How to Write a

Magazine or Online Article

A Step-by-Step Guide for New Writers

By Denene Brox of

Copyright © www.freelance-write-now.com
All rights reserved.
As a beginner in the freelance writing world you’ll spend the majority of your time
marketing. That means you’ll be brainstorming article ideas, searching for potential
magazines and online markets to target, writing query letters, submitting to
editors, and following up. Rinse and repeat that whole process until you get a “Yes”
from an editor.

If you’ve been querying for a while, it can be a shock to your system to finally get
that email from an editor offering you a real assignment. You’ll finally get to dig into
some work that you’ll get paid for. At that point you’re no longer in marketing
mode, now you have to actually write the article. It’s time to deliver the product
that you promised the editor you would – a great article.

I’ll be honest. The actual nitty-gritty of writing an article isn’t my favorite aspect of
freelance writing. I prefer the hunt – the marketing. I like researching potential
markets, pitching editors, and waiting for that positive response. It’s kind of
thrilling. So since the actual writing isn’t my favorite part of the process, I’ve
developed a few shortcuts to make the writing go faster. Besides, the faster you
write the article, the faster you can move on to your next hunt, assignment, and
paycheck!

In this eBook, I’m going to outline my process for writing magazine and online
articles after I’ve gotten the green light from my editor. Remember to follow your
editor’s instructions regarding sources, word count, angles, etc.

Please feel free to pass this book on to your friends, family, and any aspiring
freelance writers you know. You can attach it to an email or offer it as a free
download from your website if you wish.

Okay, let’s get started!

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First Things First

The first order of business is securing the sources I’ll interview for the article. If I
queried the article idea, I may already have a few sources in mind or I may have
already interviewed one or two experts for the query. If I quoted a source in my
query, I’ll go back to that source and conduct a more in-depth interview.

For many of my trade magazine articles, my editor provides me a list of potential

sources to email or call. This is always a great jumping-off point (though these
sources don’t always pan out. Always have a plan B for securing sources).

Finally, I’ll post a query on a source-finding service such as Profnet or HARO (Help a
Reporter Out) to broadcast the opportunity to a wide body of experts in hopes that
someone perfect for the story will respond. I’ve found many great sources this way.

Time For Some Q&A

Step two is to write up a list of questions that I’ll ask my sources during the
interview. Use the notes from your editor and/or your query letter to formulate your
questions.

A good way to come up with great questions is to think about what you want the
end article to say and come up with questions that will lead you there. Also, think
about your readers. Who is the article targeting? Busy moms? Business owners?
Travelers? What questions will your target readers want answered by the experts
you interview?

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Be sure to ask your sources for their correct title, city, state, years of experience,
etc. You want to properly attribute their quotes when you begin writing.

You should start to get some responses from sources and you can weed through
them to find the best fit. A good rule of thumb is to interview at least two sources
for every 500 words. You could use more than that if needed, but you will hardly
ever only use one source (unless it’s a profile story or your editor requested only
one source). So if you’re article is a 1,500-word article, plan on interviewing at least
five or six sources. This number isn’t set in stone, but it’s always nice to have an
abundance of information when writing a magazine or online article.

Putting It All Together

We’re going to skip now to the actual writing process. Be sure to read more tips on
finding and interviewing sources at http://www.freelance-write-now.com.

Now bring together all of your own research and your interview transcripts and get
ready to write.

It can be daunting to stare at a blank page. So to start off go ahead and put a
working title and your byline at the top of the page. You can come back and edit
the title later if needed. You can also add a working sub-head under your title to
help guide your writing and remind you of the focus. Again, this can be changed
later if necessary.

Next, to fill up even more white space, create section headers for each sub-section
of your article. This will provide a rough outline or road map as you go along. For
example, let’s say you’re writing an article for a women’s magazine that will discuss
the top diet plans on the market. You’re article outline might look like this:

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 Top Diets: Which One Wins in the Battle of the Bulge?
Forget the hype. Here’s the lowdown on the most popular diet plans on the
market. Which one is right for you?

By Joe Smith

Intro

Weight Watchers

South Beach Diet

Napa Valley Diet

Jenny Craig

Conclusion

Okay, now you’ve got some words on the page. That’s always a great feeling!

I have another little trick to add beef to my articles. At this point I turn to the stars
of the story – my sources. Hopefully they provided you with some great quotes,
facts, and information. Read through each source’s interview and when a quote
grabs your attention and is compelling enough to include in your article, copy and
paste the quote from your interview transcripts under the appropriate section
heading in your article document.

Let’s go back to our diet example story. Let’s say a source gave you a great quote
about Weight Watchers. Copy and paste that quote under the Weight Watchers

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section and insert quotation marks. I also put the source’s initials or full name at
the end of each quote so that it’s easy to attribute the quote later on. Right now
you just want to piece together a puzzle of information for your reader. We will edit
everything later.

So now the article will look like this after I include a quote from our nutrition
expert, John Doe. (Note: This is not an actual or necessarily a factual quote about
Weight Watchers. This is only for example purposes).

Top Diets: Which One Wins in the Battle of the Bulge?

Forget the hype. Here’s the lowdown on the most popular diet plans on the market.
Which one is right for you?
By Joe Smith

Intro

Weight Watchers

“Weight Watchers has been a respected eating plan for many years. Our society is
bombarded daily with yo-yo diet plans and promises that don’t deliver. The great
thing about Weight Watchers is that you won’t have to give up anything in your
diet. It’s all about portion control and healthy choices.” JD

South Beach Diet

Napa Valley Diet

Jenny Craig

Conclusion

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Now keep copying and pasting the best quotes for each of your sources into the
appropriate section in your article document. When you’re done, you should have
content filled in each section. If you notice a section is skimpy on quotes, make a
note. You may need to go back to one or more of your sources to ask more
questions. You can also flesh out a skimpy section with your own research. You’ll
have to judge what will work best for your particular article while keeping your end
reader in mind.

So you’ve got your best quotes on the page. Now it’s time to start writing. This is
where your creativity comes into play. You’ll need to write an introduction,
transitions within each section, and finally, a conclusion to end the story. Let’s start
with the lede (yes, that’s the correct spelling in journo speak).

Writing Attention-Grabbing Ledes

Your article lede should make your readers want to continue reading your article all
the way to the end. Here are just a few ways to start an article:

• Ask a question. For example, “How would you like to lose weight and keep it
off without dieting?” That’s an attention-grabbing question!

• Use a compelling statistic: I used a statistic-based lede in one of my

Minority Nurse magazine articles:

“The South is known for its tasty, rich foods like fried chicken,
macaroni and cheese, and peach cobbler. Unfortunately, one Southern
state, Mississippi, is also known for having some of the nation’s highest
rates of obesity and chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular
disease, and diabetes—health threats that disproportionately affect
African Americans.” http://www.minoritynurse.com/african-american-
black-health/body-and-soul
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• Outline a problem and promise a solution. For example, I used the same
lede that I’d used in my query letter about managing negative emotions in my
final article. I just rephrased it a little bit.

“Most articles tell readers to ‘manage their negative emotions.’ But let’s
face it, many women “manage” their emotions by overeating,
overspending, and people pleasing. And do we really need one more
thing to manage in our busy lives? Why not turn negative emotions like
jealousy, guilt, and anger on their head and use them to uncover life-
changing messages that will offer long-term changes versus temporary
relief?” Source: Heart & Soul

• Get personal. Depending on the publication, you could start your story with
a personal anecdote. You could describe your own experience with the subject
matter. Here’s an example:

“By the time women reach their 30s, many have tried dozens of
medications with the hopes of clearing up embarrassing and often
painful hormonal acne. I am one of those women. Imagine my surprise
when my dermatologist prescribed Spironolactone, a potassium-sparing
diuretic, to clear up my persistent breakouts -- and it worked.”

• Use an anecdote. Instead of using a personal anecdote, open with an

anecdote about your subject. Here’s another example from one of my
Minority Nurse magazine articles.

“The year was 2002. Gathered together in a small Asian diner in Hawaii,
the board of the Asian American/Pacific Islander Nurses Association
(AAPINA) was discussing whether or not their young organization had
enough membership support to hold a national conference. Who would
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 attend and why? What would be the criteria for determining whether
the event was a success?” http://www.minoritynurse.com/asian-
american/raising-our-voice

• Open with a quote. Did one of your sources give a great quote during your
interview? Sometimes quotes make great ledes if they are attention-grabbing.

After the lede, I usually include one or two more paragraphs to build the article’s
foundation to give readers more insight into what’s to come.

Smooth Transitions

Okay, your lede is done and all of your subsections have quotes from your sources.
Here’s how I transitioned after my statistic lede (above) for the Minority Nurse story
about ALCO.

“For more than 20 years, Mississippi nurse Ella Garner Jackson, RN, CHN, has
been working to change these grim statistics by providing health promotion
and disease prevention programs to African American church congregations
on a volunteer basis. In 2005 she turned her passion into a non-profit
organization, the Abundant Living Community Organization (ALCO), which
provides health and wellness education, screenings, referrals and other
resources through a network of more than two dozen congregational health
nurses (CHNs) throughout the state.”

I opened with the compelling statistic and then transitioned into how the
organization that I was writing about works to change that grim statistic.

You’ll want to make these kinds of smooth transitions for each of your subsections.
Look for ways to tie one section to another. This isn’t always necessary though.
Going back to our best diets example story, you wouldn’t need to mention Weight
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Watchers in the South Beach diet section, etc. Each diet would get its own write-up.
You could write it as a pros and cons article. So you’re outline would look like this:

Top Diets: Which One Wins in the Battle of the Bulge?

Forget the hype. Here’s the lowdown on the most popular diet plans on the
market. Which one is right for you?

By Joe Smith

Intro

Weight Watchers

“Weight Watchers has been a respected eating plan for many years. Our
society is bombarded daily with yo-yo diet plans and promises that don’t
deliver. The great thing about Weight Watchers is that you won’t have to give
up anything in your diet. It’s all about portion control and healthy choices.” JD

Pros

Cons

South Beach Diet

“Quote”

Pros

Cons

Napa Valley Diet

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 “Quote”

Pros

Cons

Jenny Craig

“Quote”

Pros

Cons

Conclusion

“Quote”

Summary statement

You’ll then want to go through and list out each of your pros and cons for each diet
and edit them so that everything flows easily for your readers. In this example,
you’d want to use your very best pro and con examples to offer your readers a fair
and accurate overview of each diet. For this article it would be a great idea to
interview a few real people who have personally tried each diet plan and can offer
firsthand accounts of their experiences.

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Conclusion: Sum It All Up

You’re summary statement could be something like this:

No matter which diet you choose, losing and keeping the weight off takes a
lifetime commitment.

For my Minority Nurse article about the ALCO organization, I summed it up by

writing about the goals of the organization in the years to come. I like to use the
“goals” summary to end an article, especially when I’m profiling an organization or
person. It gives readers a small glimpse into the future and doesn’t leave them
hanging.

Here’s how I concluded the Minority Nurse story:

“The ALCO nurses say their goal for the future is to continue to build on these
achievements and eventually grow their volunteer involvement with the
organization into full-time jobs. As Johns puts it: “My dream is for Abundant
Living to be known nationwide. I want us to [be able to] do more [disease
prevention programs to] decrease obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes.
I would also like to see more nurses [from other parts of the country get
involved in this work].”

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Edits and Word Counts

Whew! Now you have a nice first draft of the article

done. It’s now time to put your editing hat on and go
through the whole article to fix grammar mistakes and
overall flow. Watch for any awkward sentences. Read
your story out load so that you can listen for mistakes.
Have a trusted friend read your story and ask for honest
feedback.

You also want to check your word count to make sure you’re not over or under the
limit. If your editor specified 750 words, make sure you’re not turning in an article
at 725. Don’t short change your editor! If you need more words, try adding a good
quote that you didn’t use initially. Or add an interesting fact from your research.

Conversely, if you have too many words, try cutting out a quote that isn’t as strong
and/or look for areas in your story that are too wordy. You’d be surprised how
cutting out a quote and a few spare words can make a huge difference to your word
count.

Be diligent with word counts. Your editor has a certain amount of space to fill –
especially with a print publication. You don’t want your editor scrambling to edit
your story down because you went over word count (or vice versa). This isn’t the
time to be creative with your writing. Writing an article isn’t like writing a novel. So
don’t take creative liberty with word counts. Save that for writing fiction.

Magazines vs. Online Articles

I use this same process whether I’m writing an article for a print magazine or an
online publication. But there are a few differences between the two.

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When writing for an online publication, aim to write shorter sentences and use lots
of bullets, charts, and subheads to break-up your writing. Online readers tend to
have shorter attention spans and want to read information quick. You only have a
small window of time to grab their attention, so make your lede paragraphs
interesting. Online readers are more like online skimmers. Online articles tend to
run between 500 and 750 words (sometimes less).

Magazine articles can be longer – depending on the type of article you’re writing.
I’ve written magazine articles that were more than 2,000 words. With those longer
articles the article writing method that I’ve outlined in this eBook keeps me on
track. I try to look at articles that long like a series of shorter articles. Writing four
500-word articles sounds more doable that writing 2,000 words all at once!

Style Matters

Many publications will have their own set of writing guidelines which instruct their
writers on how to style the article. For instance, some publications will use the AP
Stylebook and others will use the Chicago Manual of Style. Finally, some
publications will lean more toward one major style such as AP, but also use their
own style guidelines.

One publication that I write for regularly uses Mr. or Ms. when referring to a source
after the first mention. I always have to remember this style preference when I’m
writing for this client because I am most familiar with the AP Stylebook which only
uses a source’s last name after the first mention.

Style differences can include things like state abbreviations, names, and the
spelling out of numbers (e.g. AP spells out numbers one through nine, but uses the
numerals for any number 10 or above, like 45).

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Take some time to read up on AP and Chicago style. I keep a copy of the AP
Stylebook on my bookshelf. I’ve found that AP is most popular for magazines and
websites. Chicago is more geared toward fiction writing.

Make sure you know if the magazine or online publication you’re writing for uses a
certain style guide or has its own written guidelines. Ask your editor what style you
should use. If they don’t specify, read some back issues or log on to their website
and look for consistency in the way they structure their stories.

Paying attention to the small details goes a long way with an editor. The cleaner
your copy, the more likely that editor is to come back to you with more
assignments. (Cha-Ching!)

Finally, make sure that you allow yourself plenty of time to complete the article in
order to meet your deadline. The deadline date is not a suggestion. Meeting your
deadlines is another key way to score repeat business with an editor. Editors like
writers they can rely on. Make sure you’re that writer!

In conclusion, I think you’ll find that the more articles you write, the easier it gets.
You’ll develop your own writing style and you’ll also come up with your own
shortcuts to help you meet tight deadlines.

Good luck with your next big assignment!

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