More Fun Reading on the Importance of Writing

I came across this article from Newsweek this morning talking to several different authors about why and how they do what they do, and I thought it fit in well with the idea of doing something because you’re really passionate about it, you want to do it and you can’t imagine yourself doing anything else with your time.

While these writers are novelists and nonfiction book writers, I think they have a lot to say to on-staff and freelance article writers about the importance of craft, of passion, of editing, of not taking criticism too seriously and not listening to other people who think your ideas are crazy (unless that person happens to be your editor, of course).

I like what they say about a little bit of madness being involved in writing, because the process isn’t always easy, and there are times when even well-established writers want to quit because they aren’t getting any traction at the time.

I also really enjoyed the part about editing, writing first drafts on paper and the difference between editing on paper, on screen and reading your work out loud (I think all three should be part of a really thorough editing job, so it was nice to see all three mentioned).

Check the article out if you need a little inspiration today, or just want a sneak peek into how some of the greats get the job done.

One for the Students, or Is Any Job Better than No Job?

If you follow media and journalism websites, you know that there have been a lot of articles this year addressing the sorry state of working in the media in general and freelancing in particular (I’ve written about some of these stories, good and bad, in the past).

A new one on the subject has to do with whether someone straight out of journalism school, who thought they were doing everything right but still ended up working in an ice cream shop instead of a newsroom, should pack it in and accept that journalism isn’t for them or keep trying to become a freelancer even if their heart isn’t in it right now.

The answer isn’t exactly inspiring (basically if you’re meant to be a journalist it’s going to be hard and break your heart, but you’ll go through it anyway because you have stories to tell). There is a big element of truth in that. Getting started, particularly in the current climate, can be really frustrating. It’s a lot easier mentally and financially if you have some other job to work from as you build up clips and a client list.

I’d say this person is actually in a great position to keep going on building a freelance career if he or she can find the motivation to do so. A full-time job is certainly not a big impediment to working on a freelance basis for other clients — I’m living proof of that. Having a job that isn’t in any way similar to freelancing I think would be a great thing, too, because of less risk of burnout. (It was really hard for me some days to look at words all day then try to write at night.)

Once again it’s as much an issue of mindset and attitude as it is about actually finding the work. Yes, you have to get work to get paid, but to get beyond that feeling of “why even bother?” you’ve got to feel like what you’re trying to do is what you really want to do.

If you’re not feeling motivated because you’re afraid of failure, that’s one thing. If you’re unmotivated because you don’t think freelance writing is what you want to do with your life, that’s quite another problem and you should stick with your day job until you find the thing you can’t not do.

Fear we can deal with. Do your one thing. Hook up with someone in a similar situation, in person or online. Apply for jobs. Send queries. Take the suck jobs if you have to. You’ve got to pay your dues if you want to stop singing the blues, and it don’t always come easy.

Remember that, and if you can work through the hard times you can be assured that it will get easier and that you’re meant to be doing what you’re doing.

Action Step: Drafting a Query

I mentioned earlier this week that writing a query is similar to writing an article in that you need to write a compelling lede and tell a story that the prospective editor wants to buy. Writing a query is also like writing an article in that it shouldn’t ever be done in a single draft or written and sent in one sitting.

Like any other quality piece of writing, you need time away from your query before you reread and send it to make sure that you included all the most important relevant information and shared it in the most interesting way that you can.

You don’t want to spend so much time ruminating on a query that it never gets sent (believe me, I’ve been there, and the most brilliant query own’t get you a story if the opportunity to write about it has passed), but if you can give it overnight to steep before a final edit and send, you’ll be better off for it.

First off, you’ll catch gramatical errors, missing words and other problems more easily when the writing isn’t as fresh. It will also give you more distance from the writing to see if you’re saying everything you need to say in the way you mean to say it.

If you were the editor, would you give yourself this assignment based just on this query? If not, you’ve got more work to do.

So take some time to write up a draft of your query, but remember to give it time to percolate before you print it out to mail or hit send. You’ll be glad you did, and probably more successful as you spend more time really paying attention to your queries.

