Are you trying to make ends meet by submitting articles to magazines? I think most of you, who read my blog regularly, know that I made my living writing articles for magazines for many years. Some of you do so occasionally. But, when times get financially difficult and you need extra money, you might decide to expand your article-submission activities.
Probably the number one problem facing article writers is, coming up with the article idea. And that’s why I blog about this from time to time. Today, I’m going to talk about discovering and creating article ideas when you’re not in work mode—sitting at your computer, brainstorming over your morning coffee or even meditating, for example.
Develop article ideas (and for that matter, story ideas, plots, subplots or even poetry) throughout the course of your daily life. Get out and mingle with people, visit over the fence with neighbors, exchange emails and phone calls, try new life experiences (take the train to the next town instead of driving, adopt a cat, tour open houses on Sunday, for example). And then observe, initiate conversation and become a good listener.
Just this morning, before I had my morning decaf—my eyes still a bit bleary from sleep—I read an email from a friend in St. Louis. Sandy wrote about one of her cats who seems to be under the weather. I know that she is in the middle of remodeling her home and I thought back to when we had some major work done around here and how much stress it seemed to put on a couple of our cats. Immediately, I decided to pitch an article to Cat Fancy Magazine on how to de-stress your cat or maybe how to keep your cat calm even when your household is chaotic. (I’ll do some research and see if this is something they’ve done recently or if there is an angle that hasn’t been covered, yet.)
I had a conversation with someone the other day about inside versus outside kitties. I won’t be suggesting that idea to the editors at Cat Fancy, unless the piece is totally pro inside cat, as this is what they advocate. Nor would I write a piece for them that would in any way upset cat breeders as these are Cat Fancy’s major supporters/advertisers .
What are you doing with the information, thoughts, points of view, observations, etc. that you come across throughout your day? Do you consider how you could develop an article from them or does the idea just dissipate as quickly as it appears? Think about some of the article ideas you missed just this week. For example:
1: Are you dealing with unusual weather for your area? How about an article for a regional magazine featuring some of the county’s worst weather over the years. Talk to local nursery-people about which plants/trees need to be protected from frost, wind, etc. and how to do so. What are some of your neighbors and friends doing to entertain themselves in the bad weather? Collect some warming, comforting recipes to share. Start a newspaper column designed to help residents of your town connect with people, services and situations they can use in dire weather conditions, disasters or life situaitons. For example, is there a group of high school students who are shoveling driveways for the elderly, folks who run errands for shut-ins, do people need nudging (through your article or column) to get out and check on their neighbors? What about keeping pets comfortable in extreme weather? Now there’s one or many more articles right there.
2: Get out and find some ideas. As I said, listen and observe. Strike up conversations with people. You never know when you’re going to hear a fresh point of view about the economy, for example. What about this: what’s going on in the economy is similar to a wildfire in the forest. While it is disastrous at the time, it is necessary in order to bring a natural balance back to the environment. (Let me know if you use this in an article or book.) I was talking to a former classmate at our Old Broads Luncheon last week and she told me that she really wanted to attend a mutual friend’s art show, but had another engagement that day. It occurred to me how important it is for friends to support friends in their endeavors, for writers to support other writers and artists to support other artists. How about a piece featuring the value in acknowledging the accomplishments and activities of others? I remember once, during one of my first book signings, someone I knew only slightly sent a fax to the bookstore congratulating me on my latest book. This was before the Internet and the fax were commonplace.
This week, Debbie and Karen emailed me with an opportunity to write a column. I emailed Karen back to say, “thank you” and to tell her that Debbie had already sent that to me. Karen wrote saying that she remembers meeting Debbie at a SPAWN function years ago and told me how much the talk Debbie gave that night helped inspire her move forward with her own writing career. I asked writer Karen if I could send her comments to Debbie. Of course, she agreed. Now, the Debbie is aware that she touched someone in a positive way and her day was made. Isn’t this a great reminder to all of us to tell others how their kindness or their message inspired, encouraged or taught us? And wouldn’t this make a good article?
3: Even if you’re stuck at home, you can come up ideas. Turn on the radio or TV, read the newspaper, dig out those magazines you haven’t had time to read, surf the net. Oh my gosh, you will be inundated with ideas for articles on many varieties of topics from walking dogs in the winter, to tips for creative ways to photograph babies, to what goes into making a baseball, to how to groom a Cairn terrier, to a philosophical perspective on any number of topics, to how to make sure your emails are read by what you type in the Subject Line, to how to appropriately clean a toilet.
I’ve been writing this blog for over 3 years and I’ve posted over 400 blog posts. If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time or if you have visited my archives, you know that I write on a variety of topics in a variety of ways. And my ideas come from all over the place. You, too, can be a fountain of article/story ideas if you would only come out of your shell, listen and observe.
You’ll find more articles on this and other writing/publishing-related topics at my site: http://www.matilijapress.com