The one where I get published

Earlier this month, I officially saw my name in print in a magazine. Yes I am now published. It probably sounds wanky to be dedicating a whole post to this but I had been thinking about this over the past 12 months or so and it’s nice to see it kick-starting in this manner. I was fortunate. Someone from the Facebook Group I’m part of {following my completion of the Australian Writer’s Centre Newspaper & Magazine Writing Course} mentioned a couple of months ago that Go Camping Australia were looking for writers for an article about weekend getaways from Sydney. Given my love for camping, hiking and the outdoors in general, I thought this would be a great way to start and I emailed the editor with an idea for a camping trip I was about to go to in August. She liked it and asked me to go ahead with it.

Unfortunately, I didn’t end up going on that trip after all because I was sick that week in August. Instead, I wrote about one of my previous trips and sent it across. However, I should have figured that the place I’d written about would be popular and turned out, someone else had already written about it. So then, I offered to write about Jervis Bay. I have been down there a few times for camping and day hikes and have loved it. The editor gave me the nod for that so I wrote a quick article and sent photos I’d taken during my trips and well, waited.

She was happy with the article and the photos after a bit of resizing issues. And then, finally, in early October, she sent me a PDF copy of my article. To say I was excited was an understatement. A week after that I received the official magazine. It feels great to see my name in print.

As far as my writing goes, while I do enjoy creative writing, I know I enjoy writing for magazines and non-fiction pieces too. I’m hoping that once I’ve got some more time on my hands from later this week, I will spend time scouring out other magazines to write for. I am happy to start anywhere. It’s the experience I cherish. As long as I am writing something I am knowledgeable about and have the passion for, I’m sure it will come through.

Are you a freelance writer? How did you start off?

Do share!

Until next time,

Cheers!!!