Query Writing Workshop: The Lede’s the Thing

Just as in article writing, the most important part of your query is the first sentence or two, known in newspaper parlance as “the lede” (sometimes also spelled lead, but old-school folks go with the strange spelling).

And just as it takes practice and maybe a few rounds of writing to get the lede of an article just right, it also takes some time to get the beginning of your query just right, but it is no doubt worth all the time that it takes.

As with the article itself, you’re looking to hook a reader (in this case the editor) with your query. You want to interest her or him enough to keep reading long enough to learn more about your proposed story and about you such that she or he will want to work with you.

Classic Lede Ideas

There are many different ways to write an effective lede for a query and for an article; in fact, it’s a great idea to think of the beginning of your query as if it were the beginning of your story. If you were writing the article itself, what would be the most important fact that you would want to share.

In some cases you can start a query as you would a story with a surprising fact or a “did you know…” sort of question that immediately engages the reader. Or you can tell a short story about a person involved in your story or that somehow brings readers into the story.

I’ve started queries with almost newsy ledes (for example one on local ice storm recovery efforts began with something along the lines of “On January 27, 2009, a powerful ice storm swept through Northwest Arkansas, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power for days and knocking down an estimated 500,000 cubic yards of debris in one city alone.” The idea of the article was to look at how a region that is well known for its natural beauty recovers from a storm that’s so devastating to the scenery.

Another Way to Consider

I’ve read that some people who have a particular experience that’s important to selling a story will start their queries with a bit of personal information rather than a taste of what the story will be about. That might work in some cases, but I think you’ve really got to do all you can to get the editor hooked into your story as quickly as possible.

If the person reading your query doesn’t care about your credentials or thinks leading off with why you’re the perfect person to write a story is conceited, you’ve lost the assignment before the editor even knows what you were proposing.

The only exception I might see is if you were proposing a first-person story in which it mattered that you had gone through the experience you’re talking about. But even then I might start with an anecdote rather than a list of credentials.

Take Your Time

The point of all this is just to say that query writing takes time. Beyond that first paragraph, you’ve got to put together a compelling argument for your story and you as the author of that article without ever explicitly saying “I’m the perfect person to tell this story to your readers.”

It’s a balancing act that takes practice, but like article writing itself, it gets easier the more you do it. So get out there and write some queries!

Query Writing 101

Now that we’ve spent a couple of weeks looking at potential markets for story ideas and hopefully coming up with some more great ideas to query, it’s high time to start actually sending out queries. In ways querying has become a lot easier than it used to be because many publications accept or even demand queries by e-mail, but the process is also a bit more complicated by having the option of mailing or e-mailing queries and following proper etiquette for your method of choice.

Find out what the magazine wants

The first step to a successful query is determining how the publication wants to receive your query. If you have writer’s guidelines for the publication, odds are good these will tell you whether to query by mail or e-mail and who to direct your query to.

If you’re not finding this information you may be able to e-mail a general information e-mail for the publication (know that sometimes you won’t get a response this way) or simply call up the publication and ask how to direct queries and who they should go to (get the proper spelling of the person’s name and always double check if the person is male or female if you use a “Dear Sir/Madam” salutation).

Give it to them

Your writer’s guidelines may provide you with more information about what the publication is looking for when it comes to queries, such as whether you should send clips and how many, if you should write a letter of introduction for assignments rather than query a specific story idea and so on.

Whatever tips or advice are given in the guidelines should be followed to the letter; in a way this is a test to ensure that you can follow directions.

Short and sweet

One of the most important qualities in a good query is brevity. Like a good resume, a good query usually shouldn’t run on for more than a page printed out or, say, about 500 words in an e-mail. In this space you need to introduce yourself and any relevant experience you have as well as share your story idea and the basics of what you envision for the story (a particular format, whether you’ll have pictures, etc.).

It can take a lot of practice to say all you need to say in a small space. There’s a lot of editing and rewriting involved in a good query, which is all good practice for actually writing the story.

Make sure you always get the main points across:

• Who you are and what relevant experience you have
• What is the basic idea of the story you want to write?
• Why are you the person to write it?
• Mention any big publications or awards you have received
• Include complete contact information (e-mail and phone)

Kindly querying

While e-mailing queries feels a lot simpler than sending them by mail, there are some potential pitfalls. The most important is never to send attachments to people unless they have asked for them. Some companies have policies against opening attachments.

