Writing an article?

I attended an SCCA Novice Autocross School last weekend and took a bunch of pictures. I really want to write an article about it for our SCCA Region's paper (they don't have many articles) and maybe (just maybe) get it published and get my start into some freelance automotive journalism work.

Any and all ideas/advice are appreciated. I really want to do a good job and maybe get my feet wet. You know, see what it's like and if I'm any good at it.

Some advice:

Start with a query letter.

Follow the publication's usual tone and format.

Don't get too wordy.

Spelling counts.

Have fun.

And...don't expect to get paid much. If you want to do it for fun and the occasional small check, it can be fun. If you want it to be a career...be prepared for a real struggle. I dabbled in it for awhile, even sold a story to one of the 'big name' magazines and cashed a pretty fat check once. It's become even more difficult since the days I did it some 10 years ago. Not to discourage you, just don't want you to think it's an easy path to a career.

There is something very cool about seeing your words in print though.

Even if you don't get paid.

I wrote a recap of an SVO meet at Road America in '92 complete with pictures that was reduced to a blurb in Mustang Illustrated. I wanted to work for C&D, then for Automobile. Things changed.

I agree, it's uber cool to see your words and name in print.

Thanks for the advice! I don't expect to get paid for a long while, but I'd like to start building some sort of portfolio.

I would suggest to start writing articles for the regional newsletter like you mentioned and maybe a couple of other club newsletters. This will let you build your style of writing and get practice in putting your thoughts on paper. Keep you stories relatively short and light. If you can keep readers attention and get them to laugh every once in a while then they will look forward to your articals each month.

I used to write articles for my local Z club newsletter, mainly about my own misadventures. Even though the newsletter editor didn't like my style (I always write in the third person) the members kept asking for more. Find someone to proof read them before submitting them. If you can make friends with professional writers (like one that write for a car magazine) you might be able to get one to critique your work and offer suggestions. I once got BS Levy (long before CM ever existed) to critique one of my stories. It was very enlightening and I learned a lot.

as reminded me, "everybody likes a happy ending."

Whether I want to spam or not, I have to do it. 

Canoe

Zombie canoe!

hire a copywriter if you need a good article to pass controll, but you can start training now in upwork taking tasks and slowly polish your skills on different topix

Hilarious zombie thread!

I did submit that article, and eventually ended up writing dozens for the SCCA Regional newsletter and then the PCA Regional. I should probably try writing again, but videos are too much fun!

But one tidbit I can add from journalism school is to organize your story with decreasing importance so that if it needs to be shortened for length, the editor can lop off parts of the end with less concern about deleting some important fact you wanted to convey.