Dear writers,
It’s the end of another month! We are mid-way through what’s gearing up to be a difficult year: an ongoing pandemic with no cure in sight, thousands of deaths, a locust storm, destruction of forests, police deaths. I hope you all are managing to take a step back and focus on your mental health. This is really important. Seek help, if you can. A break is always a good idea. I took time off in May and it helped me focus and find my confidence.
This week’s paid newsletter is packed - there is an interview with Mongabay-India – yes, they are still accepting freelance pitches – and a summary of my recent discussion on freelancing during a pandemic. In addition, there’s the usual calls for pitches, some job opps, and a reading guide. If you would like to subscribe to it, email me itsallwrite@outlook.in.
Let’s begin.
TALKING POINTS
(It’s a one-side conversation, this)
A couple of weeks back, I was part of a discussion ‘How to be a freelance journalist in a crisis’ with independent journalist Raksha Kumar, and editor (at SCMP), Dave Besseling. This PROTOcall was organised by International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and International Journalists' Network (IJNet).
It was a one-hour session and turned out to be one of their best (#humblebrag). We spoke about the ‘perfect pitch’ (spoiler alert: it doesn’t exist), managing finances, pitching simultaneously, and whether it is a good idea to freelance in this climate.
Here’s the link to the full video.
MISCELLANY
(Job links, #FF, and other news you can use)
Job: A group of industrialists seeks to hire a content agency to help them publish a monthly magazine, profiling 60 people. There are 720 profiles: work will include interviews, writing and editing. It will be a full-time gig. Rate: max Rs 1,500 per profile including the editing work. If interested, call/Whatsapp Vijay at 9730069000
Workshop: Professional photographer R Prasana Venkatesh is conducting an online Basics of Photography course, between July 5-9, for 1.5 hours per day. Cost: Rs 2,250. Register here.
Workshop: Attend a workshop that will teach you to re-examine your approach to travel writing by identifying and challenging the coloniality embedded within the genre, conducted by gender/queer travel writer Bani Amor. Free
Workshop: Belongg Literature Festival is an online literature festival that will feature over 75 Indian and foreign authors discussing ‘forbidden’ subjects like identity, diversity and inclusion, gender and sexuality, race, caste and ethnicity, disability and belonging. July 3-6
Activism: The last date for sending objections to the #DraftEIA2020 – a ghastly notification that will be terrible for our forest cover and the environment – is June 30. Here’s a handy toolkit on how you can show your opposition to yet another terrible decision by the government that will only benefit the big lobbies.
READING GUIDE
(Articles that didn’t just stay open in my tabs)
Scroll is doing a series, Hard Times, which documents the brutal impact of the lockdown on the Indian economy through personal stories of individuals and firms.
This Guardian piece examines whether this pandemic is the end of tourism as we know it. A good read for travel writers.
Varun Grover has written the sweetest love letter to Varanasi, juxtaposing the end of the world and a young Pintu’s desire to eat a gulab jamun. Read the web-comic, and be sure to spend some time on the panel showing TV screen to read the ticker at the bottom.
These are the broad topics I intend to cover in July’s paid newsletters::
1) How to write a pitch (the bare basics)
2) Follow-up etiquette
3) How to deal with rejection (this was a suggestion by a writer friend and it’s an important topic)
4) Where and how to find ideas?
Do write in and let me know which topic you would prefer first, and if there are questions you want answered – will try and get some bright minds to tackle them.
Do subscribe to the paid version (for deets, email itsallwrite@outlook.in), and tell your friends about it.
See you in July!