Freelancer of the fortnight: Tina Walsh, UK

Click here to view Tina Walsh's full freelance profile on Journalism.co.uk.

Why did you choose to become a freelancer?
I started out on trade magazines and somehow found myself writing for an electronics magazine, which was fine up to a point but it got to the stage where I thought my head would explode if I had to write about another smartcard or motherboard.

If you trained, where? If not, how did you become a freelancer?
I didn't do any formal training but did some part-time features writing courses at City University in London, which were very good. When I first started freelancing I did lots of subbing shifts - relatively easy to come by then - and then gradually started pitching story ideas to features and travel editors.

Do you specialise in any particular field and what areas do you write about?
Mostly travel, lifestyle and food but I'll have a go at anything, even tech stories, as long as it's not describing how a motherboard works.

Which publications have you been published in?
The Times, Daily Mail, the Guardian, Daily Express, Time, Delicious magazine, Press Association, AOL.

Which articles, in which publication, are you the most proud of?
I'm quite fond of a piece I wrote for the Times on a Benedictine monk who runs a cider-making business on the side. Other than that, the travel articles I write for Time... because it's Time!

What are the best and worst aspects of freelancing?
The best is the variety and, in my case, the great press trips I get to go on. The worst is when work is thin on the ground and you think you're going to starve to death.

Do you have any interesting anecdotes in relation to your experience as a freelancer?
I think it's quite funny when you ask non-journalists what they think you earn for a 1,000-word feature and they say, "Ooh, £3,000 or so?"

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