Writing for the Media

I never set out to be a writer. It wasn’t a childhood dream nor something to which I aspired when I applied and studied at university. Having grown up in a working class family I did know that there were people out there who got paid to write, to be professionally curious and to share their thoughts with others but not once did I think I could be one of those people. Writing for money was something other people – privately educated, better connected white people – did. I studied economics at university in Manchester because it seemed the sort of sensible, slightly dull degree that might lead to a sensible, slightly dull job. It was only after I reached the second interview for a job at a leading accountancy firm that it suddenly struck me: a sensible and slightly dull job sounded completely and utterly awful. I must have subtly shown my disinterest because I failed to get the job and began what ended up as a series of temporary jobs which included being a directory enquiries operator, a data inputer and market researcher. Life was dull and I had no idea where it was going but I feared it was going nowhere. 

It was sometime around then that I heard about a book called Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America by an American author called Elizabeth Wurtzel. The book was a memoir by a twenty-something American journalist, and having read some previews it seemed exactly the sort of thing I might enjoy. I phoned the publishers and managed to get an advance copy. I read the book and immediately decided that I really, really wanted to meet Elizabeth Wurtzel. I seemed to believe, without any actual evidence, that if only I could meet this super bright, very beautiful New Yorker she might want to be my friend. But how on earth could I engineer such a meeting? The obvious answer was to interview her, and the way to interview her was to get an interview commissioned. There was however a slight issue: I was a 24-year-old nobody who had never had a thing commissioned. I was not going to let that stop me. I called directory enquiries to find the number of my local paper, the Manchester Evening News. I asked to be put through to the Women’s Editor whose name was Diane Cooke. I told Diane that I had an idea for a piece but since she didn’t know me from Adam all I was asking was the chance to write the piece and submit it – if it was rubbish she would never hear from me again, but if it was good perhaps she might consider publishing it. Diane agreed. I arranged an interview with Wurtzel, wrote up the interview and submitted it to the newspaper. It was published in May 1995 and it was my very first published article.

Fast forward to the present day and I have been a writer and journalist for 28 years. In that time I have interviewed, among others, Little Richard and Florence Pugh, Dolly Parton and Adam Driver, Mike Tyson and Brian Wilson, Thom Yorke, Woody Allen and Bonnie Tyler. I have talked to mothers whose sons were drowned at sea and men who wish to but can never be fathers. I have been sent on travel assignments to Jamaica and Japan, Mauritius and the Maldives. I have written deeply personal pieces about my father’s death, our attempts to have a child through IVF and why I hate camping. In other words I have, for close to 30 years, been paid to interview celebrities, tell compelling human stories, travel to some of the most glamorous places on earth and talk about myself. It is not a bad way to make a living. 

When I started out I had no idea what it took to have a successful career in writing, but three decades in I feel I have more of an insight. It is these insights I wanted to share in my Faber Academy course. It is aimed at anyone who is curious about the creative and practical challenges of being a professional writer: how to come up with ideas that might get commissioned, the fundamentals of good writing, how to locate and develop your writing voice, how to mine personal experiences and passions in a way that feels relatable, how to come up with ideas for travel and arts features and what you need to write a good column. I have tried to condense thirty years of experience, lessons and mistakes into one 12 week course that is entertaining, informative and hopefully just a little inspiring.

Oh and I did end up becoming friends with Elizabeth Wurtzel.