Feature Writing – Ruth Dawkins Freelance Writer

February 2023: some recent writing work

February 9, 2023 DorkyMum

Black text that reads 2023 on a great background

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful, restful break over the festive period, and you’ve started 2023 feeling enthusiastic and energised!

Here in Tasmania, schools only went back a couple of days ago. While I did manage a few bits and pieces of work over the holidays, it’s nice to be getting those longer stretches of uninterrupted and focused time again.

I thought I would share links a few recent pieces of work. It’s great fun having this blog to look back on and remind myself of what a variety of projects I do each year.

Back in December, I was lucky enough to interview Hobart local Briony Kidd about her tips for visitors to Hobart. That feature was published on Guardian Australia: Platypus spotting, spontaneous nights out, and grassroots energy.
More recently, I had a piece of creative non-fiction published at one of my favourite websites, Caught by the River. That one is called Dog walking at the bottom of the world.
This interview for Brand Tasmania, with Caro and Chris Brown of Brady’s Lookout Cider was really fun to write.
And as ever, I am so grateful to CSIRO for being a regular, ongoing client. Recent pieces I’ve written for them include one for Resourceful Magazine on indicator minerals for nickel exploration, and two for ECOS on carbon sequestration and deep sea mining.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Reading

12 great reads… that have nothing to do with COVID19

April 21, 2020 DorkyMum

A flatlay image of a desk with the caption '12 great reads that have nothing to do with COVID19'

I’ll start this blog post in the same way that I have started almost every email in recent weeks: “How are you going? I hope you’re keeping well in these strange days.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m finding it essential at the moment to take time away from the news cycle. Although it’s important to stay up date with what’s happening, it’s all too easy to get sucked into endless scrolling of updated figures and bad news stories from around the world – and that’s not good for anyone’s wellbeing!

There have been days during the lockdown when I’ve really enjoyed getting stuck into a good book. But there have been other days when I’ve only had the attention span for essays and features. I’ve been keeping track of the best ones so that I can share them with you.

I hope some of these keep you engaged and entertained. Continue reading “12 great reads… that have nothing to do with COVID19” →

Feature Writing

Guardian feature on Aurora Australis

October 7, 2019October 7, 2019 DorkyMum

Screenshot of a Guardian Australia Feature on the Aurora Australis by Ruth Dawkins

I have a piece up at Guardian Australia today about the final season of the icebreaker Aurora Australis, which has spent the last thirty years transporting cargo and crew to Antarctica.

This was a lot of fun to write, and I’m very grateful to the researchers and writers who took time to speak with me.

One cool fact that didn’t make it into the article – the ship is painted the same colour as San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge!

Feature Writing, Reading

The best essays of 2019… so far!

June 19, 2019June 19, 2019 DorkyMum

Old typewriter on wooden desk with caption 'The best essays of 2019 so far' by Ruth Dawkins

According to my blog stats, a post I wrote back in 2017 about 20 Places to Read Great Personal Essays has proved to be enduringly popular. I suspect it’s mainly other writers who seek it out, looking for publications that might be a good fit to submit their own personal essays to. But perhaps there are also a few people out there – like me – who just really enjoy reading good quality essays and feature articles online.

One problem I’ve found over the years is that I tend to lose track of those favourite reads. I save the link on Facebook, or favourite it on Twitter… but then never manage to go back and read it a second time. Sometimes I forget to save it at all, which can be infuriating if I’m trying to find it again later! I’ll remember a great turn of phrase, or a theme that resonated, but no combination of Google search terms will bring the piece back to me. Continue reading “The best essays of 2019… so far!” →

Feature Writing

SBS feature on Antarctica

March 17, 2019March 17, 2019 DorkyMum

Screenshot of SBS news piece on sexism in Antarctica by Ruth Dawkins

I was really pleased to have my first piece published with SBS a couple of weeks ago. I’d written a couple of pieces for their lifestyle section – SBS Life – a while back, but never for the news section.

