How to Become a Writer. Bennett Arnold
two penny evening papers, the Globe and the Evening Standard, each print every day an article, in the form of an essay not necessarily topical, which is frequently accepted from an outside source. This article is the first on the first page of the Evening Standard, and the last on the first page of the Globe. In both cases it is imperative that the article should conform to the requirement of length. The halfpenny evening papers will not be of much use to the freelance.
Next in order of importance to the freelance come the high-class sixpenny illustrated weeklies, the Illustrated London News, Graphic, Sketch, Sphere, Tatler, and Black and White. Of these the first and fourth are the most literary, and the second is the least benignant towards the freelance. All pay well, and one or two handsomely. And all are prepared to accept topical or personal articles, preferably illustrated by striking photographs.
The ladies’ papers form an important class. The sixpenny organs are The Queen, The Ladys Pictorial, The Gentlewoman, and The Lady's Field. The first and last are best suited to the outside contributor; they pay well. The threepenny organs, Hearth and Home and The Lady, do not spontaneously encourage the freelance, but the latter buys occasional articles. The penny women’s papers —Home Notes, Home Chat, Woman, &c.— appealing without exception to a popular public, do not offer much scope to the outsider.
The politico-literary weeklies should engage the attention of the serious ambitious beginner with a taste for letters, which, be it remembered, is not quite the same thing as a taste for journalism. The Pilot, Spectator, Saturday Review, and Speaker are open to receive topical and miscellaneous articles in essay form, with a literary or political turn. But they do not buy their views or their reviews from the outsider. The Outlook takes very short articles of a light texture. One or two of these organs do not err on the side of generosity in remuneration.
I cannot deal with the hundreds of weeklies which appeal to special publics, such as the Athenceum (literary), the British Weekly (religious), the Investors Review (financial), the British Architect (professional), the Draper’s Record (trade). The majority of them depend little on the outsider, but it is probable that very few of them would refuse to listen to an outsider who approached with an original idea specially suited to them. Some of them are very wealthy organs.
The monthly publications are divisible into three classes: general magazines appealing to a popular public; general magazines appealing to a cultured public; and reviews. The first class, of which the principal specimens are Pearson’s, Strand, Windsor, Lady’s, Woman at Home, Lady's Realm (6d.), Royal (4d.), London (1/2d.), has the readiest welcome for novelty, and pays the best. Its articles are essentially Tit-Bits articles glorified in fine raiment; they must be illustrated. The second class comprises both illustrated—Pall Mall Magazine — and unillustrated—Blackwood’s, Cornhill, Longman’s, and Macmillans. The unillustrated demand the higher literary standard. I shall discuss these magazines from the point of view of their requirements in fiction in a subsequent chapter. The “reviews” which pay for outside contributions are the Fortnightly, Nineteenth Century, Contemporary, National, and New Liberal. The aspirant need not trouble to woo these excessively difficile old ladies until he has had considerable experience. A book dealing fully with magazine work is How to Write for the Magazines, published by Mr. Grant Richards, at 3s. 6d.
The foregoing conspectus of the British Press is, of course, far from complete, but it indicates the main outlines of the subject, and the aspirant must fill in minor details from his own observation and study. He must learn to differentiate the characteristics of one organ from the characteristics of another, and must thoroughly familiarise himself with the contents of every paper. He should on no account put any of the more popular papers aside as being beyond his enterprise. The less he limits the variety of his efforts, the more successful are his efforts likely to be.
First Efforts of the Freelance.
I have now shown how the third of my three maxims for the guidance of the freelance is to be carried into practice. I will go back to the other two. In choosing subjects to write about, the freelance must always bear in mind my first maxim. He may leave to great editors the task of educating the public; his own business is to minister to their desires. He must not be ashamed to be popular, and he must not be ashamed to write the kind of stuff that he would not dream of reading were it written by some one else. His first efforts cannot be too humble. The point is that he wants to get into print, and he will the most quickly and easily achieve his desire by appealing to a large audience. He must put away all sentimentality about the art of literature and the moral mission of journalism. It is of no use beginning to air one’s views until one has collected an audience. A young man of talent, capable of distinguished work, may hammer at the doors of the Spectator and the Fortnightly Review for years with dissertations upon literature, morals, or world-politics; ultimately, when he has attained sufficient skill and shown sufficient pertinacity, he will be admitted within these august portals. I say that it would have been better for him, not only financially but in experience and in other ways, had he been content to make a start by amusing or instructing the populace. I would repeat and repeat again: Begin humbly.
It is well to begin with the paragraph. The piquant paragraph of two or three hundred words is enormously in demand. There is scarcely any paper with a general circulation that does not gladly buy paragraphs—paragraphs about anything and everything. Paragraphs are not a gold-mine, and only a freelance of miraculous ingenuity could make a living out of them; but they require much less constructive skill than even the shortest article, and just as completely as an article they afford the aspirant the satisfaction of seeing himself in print, and of pluming himself upon having established relations with a paper. The remuneration for paragraphs runs from half-a-crown to three and sixpence. Some papers pay by the inch, and some have a fixed price per paragraph irrespective of length.
My second maxim should help the aspirant in excogitating topics for his brilliant and facile pen. He must learn to see life interestingly. And he must fall into the habit of regarding the whole of human existence as material for “copy.” The idea of “copy” must be always with him. When he jumps on an omnibus, ideas for articles should crowd thick upon him: “How an Omnibus is Built,” for Pearson's Magazine; "The Ailments of Omnibus Horses: a Chat with a Vet. of the London General,” for the Westminster Gazette; “An Omnibus Horse’s views about Policemen,” for a comic paper; “Ways of the Omnibus Thief,” for Tit-Bits; "London Stables: an Inquiry,” for the Daily News; “Stopping and Starting,” a sketch, for the Queen or the Saturday women’s page of the Daily Chronicle. When he spends a sleepless night owing to the entire failure of all his efforts for a month past, he should by instinct consider the feasibility of a scare-article for the Daily Mail about the increasing use of narcotics by urban populations. When his uncle is killed in a great railway accident, he should be moved to write an illustrated article on the differences between ancient and modern railway accidents for the Strand Magazine. And when he is starving because he has been foolish enough to throw up a safe but modest clerkship before securing a position in Fleet Street, he should throw off a bright essay for the Young Man on “How to Live on a Shilling a Day.” If he animates his existence by this spirit he is certain to succeed.
Matters of Practical Detail.
In writing a paragraph or article, always have in mind a particular paper, and aim at pleasing that paper. Do not make the produce first, and then try to select a market for it; but select the market, and make the produce definitely to suit the market.
Paragraphs and short articles need not be typewritten. Articles over two thousand words should, if possible, be typewritten. Without making a fetish of typewriting, one may say that it is never a disadvantage, and usually an advantage, to the journalist. And seeing that the best of all typewriting machines may be bought for half the cost of the best machines of ten years ago, the aspirant might well make an effort to possess a machine of his own. One shilling per thousand words is a fair price to pay for typewriting; in most cases to pay less is to countenance sweating.
When a contribution fills more than one sheet, fasten the sheets together at the top left-hand comer only with a paper fastener. Do not stitch or pin the sheets. It is well to protect the white sheets by putting a sheet of