Getting My First (And Second) Byline

And finally, the moment I’ve been anticipating for weeks now—my very own byline in the magazine (two, to be exact)! When the new issue came out this week, the first thing I did was flip to the pages my two stories were on to see how they came out.

What I found was a bit surprising.

How Do You Share A Byline?

Hey Edsters!

At this point I’m over halfway through my internship.  I can’t believe how much time has passed since I started working at the magazine.  In the brief time that I’ve been here, I’ve gotten the opportunity to try a couple of new things, including transcribing and uploading articles to the online content management system.  Although these are valuable editorial skills, the best part of all has been the chance to earn writing credits.  I’ve cherished seeing my name appear in print, viewing all my hard work pay off.  But there’s something else more important to being a successful intern than just striving to stockpile clips:  Collaboration.  I recently had two situations where it either helped or hindered to have a helping hand.

What I Learned From My (Second) Byline

Hey Edsters,

Remember that previous writing assignment, the one I persistently worked on, the one that was postponed? You know, the one that I agonized over and shed my blood, sweat and tears into?

Well, it paid off….sort of.

One morning, as I was checking my email and gearing up for the day, my supervisor stopped by my desk. I thought she was going over an upcoming assignment. But instead, she had an unexpected gift for me.

The 3 Rules of a Successful Pitch

Lots of great news coming your way this week, Edsters! Remember when I promised I would make a pitch this week? Mission accomplished.

A relatively slow week meant that the other interns and I had plenty of time to surf the web at work. Since I’m interning at a regional mag, there’s a list of about 10 city blogs that I frequent to keep up to speed with news and events. When I noticed that the opening of a new shop kept appearing on a lot of the sites I was reading, I realized it would fit in pretty well with our magazine. So I calmed my nerves and wrote up an e-mail to my editors. What should a pitch include, you ask?

3 Tips For Writing Your First Mag Story

Happy hump day, Edsters!

Some big news this week – I have a byline in the magazine!

Last week I blogged about a story I was doing research for. I’m going to get a small research credit for that, but this week something even better developed. My own story and a real byline. I can’t even fully believe it.

Admittedly, this story is not the most exciting thing ever. It’s a small, front-of-the-book item, barely more than 40 words. But still, it means my name and my writing is going to be read by people all over the country, and I couldn’t be more excited.

It was an interesting experience, too. I’m used to writing longer pieces – for me, 500 words is pretty short, never mind 50. I had to figure out a way to shrink three 30-minute interviews into three sentences, which was more of a challenge than I thought it would be. Here are a few things I’ve learned about writing short-form for mags: