Write Like a Honey Badger

A graphic showing five speakers at the IIJ 2025 Freelance Conference for the panel Pitching Stories on Work and Play.

An incredible virtual conference starts tomorrow. @indiejournalists.bsky.social supports BIPOC writers, but welcomes allies too. Learn what 40+ top editors are looking for and how to thrive as a freelancer!

Feb 27–28, 2025. $79. 10% discount: HONEY10. Recordings available. theiij.com.

Last call for Travel Writing 1, taught by @amandacastleman.bsky.social and Jessica Poitevien. Don't miss this chance to work with renowned teachers at the top of their field!

#travelwriting #creativenonfiction #journalism #travel #writers #writingclass #writingcommunity #writingworkshop

A young Asian woman in a train station with a knapsack and camera. She has dark hair in a bun, a white tank, and blue-and-white striped shirt.

Needs-based scholarship opp: we're accepting applications from #journalists and emerging writers from backgrounds underrepresented in the media. Deadline midnight on 2/19 for our six-week online #travelwriting class starting 2/25.

www.writelikeahoneybadger.com/scholarships

Not all heroes wear capes... #journalism #media #writing

Journalism WTF A little help in navigating resources, events, groups and opportunities in the world of creating news and information.

New on journalism.WTF

- more journalism conferences with confirmed dates (and pitch deadlines)
- nearly 90 known journalism funders
- the start of the fellowships database
- the start of the awards database

As well as more details about upcoming resources and how to contribute.

www.journalism.wtf

Journalism folks: There are several open jobs at ProPublica (including Florida reporter) plus there's also a freelance pitch form here: boards.greenhouse.io/propublica?g... #jobsky #jobs #hiring #media

As a former journalist, here’s my pitch to everyone on this site: journalists are key to a healthy democracy. Subscribe to as many news organizations as you can. You are helping. #democracy. #journalism

TJA's new Level Up Initiative could fund your next step Want help geting your journalism career to the next level? Apply now for $250 and $500 stipends that will support journalists' attendance at trainings, panels, conferences, and more.

Need help covering the cost of a conference, training, workshop, coaching, or other career opportunity?

Apply now for a $250 or $500 stipend to support your work.

Deadline: March 17.

Details & application 👇

www.transjournalists.org/2025-level-u...

HSI Investigative Journalism Workshop (March 27-28) - Investigative Reporters & Editors This IRE workshop in San Antonio is designed for students of color and all students attending Hispanic-Serving Institutions.

IRE friends, we need your help spreading the word 🗣️

Our upcoming investigative journalism workshop for HSI students has a funding deadline of Feb. 24 — just 11 days away!

Students will receive IRE membership, workshop registration and a travel stipend to attend. www.ire.org/event/hsi-wo...

Hang on, the updated URL is bit.ly/travelscholar!

A white man in his 40s with thin wire glasses, a calico beard and outdoor gear. Snowcapped SE Alaskan peaks and blue sky are visible behind him. Photo copyright amandacastleman.com

Registration opened for the fall @travelclassics.bsky.social conference. Interested? Apply immediately, as it usually sells out in a day or two. Another avenue: a scholarship honoring one of our former instructors, which includes the fee, accommodation & $350 towards airfare. bit.ly/travelclassics

High, puffy, bruise-colored clouds punctuate the sky above the sea, coastline and snow-gilded Olympic peaks.

#Writingtip 1.10: Paint a vivid picture with quantitative specifics. For example, Seattle averages 39°F degrees in winter: cold to a Floridian, but laughable to someone from Anchorage. Don't leave the interpretation up to reader's qualitative viewpoint! #journalism #creativenonfiction #memoir

A young girl races across the shallow water of Jasper Lake. It's a clear day and tawny mountains are visible in the background. Image copyright amandacastleman.com

Charge into 2025! Last call for our online course Pitch Like a Honey Badger, which demystifies pitching #journalism and #creativenonfiction! This four-week workshop starts January 7th (enrollment open until day 10). Discover how to query like the world's most ferocious animal! bit.ly/badgerpitch

A person who appears female types, as finished pages blast across image. She has tan skin, a straw hat, black-framed glasses and is wearing a robin-egg blue button-up with the sleeves rolled. Licensed from Shutterstock.

#Writingtip 1.9: Select words for tone, connotation or rhythmic punch. For example: does "street sweeper" capture the vibe better than "sanitary engineer?" Would "azure" beat "blue"? Have you head-checked "outstanding pizza" instead of detailing *why* it's so great? #journalism #narrativenonfiction

Blocking out the audience’s siren song "But most governance — even extreme governance — is banal. If Project 2025 is anything to go by, journalists need to focus more on the boring minutiae of policymaking and not on the sensationalism of…

"If the audience’s attention affects editorial decision-making, then we need to come to terms with the fact that the audience does not necessarily know what’s good for it," @jonaskaiser.bsky.social writes.

