No two days are ever the same, while there may be a certain routine to checking social media, embargoing posts and checking emails, one day you could be learning how to ice cupcakes and the next talking to a man who lost his 24 year old wife to cervical cancer.
I conduct interviews both over the phone and face to face, it depends where they are based as etc Magazine covers all of Sussex from Chichester to Rye. Although phone interviews are quicker face to face you can build an easy rapport and make the person you are interviewing feel at ease. Most of the time they have never been interviewed before and see it as quite a daunting prospect to be talking about themselves and their business so I work quickly to make them feel ok.
I love my job especially as I can combine my passion for writing with my love of music. in the past I have interviewed singers such as Olly Murs, Raye, Jack Savoretti, Seth Lakeman, KT Tunstall and Editors. I may not have been a fan of all their music but it was great to talk to them about their latest album and tour.
The majority of my job is talking to local people many of which have set up their own business. Be it a woman who makes chocolate in her kitchen to those that make wedding dresses or hold pole dancing keep fit classes (very hard by the way especially if like me you have no upper body strength and your core crumples like a piece of paper).
I am so lucky I get to meet a diverse range of people and get to share their story with our readers, but with great power comes great responsibility and I will admit I do feel the pressure to do them proud, after all it is their livelihoods I am representing. Now you can’t please everyone but you just have to go with your gut and what you think the readers will find the most interesting – something that reads like a business profile or a human interest story? Our readers love reading about people so the human interest story usually wins out.
It can be hard and a juggle at times but I wouldn’t change it for the world.
A day in a life…
- Get in check emails, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Create posts for the day.
- Depending where we are in the month arranging interviews or conducting interviews then typing up my notes and quotes from my shorthand.
- Write, write, write.
- Look at covers the for upcoming magazines’
- Check in with my editor.
- Research new stories, pitch ideas to my editor. We work about two months in advance so it is about making sure things feel fresh and new while keeping to any themes we may have such as Valentines or Christmas (which we usually starting thinking about in September).
- Another check of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and go home.
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Charlotte Harding 