I never thought that I could write for publication, but many of my flying experiences have been published in Pilot Magazine when James Gilbert was at the helm. I started shortly after I got my PPL in about 1972 when I was encouraged to have a go and so I produced a piece on my first experiences of foreigh flying when I flew a C150 on the other side of the Atlantic. There were no computers then, so I wrote it out in double spaced longhand and, as I can never get things right when I first put things down on paper, crossed out words and changed phrases several times before I was satisfied. Then I got out the typewriter and typed it out again adding more corrections as I went. I knew that the English grammar had to be correct and the spelling faultless or I would stand no chance, so with photographs and much trepidation, I put the whole lot in the post and to my great suprise, received a cheque within a week. With boosted confidence I wrote several other articles concerning my experiences obtaining my flying instructor's rating, when I was offered the opportunity to fly in an Airship and when I obtained my CPL. A few articles were rejected for perfectly valid reasons, but the advent of computers with word processing programmes made life for me so much easier! Towards the end of James Gilbert's reign I submitted, and got published a couple of "I learned about flying from that" pieces. I did a further one for his successor, who appeared to like it, but whether he published it or not I don't know. I just know that I never got paid for it! Great guidance has been given above for aspiring authors of magazine articles and more is available in the Writers Handbook which "all good bookshops" - and the one which refers to a certain South American river invariably stock.
It is, however essential to ensure that all writing is error free as editors do not have time to correct what is written - it will mean an automatic rejection. I tended to find that by the time I had written and then read and re-read and re-read ad infinitum any article I was preparing for publication, I knew it by heart! It is also so easy to e-mail an editor nowadays setting out a brief synopsis of a proposed article to see if they are interested.
P.P.