Writing freelance articles for international publications

My first ever job was writing for a yachting magazine in Hong Kong. I have since written both freelance and fully employed for magazines and newspapers in the UK, Thailand, New Zealand and Australia. About 90 percent of that has been in print. The last thing I wrote was an article for the Bangkok Post and another for the Nation here in Thailand. This has posed something of a conundrum as I have a lovely folder with all my article cuttings in it that is now mostly pointless in the digital age. I have sent scans to people who have requested writing samples but who the hell wants to see a scan? Happily, most publications now do both print and online versions.

I have also been pretty lazy of late as I have a full-time writing gig and so freelance isn’t so much of a need. I have actually been focusing on writing fiction recently but as I have mentioned before, writing a huge fantasy epic is, well, epic. However, I feel the stirrings of change somewhere deep within, although that could be the spicy Thai lunch I just ate – raw papaya can do that to you. I have decided I am going to get my arse in gear and start flogging stuff to magazines. The obvious choice, given where I live in the glorious chaos of Bangkok, is travel-related stuff. I have worked freelance before and it is gloriously precarious.

One things regular readers (love you guys!) might have noticed is that I have been writing more about writing recently. I hope it didn’t put you off. I will go back to reviewing things in my usual shallow and banal way soon. Because I have a plan. I am going to start another website. It won’t be updated with fascinating things every week like this site, it will be for freelance writing and will be more professional – bio, writing samples and so forth. I started this site while working purely freelance before and as anyone who has done similar work for multiple clients will know, the house style can be quite specific and annoying. You can feel quite constrained. So The Word Of Ward was born from a cathartic need to write whatever the fuck I want. I think it will return to that.

In the meantime, if you are a publisher, you can contact me at thewordofward@gmail.com.