Magazine Writer PDF Print E-mail
After graduating in 2004 with a double degree in Mass Communications and Marketing, I decided to kickoff my career in the glitzy and glamorous world of Television production. I began as a production assistant with VoiceOvers, an animation company and moved up the rungs to Production Manager. While I enjoyed the fast-paced and dynamic environment of TV production, I wanted out after almost a year. I knew that I was not cut out for the long hours and I wanted to try my hand at my first love, which was writing. I then moved on to become a technology writer with IDG Communications, a global MNC that publishes industry magazines such as CIO and Computerworld. I loved the power of words, but sadly since I was a writer with the Special Projects team, my work was mostly newsy and client driven, instead of being an expression or extension of myself. After nearly a year, I joined Eastern Publishing to become a writer for a magazine called Motherhood. The magazine covers general parenting topics such as pregnancy and birth, baby care, raising kids, health, nutrition, family issues, marital relationships and fashion. I love my job and I see myself in this industry for a long time to come. Upon looking back, I am glad to have tasted the flavor of my various other roles before finally finding what I believe is my career calling. Those experiences have played a pivotal role in deepening my understanding of the media industry and developing a diversified skill set which has been transferable to my new role.

To help you understand my job as a writer with Motherhood a little better, here is a sneak peek of a day in my life.

{mospagebreak title=7.00 am&heading=The first page}7.00 am: Beep! Beep! My hand reaches out to swat the clock. It can’t possibly be 7 A.M already! If only I could have a few more precious minutes…

7.15 am: I climb out of bed and stumble around my freezing cold room to switch on the light. Okay, where’s the air-con remote control? After a five-minute struggle, I find it tucked under one of my very many pillows and bolsters. Then I scurry to the bathroom to shower and freshen up.

7.40 am: Great, I’m late! Guess I’ve got to hop into a cab…again.

7.55 am: I finally caught a cab. What’s the use of paying a two-dollar surcharge when you still have to wait 15 minutes to flag down a cab? *Grumble*

7.55 – 8.30 am: I’m stuck in the morning ECP traffic jam. The cab fare is already $13.50. Again, I can’t help but wonder on the necessity of a two-dollar ERP surcharge if we’re still going to get caught in a jam!

8.30 am: Frantically rush into the office.

8.35 am: Switch on the computer. Mentally brace myself for the barrage of emails from readers, PR personnel’s, Doctors and my Editor. A hundred emails! This is becoming what seems to be a very long day!

9.30 am: I’m finally done with sorting through the emails. I open my personal folder and look at the assignments I have for the day. Okay, it’s time to get down to real business. Writing!

9.40 am: I remove my shoes, sit crossed legged and take a sip of my herbal infusion tea. I write a sentence; pause to worry about my next interview with a doctor and take another sip of my tea. After one hour of writing I decide to take a break. I stretch a little and take a walk around the office. I come back and before you know it, I am halfway through. I finish up my tea and I suddenly wonder if it's going to turn my teeth some shade of yellow. Note to self - Check with the Doctor if caffeine stains teeth. This might just be a potential story idea!

12.00 pm: I’m finally done with the article. I restrain myself from doing a celebratory jig. I mean everyone knows that writers do have their quirks, but it is an office, you know! Instead, I attach the article in an email to the editor. Each article that I churn out is submitted for review by the Editor before it’s deemed fit for publishing.

12.15 pm: I call up the doctor to reconfirm the interview. I am scheduling an interview with him to find out about the benefits of cord blood banking for one of my stories. I spend the next hour sending emails out to potential interviewees (for another article I am writing), clearing my desk of the clutter and sorting out taxi claim receipts.

{mospagebreak title=1.00 pm&heading=The first page}1.00 pm: It’s lunchtime. I have to head down to Orchard road to pick up some accessories from a sponsor for an upcoming photo shoot for next month’s cover. I might as well get my lunch while I’m there. A good thing about working in Lower Delta is that I’m just a hop and skip away from Orchard.

2.00 pm: Head to Mt Elizabeth to meet the Doctor. Stop off at 7 eleven to pick up batteries for my digital voice recorder. It’s absolutely essential I record the proceedings of each interview. These comments are vital elements for my stories.

2.15-3.30 pm: Interview Doctor on the benefits of cord blood banking.

3.30 pm: Call up fiancé. No answer on his phone. Leave him a high priority voice message to tell him that when we have children, we MUST bank their cord blood, as it’s a rich source of stem cells, which can be used to treat many diseases. Hmm…maybe I shouldn’t have done that. He probably thinks I am stark raving mad! Oh well!

3.35 pm: Just realized that I forgot to ask the Doctor about the impact of caffeine on our teeth. Never mind, I’ll just ring up my dentist and ask him instead. Or maybe I should just Google it up. Hmm…in any case, I should head back to the office now.

3.40 pm: Caught a cab. Stuck in another jam.

4.00 pm: Back in the office. Send out a couple of emails to a few PR agencies. Do a Google search on Caffeine. Hmm, apparently it can cause miscarriages. That sounds interesting. No prizes for guessing what my next article will be about.

4.30 pm: Time to do a comparative report between all the other parenting titles. We conduct a monthly comparative analysis to establish how well our magazine and web site performs against our competitors. My conclusion: Motherhood is still the best. *Smug grin*

5.00 pm: Get ready for meeting with the Editor and Publisher. The meeting is about October’s editorial synopsis. Unlike hard news, magazine editorial members plan articles and synopsis’s months in advance. This give us more time to do four to five page spreads on certain issues to offer mum’s a wealth of practical information and useful hints on how to eat well, keep fit, look good and be a good parent.

5.30 pm: Hold a meeting with the designer and photographer on the layout for my articles.

5.50 pm: Edit two articles written by our ready pool of freelancers.

{mospagebreak title=6.20 pm&heading=The first page}6.20 pm: Decide to leave for home.

6.30 pm: Catch the bus to the train station.

7.00 pm: Catch the train to Eunos.

7.15 pm: Catch 13 back to Marine Parade.

7.30 pm: Home, sweet home.

7.40 pm: Hit the shower and gobble down dinner.

8.00 pm: Switch on the computer. It’s time to blog!

9.00 pm: Done with blogging. Decide to spend some time with parents.

9.30 pm: Call fiancé to chat. He’s busy. Still at work!

10.00 pm: I’m bored. Maybe I should work on that book of mine? Okay, back to the story where the heroine tries to eradicate child abuse. Hmm…or should it be about her fight against genocide? Decision, decisions…so many decisions! Whoever said it was easy being a writer? Not just do you need talent, you’ve also got to have equal portions of contacts, marketing skills and great ideas. Talent alone never guarantees success.

12.00 am: My eyes are starting to get heavy. At last! The fiancé calls. We speak for a bit and bid each other good night. It’s off to the arms of Morpheous for me. Zzzzzzzzzzzz
 

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