LIFE.info needs writers

I hope you've enjoyed reading some of the articles from the magazine. Perhaps it has got you thinking that perhaps you'd like to write something. If so please get in touch. Perhaps you could write an article that might help others, maybe a thought has been sparked off in your head that made you think you might want to share your story or perhaps you've got some funny anecdotes that might bring a smile to someone's face. Whatever the reason, don't just think about it, do it! I will answer all article submissions.

You'll also find on this page a list of writer's guidelines.



LIFE.info Writer's Guidelines

Magazine aims:
To provide relevant material to help our readers with day-to-day living. To encourage them to stop and think about a few things that perhaps they hadn't given much thought to before. To make them smile.

Never lose sight of our end users
As a good guide when writing you might want to keep asking yourself: "How would my neighbour/work colleague react to this?" Not everyone works in an office; not everyone lives in a suburban semi with 2.4 children and an obedient family pet; not everyone has stable relationships; not everyone has disposable income; not everyone can cope with what life is throwing at them. How can we help? In our writing we should seek to promote positive attitudes towards self and others and where possible offer the following:

Help - Hope - Encouragement - Joy - Peace of mind

Resources
At the end of articles, where applicable, we want to include a list of resources pertaining to the article topic. This may include: Book titles, contact details for charities or support groups, useful phone numbers or website addresses. As a rough guide we're looking for three to five resource contacts per article.

Short is good
The word count for a double page spread is approximately 800, and for a single page it's 300 words. Don't panic if your article is over or under these figures, but be warned that 2,000-word articles will be drastically chopped!

What to write?
Articles will be divided into several categories in the magazine. I have outlined the categories below. Considering which of the following categories your article fits into will hopefully help you to more clearly identify the direction you wish to take when writing.

LIFEchallenges/LIFEsupport - There is a crossover between these two categories. Both look at some of the challenges people might face in everyday life. Whenever we tackle topics in these categories we would seek to provide relevant resources (telephone, address, email details).

LIFEhealth - Helping people to lead healthier lives in a balanced way.

LIFEsnippets - Light-hearted social comment and trivia.

LIFEissues - Generally this category includes articles with more direct spiritual or moral content.

LIFEstories - This is the real-life section of the magazine where we want to provide inspirational testimonies of victory over adversity, especially stories where God's part in the victory is acknowledged.

LIFEstyle - Topics particularly relevant to pop culture, ie film/TV/music reviews. This category also incorporates food recipes and travel.

LIFEthoughts - Articles in this category are people's personal reflections on various issues and aspects of life and spirituality.


Finally, if you have any ideas you'd like to have a chat about, or if you require further clarification, please feel free to contact the editor.