Out of thin air: How to find hundreds of new ideas every day

An evening course to tell you how to come up with ideas worth pitching to commissioning editors

Course tutor: Ellie Levenson

Date: 30 May 2013
Time: 6.15-9.15pm
Venue: Friends Meeting House, Euston, NW1 2BJ
Number of places: 10 max
Cost: £95 (+ VAT)

When it comes to journalism, coming up with ideas should be the easy part, but many editors and journalists struggle to come up with fresh, relevant ideas day after day.

This evening course looks at the many ways to find inspiration for new ideas, and how to work out which publication they might work best for.

By the end of the session the problem won't be not having enough ideas, but working out which ones of the many you should pitch, leaving you in an ideal position to make the most of the Christmas, summer and other holiday periods when staff journalists are away and opportunities for freelancers are plentiful.

About Ellie Levenson

Ellie Levenson is a freelance journalist writing features and comment for a range of national newspapers and magazines.

Publications she has written for include the Guardian, The Times, the Independent, Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, New Statesman, TES, THES, Cosmopolitan, Mother & Baby, Easy Living, Sugar and Chat.

She is the former editor of Fabian Review at the Fabian Society and is a part-time lecturer in journalism at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Ellie is also the author of two non fiction books, The Noughtie Girl's Guide to Feminism (2009) and Fifty Campaigns to Shout About (2011), both published by Oneworld Publications.

Testimonials

"Ellie is obviously bursting with ideas but what is really brilliant is that she makes you realize that you are too! She breaks it all down to very manageable steps, and before you know it you have a long list of ideas for stories, it is just a matter of which story to start with first! Very friendly, very helpful, definitely recommended to anyone stewing over what to write about next." Louise FitzGerald

"Ellie Levenson ran an excellent course for think tank researchers on article writing. From the perfect pitch to top tips on how to start, structure and end, her training was practical, applicable and memorable. She also offered personalised feedback and on-going advice after the training day. Super helpful, extremely effective." Richard Darlington, Head of News, IPPR

"What I really appreciate about Ellie is that she is approachable, encouraging, and enthusiastic as well as extremely talented. As one of her students on the MA Journalism programme at Goldsmiths College from 2006-2007, I felt like she really cared about all of our individual career interests and academic needs. Ellie was always there to take extra time before or after class to help. She was very highly regarded by all of the students on our journalism course." Rebecca Smith

"Ellie taught the journalism course that I was taking at Goldsmiths. Her enthusiasm towards journalism combined with her in-depth knowledge and experience of the subject makes her an all round fantastic teacher." Sophie Brown