If you have clips that can be accessed on the web, simply send links instead of copies of the article. Anything you need to send that you would normally attach should be copied and pasted into the body of the e-mail.

When sending regular mail, many companies still ask for a self-addressed stamped envelope, which is usually used to send a form letter to decline using your article. Many experts say such an envelope is no longer necessary, and companies that want to work with you wouldn’t contact you by mail anyway. It’s up to your preference whether you want to include one.

Of course the most important part of query writing is grabbing the editor’s attention and selling yourself and your particular story. We’ll talk about that in more depth as the week continues.

Action Step: Go Magazine “Shopping”

Whether you do this at your local library or the bookstore, whether you just browse or actually buy, sometime in the next few days peruse a couple of magazines that you wouldn’t normally buy (you can also do this at a friend’s house if he or she gets magazines you don’t normally look at).

This week I picked up the Oxford American and Fit Pregnancy.

The idea is to look through the magazines with the article idea game in mind. Even if you’d never pitch to these particular magazines, are there articles inside that get you thinking about things you could pitch to other markets? Or is there a department or feature in the magazine that makes you think you might have something to pitch to that publication after all?

Pay attention, too, to the market research aspects we’ve been talking about. What do the ads, stories and tone of the magazine tell you about who reads it? Can you imagine or write up a sketch of the sort of person who might read the magazine?

Thinking about the potential readers of a magazine is really good practice because it will get you thinking of the target audience for any article you migth write for that publication, which should color the way you write your query (which we’ll talk much more about next week).

The Article Idea Game

While we’re looking through magazines this week, I thought I’d share one my favorite ways for getting story ideas, which can be called the article idea game or the game of five.

Playing the game simply involves looking through or reading a magazine and coming up with five story ideas based on what you see. Of course you don’t want to copy articles exactly, but it’s easy to use the articles you read (or the pictures, ads, or letters to the editor in a magazine) to come up with new spins on an article.

The Game in Action

As an example, the only magazine I can reach without getting up right now is the April issue of Health. Flipping through, here are a few ideas for articles I might explore:

1. How does fiber affect energy level and health? (That’s from a Metamucil ad.)
2. How to save money on your exercise routine (from the letter from the editor)
3. How do natural sweeteners stack up against more processed ones? (from an item talking about antioxidants in honey and molasses)
4. Five-minute energy boosters (an article about health issues that could be behind your always feeling tired)
5. How to perfect your posture (a reader asked about what could be behind her slump)

That took me less than 10 minutes and I got to page 80 in the magazine. Those were completely off the top of my head ideas, but they’d all be potentially marketable somewhere.

Getting into the habit of doing something like this not only forces you to pay attention to what you’re reading, it reinforces the fact that ideas are everywhere, which in turn gets you into an abundance mindset on issues beyond your article subject matter.

More Market Research: Get the Magazine

In the age of the Internet and every publication having a website, it feels a little old fashioned to recommend as a vital part of your market research that you try to get your hands on an issue or two of any print publication that you are planning to send a query to.

Yes, you can learn a lot from browsing a website, but it doesn’t tell you much about how a writer’s work is presented in the print world, how most people see it and the way you’re likely to use it as a clip.

Are stories long and heavily illustrated, or are briefs more common? Are there lots of ads, and do they get in the way of the stories?

Looking at an actual paper copy of a magazine lets you know the quality of the paper and print job involved, which may be important to you if you’re looking for a showcase clip. Reading a few stories gives you a great idea of the tone (and the ability of the magazine’s editors) and focus of the magazine, helping you decide how your article should be slanted for that particular market.

You’ll also learn something about the kind of people who read the magazine by looking at the ads. Are they for luxury cars or baby gear? You’re probably writing a very different story for each of these two hypothetical publications.

How to Get Your Hands on Copies

It’s possible you already subscribe to some of your potential market magazines. If you don’t, you could buy them on the newsstand or browse through them at your favorite bookstore.

