Or rather, what will BE on?
Drum Roll, Please:

EVENT	OUR ANGLE	FEATURE TO PITCH
Truro Circus Club Weekly classes to develop your circus skills in juggling, clowning and mime.	Q: Are clowns actually funny or is mime entertaining in any way at all? A: No	‘Barman! Make Mime a Clown!’ A humorous feature about mime artists and clowns doing the pub circuit.
Truro Cathedral Spring Event Church services at Truro Cathedral	Q: Should normal church services be called an event, really? A: No. Shameful publicity seeking.	‘Whoops, Vicar, Where’s Me Trousers?’ A humorous feature about parsons, frocks and the danger of scented candles
Luke Bond’s Organ Recitals Organist Luke Bond is playing his organ	Q: Should Luke Bond’s organ be appreciated by a wider audience? A: Of course. It’s fabulous.	‘Shaken Not Stirred – Bond’s Big Organ’ A humorous feature about organs, Luke Bond’s big one and Bond films that feature keyboard instruments.
Truro City Walk A 45 minute walk around Truro’s popular tourist attractions.	Q: 45 minutes – that long? A: Don’t be silly.	‘Truro City Walking: Oh My Soul!’ A humorous feature where we invite Archie Bell and The Drells to body-pop their way around the piazza.

I have to admit that I don’t find these particularly inspiring – but I guess it’s a start.

What I really need now is a sympathetic professional to cast his or her eye over the proposals and tell me if any have legs or stick-ability.

We’ve been coming to this – where we actually need to talk to somebody who actually knows their onions. So next time we’ll conjure up a list of questions and see if we can get an interview.

Wonderful Words!
Pitch	What the writer attempts to sell, the idea, the take on something. Needs to be pithy and short!
Feature	A reasonable long piece devoted to a particular topic; tends to be inspired by a current or recent news story.
Off-Diary (story)	Some spontaneous news or an article inspired by investigative journalism

The Letter Challenge

Another way of getting published in the press is, of course, to write to their letters page. I challenge you to write, once a week, to see how long it takes. Your letter must come in at 100 words. Please send successful letters to the Blog where I will publish the best ones.

For my part, I shall use suggestions from my two year old Grandson, Harley. This week he has mostly been worried about ants.

As we read, so we learn J

This Week: Ants in the Garden

Dear Editor,

Until recently, I have always been a fan of ants. Especially Adam and the Ants or Adam Ant as he later called himself.

However, the other day I was eating my ice lolly in the garden when a huge flying ant collided thoughtlessly with it. This rendered my Sky Ray inedible. Furthermore, I was so alarmed I then dropped it in a muddy puddle rendering it even more inedible.

Can’t the authorities do anything about menaces like these? One day it’s ants, then it’s flies and don’t get me started on wasps. Come on you boffins, protect the ice cream eating public against flying vermin now!

Yours sincerely,

I is for Issues in Issues

‘Greetings and Unsolicitations!’

Thanks for dropping in.

Have you ever been published in the press? No? Well neither have I. The aim of this blog is to change that and share my experiences with you along the way.

If you like, you can try it with me and tell me how you are getting on.

So, it’s publish or be damned on here. Step by step we will try our hardest, our damndest, to understand it all, learn it all and write ourselves into the papers.

So I’ll make a promise. If I come across something I don’t understand or I think needs some explanation, I’ll tell it all on here. You can watch my struggles and then try it for yourself.

And you’ll probably be better at it than me.

I is for Issues in Issues

Last Episode

Last time we thought about Audience. Have a look if you like.

Today we’ve skipped from letter A to letter I.

It should be ‘B is for…something’, but we go to I.  A to I: what connotations are conjured?

• A1 – London to Edinburgh, The Great North Road.
• Artificial Intelligence, the Spielberg film.
• Artificial Insemination – not really a topic for the breakfast table.

I should delete the above and start again but it is really difficult to ‘kill your darlings’.

Kill Your Darlings: This is a piece of advice attributed to either Ginsberg or Faulkner, who stated that in order to write well, no matter how much it hurts you, you should destroy your most precious phrases for the greater good of the piece.

Applies to writing copy for newspapers of course – the editor will detest lyricism. Also, blogs. By now, you’ve probably switched me off.

Damn, damn, damn.

TipTop: Don’t overuse exclamation marks in writing. Not approved of.

This Episode

Today we are going to look through the pages of West Briton. This is to see what issues are covered in the…issue. Last week’s Easter Special, in fact. This means it has the television listings included in it.

