Online learning: how to launch your own blog course for City Academy
May 6, 2022My latest course for City Academy has just finished. This was a six-week online course, based around the concept of developing and launching your own blog. We covered some key ideas, including: Identifying your audience and niche Generating ideas Writing structure and identifying the ‘hook’ Editing and headlines Blog strategy… Read more
Sign up for my new online travel writing course with City Academy
April 21, 2021Have you always wanted to break into travel writing? Or want to expand your freelance portfolio post lockdown? I am leading a new online travel writing course in collaboration with City Academy. The course runs for six weeks online from May 25 and is scheduled for a Tuesday evening. Here’s… Read more
Student feedback for my storytelling online course with Journalism.co.uk
April 9, 2021My storytelling online course for Journalism.co.uk has completed its first run. The four students learnt more about the key ideas behind telling your story to engage readers. Here is some of the feedback from students on the course. Sarah Farrell said: “I really loved the course and have some great… Read more
Media masterclass: How to tell a story and engage your readers
January 8, 2021I’m running a new online course from March 1st in collaboration with Journalism.co.uk. We will cover how to tell a story and the importance of human interest to that. We will also look at the importance of knowing your reader and work on drafting a sample feature for you to… Read more
Journalists and content writers: sign up for my new masterclass this autumn
August 9, 2020Journalism is complex but the secret to good storytelling is simple: people love to read about people. This new course, hosted via Journalism.co.uk [see image above], is a hands-on class exploring techniques for writers, such as case studies, sourcing expert views and playing up the human interest to build empathy… Read more
How to get into travel writing — via Zoom
April 13, 2020The landscape looks pretty different since my last post. Global events have overtaken normal life and we’re all now staying home to protest out precious NHS. It’s easy to hide under the duvet at times like these but, as a long-standing freelancer, I know it means I need to change,… Read more
How to get into travel writing at the Chester Literature Festival
November 17, 2019The Chester Literature Festival was in full swing this week. I was there on Friday to run a travel-writing workshop [pictured above] for future freelancers and career changers seeking to branch out. Some planned to pitch ideas to magazines, others were looking to develop their voice online as a blogger.… Read more
Two essential events at this year’s Chester Lit Fest
November 25, 2018A busy day at Chester’s Storyhouse, then. It was the final full week of the Chester Literature Festival and I was running two events last week — a morning discussion [first two slides] and a lunchtime workshop [latter two slides]. The former was based around my book, Inside Fatherhood, and… Read more
The Amazing Story Of How My Music Fanzine Made History
March 9, 2018It was 1994. I was a student on a postgraduate magazine journalism course in London with a project deadline. Step forward Heaven Up Here, a music fanzine I put together with two fellow students. We dreamed of jobs on Select magazine and loved getting on the guestlist for gigs at… Read more