Of course with regional and specialty publications you won’t always be able to find them on store shelves, so you may need to order a copy direct from the publication’s website. Sometimes magazines offer a discounted rate for a sample issue for a potential freelancer; check the website for more information.

You can also ask around on Twitter or Freecycle to see if anyone you’re in contact with has a copy of the magazine. A recent issue is best because editorial focus can change quickly (and you don’t want to query something they’ve just run an article on), but any issue from the past few months should still be helpful, along with the website, to give you a good bit of information about what kind of magazine this is you’ll potentially be writing for.

Action Step: Find a New Market

Now that we’ve been talking about how to do market research and one way to store the information that you find, I’ll hope you’ll take some time this week to find a new market for an article you’ve been thinking about. Here are some more tips for finding a good market for your story.

Consider the angle

One story idea could potentially be a good fit for a bunch of different magazines. Going back to our green example, a story full of eco-tips could run happily in a magazine geared toward environmentalists or conservationists, a gardening magazine, a women’s publication, or a local newspaper.

The difference for each of these markets would be the slant you put on the story. This is a big topic I’m sure I’ll write more about in the future, but the idea is to keep in mind the differing audiences of different publications, as well as the tone, format and style of articles you see in the publication, when deciding exactly how to slant your story for that market.

Consider Your Experience

Of course we all want to write for the big glossy magazines, but it usually isn’t realistic to query the big boys first off early in your career. Many of the national publications you see on newsstands require that you have clips from other big magazines before they’ll even consider your query.

But that doesn’t mean you have to write your story for your town’s free weekly. There are tons of smaller, regional and specialist publications that still pay really well even if they don’t have the high profile of writing for Cosmo or Woman’s Day.

Consider Your Needs

What would you like to get out of this article? Would you like to see a jump in pay from the publications you normally write for? Do you need or want a quick turnaround on the article? Do you want to be able to provide pictures?

As writers we should have expectations of the experience we’re going to have with a particular article. Sometimes you can match those expectations to a worthwhile market by looking at the publication’s editorial calendar, how much lead time they ask for and whether you’re allowed or expected to provide your own art, for example.

The only way to learn these things is through great market research. So pick an idea that’s been simmering in your head for a while, brainstorm a list of potential markets, do an online search to find more, and start collecting the basic information about the publication, how to query it (we’ll cover that soon, too), what they pay and so on.

Feel free to leave a comment to let us know how its going or with any questions you might have.

Keeping Track of Market Info

One of the biggest organizational problems I still face as a freelancer is keeping track of market information for various publications that I might want to write for some day. Some of this information comes from websites, some from e-mails, some from reading a publication and thinking “oh, I’d like to write a story for them some day.”

Admittedly I’m not spending a lot of time looking for new markets right now, but one thing I’m trying out in the hope that it will keep me a little more organized on these issues is Evernote. If you don’t know about it, it’s a cool little free (or you can get a paid version, but I use the free one) program that allows you to copy portions of web pages into your account (say, just the contact information and editorial calendar, not all the ads), as well as pictures you take with your camera or computer, audio and video clips and more.

You can write notes to yourself (say, keeping a running tab of story ideas arranged by different tags) and you can access your information on a PC, Mac, your phone or through the web. They have a Twitter account you can use to tweet yourself information, or you can use a custom e-mail address to e-mail items to your account.

Adding general tags (for different kinds of markets, for example) makes it super easy to find what you’re looking for when you need it, but you can also use the search function to find relevant documents or pictures (it can even “read” the pictures and show you pics with those particular words in them).

The Evernote folks call the program an “external brain.” I’m not using it quite enough to go that far, but I do have a somewhat extensive collection of craft projects I want to make, items to blog about for one client, links to important information for another client, recipes and more.

I have tags for freelance writing and marketing resources, markets and story ideas, and I could add more extensive notes, research and other information to these as I flesh them out to write queries.

There are plenty of other programs like this out there (if you have one you like, I’d love to hear about it) but I find Evernote to be a useful, easy, powerful program that helps me keep little bits of information easily accessible in one place. And that’s a very good thing when it comes to juggling tons of market information (or anything else, for that matter).

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