Timed to coincide with International Women’s Day, it was a reported piece about the gendered barriers to conducting Antarctic fieldwork, pegged on a study that was led by researchers at the University of Tasmania.

Even though the word count grew significantly from the initial commission – from 1000 words to 1600 – there was still a huge amount that I was disappointed to leave out. It was fascinating and very inspiring speaking to a number of women who work in Antarctic research – some in humanities and social sciences, others in biology and climate science – and I hope I can do a follow up piece further down the line.

If you’d like to read it, it’s here: SBS News – Even in Antarctica, women are experiencing sexism.

Copywriting, Feature Writing, freelance life

Should you ever write for free?

March 7, 2019 DorkyMum

Caption 'Should you ever write for free' above dollar bill

The question of whether a professional writer – or an aspiring professional writer – should ever write for free is one that comes up regularly in online groups and discussion forums, and it always provokes healthy debate.

One camp says no, never, absolutely not. A writer should never write for free: we should value our time and expertise; by completing work without payment we’re undercutting other writers; and besides, no-one can pay the rent with ‘exposure’.

The opposing camp would say that writers – especially those who are new to the business – need to build their experience and portfolio and writing for free is often a good way to do that.

Ever keen to find a compromise, I find myself sitting somewhat awkwardly between the two camps. Continue reading “Should you ever write for free?” →

Feature Writing, freelance life

From brainstorm to byline: the story of a story

November 12, 2018November 12, 2018 DorkyMum

Last Friday, I secured what is undoubtedly my biggest byline to date: The Washington Post. I had an essay published in their Soloish column about being catapulted unexpectedly into the role of Agony Aunt for couples all over the world.

You can read the essay here.

Along with the New York Times, WaPo is probably the ultimate publication for most op-ed and essay writers. It is a well-respected, prestigious newspaper with a huge readership and fantastic editors.

The acceptance email from the Soloish editor Lisa Bonos – which I read on my phone as I was making my son’s school lunch – prompted me to do an actual happy dance around the kitchen.

Was there whooping?

There may have been whooping. Continue reading “From brainstorm to byline: the story of a story” →

Copywriting, Feature Writing, freelance life

Mothers Always Write

April 11, 2018April 12, 2018 DorkyMum

A very quick blog update from me to share a piece that I’ve had published this week.

Mothers Always Write is one of my favourite sites to visit for beautiful poetry and non-fiction about parenting. I did an essay writing bootcamp with them a few years back which was hugely valuable in terms of the resources they provided for background reading and the one-on-one feedback on a piece of work from one of their editors. It was very reasonably priced too – I’d highly recommend it if they run another in future.

Continue reading “Mothers Always Write” →

Copywriting, Feature Writing

6 Tips for Editing Your Own Writing

November 15, 2017November 15, 2017 DorkyMum

Ruth Dawkins: 6 Tips for Editing Your Own Writing

One of the biggest differences I’ve found as I’ve started to expand my writing life to include copywriting as well as features is that as a copywriter you need to be your own editor.

Obviously if you want to make a living from writing you always need to submit your most polished work. Regardless of whether you’re sending it to an editor that you have a longstanding relationship with or a brand new corporate client, you don’t want it to come back covered in red pen.

But while an editor will have a lot of experience helping writers shape their work, copywriting clients often don’t – they’re hiring you to get the words right – so you need to develop the ability to cast an editor’s keen eye over your own work.

There are a few tricks and tips that I use to help with this, and I’m sharing them with you below. Continue reading “6 Tips for Editing Your Own Writing” →

Copywriting, Feature Writing, Social Media

Where I Write

September 12, 2017September 12, 2017 DorkyMum

I’ve done more writing – paid, unpaid, copywriting, feature writing, essays, even the occasional poem – since moving to Tasmania than I’ve ever done before. And this is where I do it. My lovely desk.

Computer, cup of tea, several notepads and a complicated system of colour coded post-it notes. What more could a writer need? Continue reading “Where I Write” →