"Instead, journalists need to consider what their audiences need."

Lessons learned in The Building of Lost Causes "The skills we developed while facing down the fossil fuel industry — persistence through trolling campaigns, converting readers one by one, turning an upstart publication into essential reading —…

"It’s the only way independent journalism survives — by being as relentless about funding as we are about finding the stories power wants to bury," @lindasolomonwood.bsky.social says.

IRE Member listening session on disability, accessibility and inclusion - Investigative Reporters & Editors IRE is hosting its first virtual listening session for members living with disabilities, chronic and/or and mental health conditions.

This week: IRE is hosting a virtual listening session for members living with disabilities, chronic and/or and mental health conditions.

Join us Wednesday 1 p.m. ET to share your ideas and feedback on accessibility and inclusion within the IRE community. www.ire.org/event/ire-me...

Courtesan Writing a Letter - hanging scroll by Kaigetsudo Doshin, 1715. A beige background with an illustration of a courtesan with blue and red robes patterned with flowers. A scroll is in her lap.

#Writingtip 1.8: #Journalism is about applying your knowledge, skills and curiosity to works that entertain and inform others.
Don't just spin the yarns you *want* to tell, shape that material into articles that readers *need.* Serve your audience! #narrativenonfiction #pitching

A promotional image for a travel writing webinar, December 5, 2024, featuring Amanda Castleman, Charukesi Ramadurai, Jen Rose Smith and Meera Dattani, 3pm GMT on Zoom

Catch our founder @amandacastleman.bsky.social talking #travelwriting with @charukesi.bsky.social, @jenrosesmith.bsky.social & our host Meera Dattani! The free webinar will be on 12/5/24, from 7am PST/10am EST. #writingtips #narrativenonfiction #journalism #pitching

bit.ly/travelmediaw...

A public domain illustration by Ernest Howard Shepard from Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), by A. A. Milne. It's a b&w sketch of Pooh leaning his back against Christopher Robin's, as his boy pulls on galoshes.

#Writingtip 1.6: Avoid an attack of the unnecessary initial-caps when writing about food. In most style guides, menu items don't count as proper names, so you can lower-cap 'em. Otherwise it can go a bit A.A. Milne with The Portentous Pooh-Bear-style Capitalizations. #NarrativeNonfiction #Journalism

US #travel pitch call

Perfect example of why Twitter remains more important for journalists/freelancers than Blue Sky:
Slate editor Tony Hồ Trần posted this Pitch Call at X.
It's not here on Blue Sky.
He's here - @tonyhotran.bsky.social - but he's got only 8 followers [I just became his 8th].

I commission stories about drawings for @artukdotorg.bsky.social and I'm always looking for pitches! Some fun stories I've published recently: 🧵

Our founder Amanda Castleman is, as well as many alumni. We'd love to RT and amplify!

Cover of the NYT Kids section

Cover of the NYT Kids section

Cover of the NYT Kids section

If any writers on here are interested in writing for the New York Times Kids section, DM or email me (markyarm@gmail.com) and I'll forward you their monthly pitch call.

A close-up portrait of a brown tabbycat with jade green eyes, a plum-colored nose, cleopatra eye markings and white whiskers protruding from black freckes on his white muzzle. He is gorgeous, intense and fierce AF! A cream, turquoise and red Persian rug is visible in the bokehed background. Image copyright amandacastleman.com

#Writingtip 1.6: Unless some other logic dominates, many stylists prefer series to flow short to long, similar to classic rhetoric's "tricolon crescendo" (rising isocolon). I.e; Jake the tabby stole arugula & cranberries from the salad. #narrativenonfiction #journalism

literarydevices.net/tricolon

Travel writers: what a great way to prepare for 2025. Pitching, follow-up and, yeah, ghosting. Comes with the job. Learn from the best, for free.
#journalism #narrativenonfiction #writingtips #travel

Or… join Bluesky, where links to articles are not deprioritized, journalism soars, and people actually engage thoughtfully instead of hurl slurs.

Paid Call for Personal Essay Submissions Writing guidelines for unpublished essays about work and career, relationships, parenting and family, health, grief, LGBTQIA+, and our relationship with our belongings for Open Secrets subscribers

*CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS*

Much respect for the writing here. Small pay, but thoughtful essays (1,000 words)

An image of two old Sybren-brand tape measures. Their white background is discolored and scratched. The numbers might have been black originally, but appear navy. Text reads "warranted boxwood" and "made in Holland." Image by Lainey Powell via CC

#Writingtip 1.5: Ever wonder how writers devise similes like "the average banana is one-tenth as tall as Danny DeVito?" Here's one spot where the magic happens:
www.themeasureofthings.com! #journalism #narrativenonfiction #creativenonfiction