Dickens the Journalist
Dickens began his writing career as a journalist reporting on parliament and wrote short sketches which were his first published pieces of fiction. He based many of his characters and plots on the people he met and events he experienced during his reporting days. He honed his writing abilities also learned shorthand, a skill he used throughout his life. He later founded his own newspaper, The Daily News, as well as two literary magazines which he edited, Household Words and All the Year Round. Many of his stories shone a light on real issues of the day and Dickens used his journalistic skills to research and reveal these issues to his reading public.
