T
he secret to selling
articles to magazines
is to focus on subjects
that really excite
you – the sort of things you’re
desperate to fi nd out more
about and share with other
people. If an idea excites you,
there’s a good chance it will
excite an editor and, in turn,
the readers.
If you’ve never pitched an
article to a magazine before,
though, it can be a daunting
prospect. So this month and
next we’re going to use the
example of an article I recently
sold to examine every stage
of the process, from spotting
the initial idea to pitching it,
writing it and dealing with
any editorial queries that may
arise before the piece appears
in print.The idea
Newspapers are a good source
of ideas and I was reading TheTimes when I spotted a small
item about an all-women
wrestling promotion, called
Eve – Riot Grrrls of Wrestling,
being the fi rst to sign a code
of conduct with the actors’
u n i o n E q u it y.
The piece caught my eye
because I’ve always been
fascinated by the theatrical
aspects of wrestling but
because it’s such a fringe form
of entertainment I seldom get
the chance to write about it.Douglas McPherson gets to grips with the process
of submitting an idea and writing an article
GET STARTED
Pitching to win
FIRST STEPS
In this instance, the link-up
with Equity suggested that an
interview with the founders
of Eve might be of interest
to one of my target markets:
theatrical newspaper The Stage.
I’ve never known The Stage
to cover wrestling, but here
was a promoter that wanted to
see the grunt and groan game
recognised as a legitimate
strand of the performance arts,
as opposed to the fake sport
it’s often perceived as. So if
ever there was an opportunity
to sell a wrestling article to The
Stage this was surely it.Initial prep
My fi rst move was a Google
news search for Eve, which
revealed that The Stage had
already run a news item on the
Equity tie-up – as had several
other papers, which had all
run a barely reworded version
of the same press release, put
out by either Eve or Equity.
That was a good sign,
because if a publication is
interested enough in a subject
to run a news item on it, then
it’s clearly relevant to their
readers and they may be
interested in a longer, more
in-depth piece.
It was also good because
it meant the editor would be
familiar with the story I was
hooking my pitch on, so it
wouldn‘t be a cold sell.
Before you pitch an
interview-based article, it’s a
good idea to fi gure out how
you will get the interview if
you’re commissioned to write3 2 O C T O B E R 3 1 2 0 1 9F O C U S E v e – R i o t G r r r l s o f Wre s t l i n g
‘It’s like theatre, panto and an
action movie all at the same time’
An all-female company has signed wrestling’s first code of conduct with Equity, proving that thrills and
spills in the ring are as much about performance skills as sporting prowess, writes Douglas McPhersonne of the most electrifying events this writer has ever witnessed involved a 40-stone behemoth
called Giant Haystacks. As the wild-haired man-mountain furiously leaned over the top
rope of a wrestling ring and teetered precari
Theatre, the entire audience waved its fists and roared back at ously above the orchestra pit of Wimbledon
his taunting. My mum, brandishing an umbrella in the stalls,
certainty was that neither the worlds of theatre noWas it sport or pantomime, fighting or chicanery? The only r sport would
always lurked on the shady fringes of entertainmentHistorically, the ‘boo-hiss’ world of professional wrestling has , alongside
circus freak shows and fairground fortune-tellers, claiming to
revealed that the Saturday-afternoon bouts on ITV’s World of In 1985, when renegade grappler Tony ‘Banger’ Walsh
with an all-female cast is battling to establish it as a legitimate Today, by contrast, a groundbreaking wrestling promotion
strand of performance art, and to gain its participants professional recognition as actors and stunt people. In August, Eve- Riot Grrrls of Wrestling, which has around 40 wrestlers on
its books, signed wrestling’s first code of conduct with Equity.“Wrestling is one of the most under-appreciated forms
of storytelling,” says Emily Read, a lifelong grapple fan who
founded Eve with her husband Dann. “It’s like theatre, panto
“When you go to a wrestling show, you’re not watching a
wrestling show – you’re watching a live-action stuna wrestling show,” Dann continues. “The wrestlers at show aboutren’t
wrestlers – they’re highly skilled performers playing sporting
characters. They’re actors, stunt people and fight choreographers. They ad-lib and there’s improv, but they’re following a
over many shows, with each show comparable to an episode of Dann’s job as producer is to write storylines that play out
a TV series. “You might have two characters who were friends
but fell out when a third character got involved. Ithat they don’t fight for months but there are scenes backstage t could beDALE BRODIEThe then Greater London Council banned women from wrestling in the capital on the grounds that it was unladylike.
A prejudice against female performers lingers in the business