Freelance Journalism: How to Pitch and Write Successful Features

This one-day freelance journalism course will help you land the commission – and deliver a knock-out feature to deadline and brief.

What you’ll learn: How to generate ideas, land commissions and write brilliant features

What makes a great feature? How do you come up with ideas and successfully pitch them to editors? We’ll discuss how the best in the business conjure concepts that keep you reading to the end, equip you to think critically while assessing the current features landscape, and help you build a toolkit for developing winning ideas.

Pitching ideas whether in-person or via email can be daunting. We’ll work on building your confidence in both, leaving you feeling ready to speak up in ideas meetings or hit send on that email pitch you’ve been drafting for weeks. With insights from experienced journalists, you’ll learn what editors want (and don’t want), take part in a mock features conference, and put your new knowledge into action with a hands-on pitch writing exercise.

You’ll examine what makes a great feature before we take you through the key principles of feature writing, from how to write engaging introductions to the art of weaving in quotes. You’ll learn how using case studies can bring complex topics to life and how snippets of colour can elevate your work.

How you’ll learn

This three-module freelance journalism course will be led by an experienced editor and trainer who will share their practical expertise through presentations, discussion and practical exercises – ensuring you have opportunity to reinforce your learning and test your understanding. As feature writing can often be a relatively solitary exercise, we lean into the opportunity to bring people together to discuss their experiences.

Who the course is for

This course is for you if you’re a freelance feature writer – or are considering going freelance – and want to build a toolkit of skills and knowledge that will help you bag a commission and deliver on it. You should have professional writing experience.

We also offer a half-day version of this course, Freelance Features Essentials.

Register your interest for this course by contacting PA Media Academy via the button below.