Last time out we thought that our writing needed to be targeting adults; male and female equally; aged15 – 54; skewed towards social class professional and managerial. By exploring the content we can see whether this is true, or not. It is not particularly scientific, I admit that, but worth a try. Also we might get a feel for the in house style of the publication.

So let’s have a flick to see what I can share with you. I’m not here to criticise…I’m here to comment objectively:

Well the typeface is an unfriendly serif font; not too easy on the eye at my age. Sorry, that was a judgement and not at all objective. Try again, Pearce.

Front Page

Headline: ‘No More Tea, Vicar’

Subhead: ‘Tea room owners call time after Diocese’s £20,000 request to lift alcohol ban.’

Byline: Caroline Chick

Content: Some people who own a tea room are closing it because they can’t sell alcohol due to archaic church rules. Well the angle here is definitely designed to appeal to locals, the word ‘diocese’ is unexplained and presupposes understanding, the church is involved….not exactly exciting, though. Great seasonal gag, however: by Caroline ‘Chick’. That’s an Easter joke, isn’t it? Chuckle.

It isn’t? Oh dear. Not doing very well here at all. This morning we are stopping and starting more frequently than a prime time episode of ‘The X Factor’.

Abandon ship and try a different method. I’ll open five pages at random and use the table below to summarise the findings.

Title	Peg	Content	Angle	Comment
‘Put nature at the heart of this year’s national poll’	General Election	Use debate and votes in run up to election to raise profile of conservation	Importance of green policies in Cornwall	Simple piece with obvious bias towards green issues. Will appeal to local adults with disposable income. Information about support and website given.
‘Duncan Smith: Cornwall has cause to thank Conservatives’	General Election	Visit of Ian Duncan Smith to Redruth area	Conservatives have boosted local economy through business policies	Dull piece about visit of Tory to factory. Bias is obvious but it is attributed to IDS. However, little in the way of balance?
‘Motorist fuming as car locked in to multi-storey’	None, really.	Wadebridge man has to pay £30 pounds to have car released from locked car park.	New car parking locking regime’s inadequate notices.	More like it! Lots going on here – the man is from Wadebridge, does not understand Truro ways. He’s an ‘out-of-towner’. There’s a plug for the Truro Theatre (HFC). Also a pop at the council.
‘Trelawny Shout on St Piran’s Day raises £8000’	St Piran’s Day	People in pubs sing the Cornish anthem on St Piran’s Day to raise money.	Cornish raising money for Cornwall	Patriotic story shows how Cornish care for Cornwall and can help. Includes drinkers in ‘London and Ireland’. The success of raising eight grand will mean it now becomes a national event.
‘Planet Poldark is fascinating – but not Cornwall as we know it’	New Poldark on TV (Letter to Editor)	Reader review of BBC’s Poldark	TV version of Cornwall is for tourists only; locals know better.	The writer of this pretentious stuff should learn to ‘kill his darlings’. Or it is a mockery. You must read it and judge for yourself J http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-37815899.html

There we have it. Five totally random selections from the news in the paper. I avoided the sport / entertainment and listings sections.

What have we got?

It’s stating the obvious, but we’re looking for features that highlight Cornwall, particularly Truro. The angles suggest a bias towards celebrating the uniqueness of the Cornish culture. Nothing particularly political or controversial in these stories but there wasn’t much counterweight to the IDS story. The Green story was written by a conservation spokesperson. The copy is written for adults, local people but there are family interest stories too. It’s just that the randomizer didn’t chance on these.

Conclusion

As we might guess, we’re probably writing for middle to top income Cornish people of both genders: nothing serious, nothing dangerous (Vorg).

Next Time

I don’t know. We could explore the idea of a news diary or perhaps the construction of a feature. Exciting, isn’t it?

Wonderful Words!
Peg	The event that inspires the news story
Angle	The writer’s take or slant on the story
(In) House Style	The approved style for a particular publication. Guidelines for writers.
Byline	The writer of the story’s name

The Letter Challenge

Another way of getting published in the press is, of course, to write to their letters page. I challenge you to write, once a week, to see how long it takes. Your letter must come in at 100 words. Please send successful letters to the Blog where I will publish the best ones.

For my part, I shall use suggestions from my two year old Grandson, Harley.

As we read, so we learn J

This Week: Easter Chocolate

Dear Editor,

I was extremely alarmed and irritated to discover that chocolate Easter eggs are on sale at half price or less in local Truro supermarkets.

