Tag: London School of Journalism

First Feedback

I’m very happy with my first feedback.

Last week I wrote about how I’d finally got round to starting my Freelance and Travel Writing Course with the London School of Journalism. Yesterday I received the first feedback from my tutor. There wasn’t a lot (it would have been a HUGE blow to my confidence if he’d obliterated my assignments with red pen!), but what there was, was really positive. He even said my English skills were exemplary. Exemplary! Such a nice word; sort of rolls off the tongue. Hopefully, I’ll be hearing it a lot more over the coming months.


He has provided me with a list of recommended reading. I got straight onto Amazon and, as some of the books were extremely cheap, I have them winging their way to me as we speak.


I’ve downloaded my second lesson and have already started working on it. If I keep up this level of enthusiasm, I’ll have to re-assess my previous estimate of 45 years being the amount of time I’ll need to complete the course!

Writing course

I’ve finally completed the first lesson on my writing course. It only took me 3 years!

About 3 years ago I signed up for a online course with the London School of Journalism. I’d been recommended the course by a friend and also noted that other writers I follow had mentioned doing courses with them. 

The course I signed up for is Freelance and Travel Writing. Each unit has a chunk of reading and then a series of writing tasks that I complete at my own pace, emailing the finished tasks to my assigned tutor when I’m ready.

The reading for lesson one is basically background on journalism: history of journalism and printing, types of journalism, types of publication. The first of the four assignment tasks was to write a personal statement including prescribed criteria and with a strict wordcount. For the second task, I had to detail the journalistic equipment and resources I have (computer, camera, books, etc) and my relevant abilities e.g. my computer skills, level of English and knowledge of other languages. Thirdly, I had to provide written advice for someone who wants to be a freelance writer, and finally I had to submit a ‘character study’ of a magazine of my choice and a ‘pen portrait’ of the type reader it is marketed to. Each of the assignments has a maximum number of words allowed. 

On several occasions over the last few years, I’ve sat down and attempted these tasks. I’ve ummed and ahhed, written a bit, scribbled it out, written it again, scribbled it out again, given up. This isn’t because the tasks are difficult, but, I realise now, because my head wasn’t in the right place. It was far too full of lesson planning, marking, meetings, extra-curricular activities, union work, Duke of Edinburgh Award training, finding time for family, finding time to go to the dentist or renew my car insurance. There was no room in my head for something that seemed frivolous, a mere hobby. Even though it was something I really wanted to do. Fortunately, when I enrolled for the course I ensured it was one with no deadlines as, even then, I knew I’d struggle with time constraints. I just didn’t realise how much I’d struggle.

Finally, my head is clearing. I’m feeling like I’m getting to the top of the mountainous mess of my life and the view is good. I can see where I’ve been, where I am and where I want to go next. It was with this clear head I finally sat down to look at the assignments again and this time I could see exactly how I wanted to complete them. I had to spend a lot of time re-writing to get the wordcounts down to the required maximums and this meant corrupting some sentences I’d really like to have kept as they were, but at no point did I feel as though I was floundering. I knew I could do it. I even enjoyed doing it. 

This morning I checked the submission info, attached my work to an email and hit send. It felt good. As well as adhering to the set criteria for the tasks, I’ve tried to write in a way that demonstrates my writing style and is ‘journalistic’ rather than just a list of information. I’ll know if this was the right thing to do when I get my feedback.

As there are a total of 15 units and it’s taken me 3 years to complete the first one, if I continue at this pace it will take me 45 years to finish the course. By then I’ll be aged, erm, er … well, I hope I’ll still be alive. 

Lots going on

I seem to have an awful lot of exciting things going on at the moment.

There seems to be so much happening at the moment. We’re on day 9 of the year and already I feel that this is going to be a good year in which I’m going to achieve lots.

I signed up for the travel writing course with the London School of Journalism on Saturday night and by Sunday I had my first two lessons emailed to me. I really wasn’t expecting it to be that quick! Today I’ve had another email from them with a lot more information. I’ve skimmed through the two lessons to get an idea of what’s expected of me so I can start thinking about them. I’ll wait until the weekend to go through them properly though.

