When people ask me ‘How do I become a journalist?’, I have two answers. I find they pretty much cover it.

1) Be a journalist.

2) Get in touch with your local paper.

The first answer sounds facetious. It’s not. What I mean by ‘be a journalist’ is this: journalists find stories off their own back. Journalists try not to take ‘no’ for an answer. Journalists keep up with current affairs. Journalists know what the ‘hot’ topics are. Journalists cultivate contacts in all walks of life.

Journalists push editors to give them a job or get their story printed. Journalists learn how to write for the newspaper they want to work for (and ones they don’t). So that’s my first answer. Be a journalist in every way you can. Develop a nose for a story, learn how to get information from people, understand how your story can be used (or why it won’t be), push for it to be used, and read plenty of newspapers to understand the style.

The second answer is easier. Local newspapers are the lifeblood of journalism in this country. So get in touch with yours. Find out who the important people are, read it regularly, offer them some stories, whether it’s a missing garden gnome, or a controversy in the district. Do some work experience. Ring them with news. If you ‘be a journalist’ often enough and effectively enough, then they will notice.

How do I know it works? It worked for me. At the Watford Observer, I pestered and pushed, offered stories, reviews, sports reports and titbits, did some work experience, and then some more, and then some more. I ‘made’ myself a journalist before I ever got a job offer. By the time I was given the job, I was already doing it. Once you get a job offer, then you learn how to do it professionally—and I can think of no better place to be taught.

• Simon Ricketts is a former Newsquest London stalwart and is now a Sub-Editor on The Independent