At best this is irresponsible retailing, at worst an assault on Cornish teeth.

We here in Cornwall should protect our teeth at all costs. And believe me, it does cost a lot to visit the dentist these days. We would save money by eating less eggs and preventing tooth decay.

I remember when Cornish dentists were free. Some might say it’s a disgrace that toothless London politicians impose these tooth taxes on the South West.

Say no to Easter chocolate and hollow teeth!

Yours sincerely,

A is for AUDIENCE

‘Greetings and Unsolicitations!’

Thanks for dropping in.

Have you ever been published in the press? No? Well neither have I. The aim of this blog is to change that and share my experiences along the way.

If you like, you can try it with me and tell me how you are getting on.

So, it’s publish or be damned on here. Step by step we will try our hardest, our damndest, to understand it all, learn it all and write ourselves into the papers.

So I’ll make a promise. If I come across something I don’t understand or I think needs some explanation, I’ll tell it all on here. You can watch my struggles and then try it for yourself.

And you’ll probably be better at it than me.

A is for Audiences

What They?

Audience is all about who receives, reads and watches stuff.

Example: Top Gear

So – someone watches ‘Top Gear’ let’s say. This makes them the audience of that show.

But there is a little more to it.

I cannot say why anyone would want to watch ‘Top Gear’.  This is because I think it is awful. Three aging blokes posturing and preening in front of an audience they call Petrol-Freaks or Dead-Heads or something. To me it is hot air and dead air.

But…that is because:

I am male, 52, hate F1 and watch tennis. This makes me not the target demographic of ‘Top Gear’. The programme makers do not construct it for me. Therefore, I hate it.

And they don’t give a thrupenny ha’penny fig roll that I hate it, you see? Because millions love it, it sells around the world and rakes in a fortune.

Well that was before Clarkson punched his producer in the eye because he couldn’t have a hot cup-o-soup.

Why is this Important?

Well, when writing, in my case for the local newspaper, we need to have an idea of who reads it so that our writing could appeal to that audience. And, of course, the editor – who knows already who they are that buys it and what they like.

Andy Maslen: ‘Write To Sell’ on getting to know your readers:

“You have to think your way into their head. And their heart. What drives them? What motivates them? What excites them? These are the things you have to know before you start writing.”

How Do You Find Out?

God knows. You could:

• Stand around in the newsagents for an hour watching who buys it
• Stand around in Sainsbury (other retailers are available)
• Look in overflowing recycling bags on a Thursday
• Ask the editor
• Go online and see if there is any data.

The last one doesn’t sound like it takes much effort. I’ll try that.

Google Search 1: ‘Who Reads the West Briton?’ 

Returned: A load of rubbish about fire engines, Camborne police and ‘low blow for blues’.

Google Search 2: ‘West Briton Readership’

Returned: More Like it! Turned up trumps! ‘Jic-In-A-Box: We Know Who Reads What.’ What you are looking for is the ‘JICREG Data’.

So I now know that roughly speaking I need to appeal to:

Adults; male and female equally; aged15 – 54; skewed towards social class professional and managerial. My writing needs to be pitched to appeal to those groups.

Does this help? Well, possibly. I think next time I'll just buy a copy to see just what issues are covered in the issues.

And you? Come back soon and do, please, share your experiences.

Wonderful Words!
Audience	Those who read or consume the product. They are broken down into social class. Gender and age is also important.
Demographic	This relates to the make up of a population. It is slang but you can say, ‘this appeals to a younger demographic’, for example.
Target Market	That which a publication tries to get to read / consume product

Harley's Letter Challenge

Another way of getting published in the press is, of course, to write to their letters page. Harley and I challenge you to write, once a week, to see how long it takes. Your letter must come in at 100 words. Please send successful letters to the Blog where I will publish the best ones.

For my part, I shall use suggestions from my two year old Grandson, Harley.

This Week: Thomas the Tank Engine.

Dear Editor,

While recently playing trains with my Grandson, he asked me when Thomas the Tank Engine might visit Cornwall.

I was surprised and saddened to learn that, to the best of my knowledge, no visit has been planned by the council or those in charge of tourism.

I found out that a Thomas Theme Park was up and running near Birmingham. Surely it might it be possible for interested parties to contact this attraction and arrange a visit? I’m sure that Thomas on the Piazza in Truro would be a wonderful draw, good for tourism and stimulate much interest in steam engines generally.

Full Steam Ahead for the Thomas Visit!

Yours sincerely,