Still on the topic of writing, yesterday I was reading Wanderlust magazine and found a short book review that had been submitted by a reader. This is a regular column where readers can submit a review of a ‘must read book’ that they’ve ‘read on location’. There’s no payment involved, but it seems like a good way to start getting myself into print.

I made a quick study of the style of the already published article and then wrote one in a similar style and emailed it off to the magazine. I also used a few of the tips I’d picked up from my skim-reading of the two writing course lessons I’ve received to make the layout and presentation seem a bit more professional. I’ve already got a reply from ‘Tom’ thanking me and saying he’s looking forward to reading it. Reading what? My review? Or the book itself because he likes my review? Does this mean I’m going to be published? It’s all a bit ambiguous. But if I am published then that’s a good start on my 2012 twelve list.

On a completely different topic, today was my first day back at school and I was already discussing half-term plans with a colleague. We got onto summer holiday plans and she mentioned she has booked to go to Womad with a group of girlfriends. I had no plans to go to Womad over the next few years because it falls in the summer holidays when I’d rather be away somewhere for a month or more. I want to go to Womad, but thought it could wait a while. However, when my colleague mentioned it and then invited me along it seemed like fate. Another example of how keeping a list and focussing on the things I want to achieve helps to make them happen. So I’ve said I’ll go. It should be fun to be with a group of people as well.

I’ve just been online to book a ticket, but it’s all a bit confusing. I need to check with her tomorrow which type of ticket she’s got and for which days, then I can get mine booked. I’ll still have time to go to Scotland afterwards (or Japan if the free tickets thing happens), and I can explore Wiltshire or Somerset for a few days before the festival starts.

I’ve got the floatation tank booked in London for half-term and today they’ve emailed me to confirm two sessions. I’ve mailed back to correct it to one session! I’ve also got a ticket for the Hajj exhibition at the British Museum over half-term. During the rest of my time in London the friend I’m staying with suggested meeting up at lunch time one day to go to Jamie Oliver’s restaurant Fifteen. If we can’t get in there then we may go to the Ritz for afternoon tea instead. I’d like to go to Jamie’s restaurant, but the afternoon tea at the Ritz would mean another challenge ticked off. Choices, choices …

Whilst I was planning my half-term and thinking about the things I can achieve I thought I might as well check out England fixtures at Wembley. I got excited when I realised England are playing Holland on February 29th, until I realised that this is the week after half-term. I thought about trying to get down for the game, but I really don’t think I’d make it on time. I’ve looked at other fixtures and there’s a Belgium game I could go to in June. It’s on a Saturday, so the travelling time wouldn’t be a problem. I’d rather go to the Holland game, as The Netherlands is a country I go to most years and feel a bit of a connection to. Also, the only other game I’ve ever been to at Wembley was an international schoolboys’ game when I was at school myself. This game was England vs Holland, and so it seemed kind of meant to be that the game I see now should be England vs Holland. Except it’s not meant to be. Oh well, can’t have everything.

To apply for tickets for an England game I need a FAN (FA number). I’ve applied for one and now have it ready for when the tickets for the Belgium game go on sale. I’ll have to keep monitoring the FA’s site to make sure I do get a ticket.

I still have quite a few posts about Iceland in the draft stage as well which I’m trying to get finished, but now I’m getting distracted by all these other things. I’m certainly not complaining about having lots of good things going on in my life though!

Becoming a Writer

Making decisions about a writing course.

I’ve always liked the idea of being a writer – work when and where you want to, write about things you’re interested in, get to do things that other people don’t, and so on. However, I realise that I might not like the reality as much as I like the idea. Having constant deadlines, having to write in a way an editor wants me to rather than the way I want to, trying to sell my work, and so on. But unless I try I’ll never know. A few years ago I started to think more seriously about this and managed to get paid £100 for a 200 word article I wrote for the Times Educational Supplement. Then life got incredibly busy again and I never got round to writing anything else. I’ve always kept travel diaries, but haven’t really written anything else. So if I do get seriously involved in writing I think it would have to be travel writing in some form or other (I would include outdoor activity type writing in with this though).

Continue reading “Becoming a Writer”