So, you’d like to write for Like the Wind? Good. And thank you – we’d LOVE to read your story.
The voices and experiences of our contributors form the backbone of each issue and open a window on the running world to the editorial team and all our readers. We often get asked questions about what and how to write a story, article or feature for LtW so we thought we’d pull together a few guidelines here which we hope will inspire and assist you.
First of all, what are we looking for;
- Investigations – e.g. historical tales or important topics. In previous editions we have published pieces about eating disorders, racism, gender issues (for example non-binary runners), historical running clubs like the New York Pioneer Club, running tattoos, the genesis of running crews and so on.
- Profiles of runners – we love to get into the head and heart of runners from the most elite race winners to those who contribute to running through the example they set to others
- Personal anecdotes – why do you run? Tell us and we may well publish your story
- Opinion pieces – what do you see happening in running in running right now that excites, angers or bothers you?
- Humorous stories – us runners tend not to take ourselves too seriously and we’re generally up for a laugh.
- Poems – we’ve had some cracking verse in LtW in the past so if you are a poet (even if you don’t know it …) we’d love to hear from you.
- Fiction – we love running stories that are fictional as much as we do true tales.
Now that you know what we are looking for, here are a few guidelines to help and inspire you to get writing. This list is not comprehensive but it is a good start:
Do:
- Be yourself (unless you’re writing fiction, of course… we do like a running-related short story). Your unique tone of voice or writing style will give your piece its own character.
- Write in a way that challenges the status quo – we created LtW to be different and we are becoming known for tackling the subjects that other running magazines don’t or won’t.
- Write as much as your story needs – we don’t do ‘bite sized’ at LtW so don’t think you have to cram the story into a couple of hundred words.
- Offer ideas on the creative and how you imagine the story being presented visually.
- Be open to ideas and suggestions from us – we’ve been publishing stories for more than 6 years now and our only focus is on telling stories in the best possible way. So we will make suggestions if we think we can help improve your piece (although it is not always the case that we can think of a way to make a piece better!)
- Pitch us before you start writing if you want to. We are happy to discuss an idea to save you from wasting time. If your idea is right for Like the Wind, we can work together on story structure, pointers for research and we’ll offer feedback as you write
- Send us a finished piece if you want to. That is great – we love reading complete submissions.
Don’t:
- Worry about grammar or sentence construction – we’ll polish it up and work with you to ensure your own voice shines through.
- Send us a race report, please. We love stories about races – geography, mental battles, how you felt etc – but not a km-by-km breakdown of the leaderboard. Our ethos is why we run, so please don’t write about session plans or training techniques. There’s a lot of information out there already about how to run, and we’d much rather hear why you choose to lace up and get out the door. That’s much more interesting.
- Sound like Wikipedia – if you like to tell us the story of a historical figure whose role in running has been overlooked or an event that shaped running, that is great. Research is obviously what stories like this are all about, but we’re after a story, not a list of facts and figures.
- Plagerise – it happened once and we will NOT let it happen again.
- Limit your imagination – LtW exists to tell stories and that is a huge canvas. We have no shareholders or board of directors to worry about. So please get creative – that is what the magazine exists for.
Our policy: we can’t usually pay for contributions, but where we can – and especially for professional writers – we will. Before we publish anything or even ask you to write a story up, we’ll have that conversation. We like to retain the right to use content for marketing the magazine. And we won’t allow anyone else to publish a piece in the magazine without the permission of the writer (except where someone or a brand is posting about a piece on their social channels to help us spread the word about LtW).
If you are a brand or a PR agency and you want to pitch us with a story, please click here.
Overall, everything we do is focused on the spirit and culture of running – it’s why we run, not how to run – and if you base your writing on that, we’d love to have the chance to publish it in Like the Wind.