Yesterday, I told you I would talk a little about how to break one article idea into several. It’s a matter of looking beyond the parameters of your original concept—viewing the topic from many different angles. Here are some examples from my own files:
From my piece featuring healing gardens that are planted in hospitals and healing centers, I created additional articles focusing on how to plant a healing garden at home, how various individuals use gardening as therapy, examples of how gardening helps troubled kids, an overview of programs that use gardening therapy and a piece on raised bed gardening for people who have limited movement, for example.
This theme could be expanded to include healing herb gardens, mental health and gardening, special tools for the disabled gardener, how to get your children involved in gardening, growing veggies for your mental and physical health and so forth.
I once wrote an article on long-distance grandparenting—how to bond with your grandchildren even at a distance. This was such a popular theme that I wrote a book on the topic. It was published by Liguori Publications. I also expanded this idea into several additional articles—tips for being a better grandparent, using your voice to bond with a long-distance child (through phone calls and recordings), activities for grandparents visiting their grandchildren, how to choose gifts for long-distance grandchildren, how to establish and maintain family traditions in today’s whirlwind world, scrapbooking for grandparents and grandkids, teaching values at a distance, teaching grandchildren money awareness, how to share religious principles with long-distance grand children and others.
I wrote about horses and their care for a long time when I first started out in this business. Anyone who isn’t involved with horses might wonder, what could you possibly write about after you share your favorite horse story—“I acquired my first horse when I was 12, we had these adventures together, I loved that horse.”
Here are some of the articles I wrote around the theme of horses: how to make chaps for horseshows, how to make an equitation suit, hairdos for horseshows, trail riding etiquette, a humorous piece about being a horseshow mom, what to do with all of those horseshow ribbons, the story of a harrowing horse accident, how to care for the older horse, how to place higher in horseshows, an interview with a horseshoer, how to prepare for your foal and others.
Are you getting the idea? You may want, more than anything, to write about your experiences as the caretaker of a feral cat colony. Cool idea. But this should not be a flash in the pan story. Expand on the topic by profiling the lives of a few individual cats in the colony, by breaking the stories down into several separate articles or by creating children’s stories from some of them, for example. Write articles featuring the plight of abandoned cats in the US using statistics and expert quotes. This is an important issue, so pitch it to regional magazines in many counties and states. Write a piece on animal control policies and how they are helping or could do better. Tell the story of individuals who are helping in the effort to prevent homeless cats.
Write for national magazines and then alter your piece to fit regional publications. Turn your topic every which way and, not only will you have the opportunity to make a lot more money, you’ll be getting more exposure for yourself and your pet topic.
If you have one topic and only one idea for an article, take time this weekend to rethink your options and the possibilities. I’d love a report after your session. How many additional ideas did you come up with when you really put your mind to it?
Patricia Fry Appears in New Book on Editing
Yahoo! I’m in another book. That must bring the number of books to which I’ve contributed to a dozen or more. The latest book was written by the founder of SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network), Mary Embree. It’s called, Starting Your Career as a Freelance Editor, A Guide to Working with Authors, Books, Newsletters, Magazines, Websites, and More. (Allworth Press)
Mary interviewed me about how I got started as a book editor. If you’re an editor or would like to be, you can purchase this book at amazon.com or at the publishing company’s website. I’m sure it is available (or will be soon) at bookstores, as well.