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Freelance Journalist Focus: Lisa Lynch

Today we welcome back the lovely Lisa Lynch who discusses her recent move from her permanent position at Forward Ltd to work on a freelance basis. She also explains how she fantasises about the resurrection of Smash Hits magazine and how the BBC are working on a TV drama of her book, The C Word based on her blog www.alrighttit.blogspot.com.

About your journalism:

What are you currently writing about?

This week it’s been a weird old mix of subjects – luxury property, interiors trends, Twitter bios, designer hotels, cutting carbon, depression, and favourite songs.

What’s the most memorable work you’ve done?

Publishing my book, The C-Word will, I expect, always be the most memorable thing I’ve done. That said, the BBC are working a TV drama of the story… which may yet prove to be even more memorable.

How different are you finding freelance from full-time editing?

Well, the point of changing the way I work was to keep myself well in my recovery from cancer – and while I’m sure that avoiding office and public-transport germs will help, the fact that I’m writing this at gone midnight says a lot about my need to better organise my time…

Where do you source ideas for articles?

Mostly from things I’ve been sent from PRs, but increasingly from conversations with friends and family, or simply thinking about things I’d like to read – and then end up writing myself.

About you and PRs:

How can PRs be useful to you?

By sending releases relevant to my fields, offering interesting angles, and promising to fly me first-class to Miami to review five-star hotels. *nudge nudge*

How and when do you like them to get in touch?
I’m horribly averse to speaking on the phone, and work from a tiny wee office, so I tend to prefer releases over email.

About you:

Did you always want to be a journalist?

I always hoped I’d be able to work in magazines. I remember reading a funny caption in Smash Hits when I was a kid and thinking ‘that’s a cool job’. When I later became a sub-editor on an interiors title (insert joke about ‘least cool job in magazines’ here), I was chuffed to bits and, though I wished I could do more writing, I instead worked my way up to editing. Frustratingly, it was getting breast cancer that eventually got me writing more often but, now I’m able to do it full time, wild horses couldn’t drag me back to an editorship. It’s a wonder anyone ever let me loose with an issue-budget spreadsheet.

If you could work for any magazine, what would it be?

I still fantasise about the resurrection of Smash Hits (RIP). In fact, despite the previous wild-horses comment, I’d fight Tyson for that editor’s chair. And kick his ass.

What books are on your bedside table, magazines in your bag, or blogs on your screen?

I practically ingest GLAMOUR, Stylist, Q and ShortList. Blog-wise, I’m teetering on obsessed with The Guardian’s ‘My Love Life In Your Hands‘ series, and am a big fan of HecklerSpray and BitchBuzz. In terms of books, I’m trying to read more classics and am ashamed to say that it’s taken me until the age of 31 to read Great Expectations and To Kill A Mockingbird: now two of my favourite ever books. In a break from classic-mode, however, I bought Neil Strauss’s Everybody Loves You When You’re Dead to take away on my next trip abroad but, at this rate of pre-holiday sneak-reading, I’ll have finished it before I’ve even got on the plane.
[lnk|http://alrighttit.blogspot.com/|_blank|Alrighttit]
[img|jpg|Lisa Lynch]