Idea Catcher Notebook for Magazine Article Ideas

Okay, knowing your niche market. getting paid for freelance magazine article work, all that's left to grow is to keep those article ideas green and growing. Certainly the clippings files of interesting ideas are growing fatter and staying organized. What's left to do? What's next is to start your ever-present notebook idea catcher, or if there already is one, to expand on how its used and keep it going. They don't get carried around day-in and night-out for only the most profound thoughts and headiest quotes. Those kind of journals end up under the bed covered in dust. They are for musings, intriguing comments and questions heard or stumbled upon, reactions to news, relationship updates, reading responses and questions; descriptions and solutions to problems--you could even draw mini mind-maps. There is so much to write about that will jar loose so much more. Perhaps you're on a bus or a train and it's going to be a moderately long ride. Get out your notebook and write about what your life's mission is. Take the position of a soul searcher, a seeker after truth and justice, an adventurer or a wanderer and write what you think, feel and observe from one of those identities. Go to a movie and if it affects you, write a mini-review. Record dreams and fantasies. What do they suggest about your waking life? Put yourself into the life of an intriguing stranger you noticed. What is their life like? What do they do? What do they dream about? What do they believe? Do they love? Get into it. Get into objects. Arrange them into still lifes and try to understand them from an artistic perspective. What do you do to them and why? Which do you prefer? Write about the experience. What did you learn? Describe your pets. Write characterizations about them. You didn't know them as well as you do now when you named them. Do they suit their names? What would you name them now, if not. What one word would you use to describe your pet? What do you think your pet thinks about, if you think your pet thinks? List major changes in your past life, present life, those coming up and those you would like to make in your future life. Remember as you write to be as specific as you can. Use plenty of sensory words that also can jar the memory and bring forth ideas. Create the sights, sounds, smells and textures for the reader even if the reader is only going to be you. At times go back over earlier entries and rewrite something that grabs you or fashion it into something else--perhaps an article? Take yourself on field trips just for the sake of your idea catcher: a walk in the woods, a trip to the park, a walk along the beach, a trip downtown--all enjoyed in detailed description in your notebook. Sit at a coffee shop and collect bits of overheard conversation. Some people make entire blogs out of these bits and some imagination. The part of the conversation you're not privy to is as engaging as what you do hear. Soon these snippets will grow and flower and become living, breathing articles. Each notation is like a dandelion after the flower has faded and only the skeleton is left. Blow on this feathers and watch what they can become.

Some All Too Common Mistakes Made By Novice Freelance Magazine Writers

1. First big mistake: sending in a totally wrong query letter. Now this query may be wrong because you didn't bother to read the freelance guidelines which clearly state that article submission is preferable to sending a query. Or it may be wrong because you never bothered getting a sample copy of the magazine and, therefore, have no idea what the demographics are--who they write for, what the tone is, what the features usually address--nothing--and this shows through loud and clear in your query. Maybe if you had read the guidelines, you'd know that they only deal with writers' agents and you could have saved yourself some time and trouble. Too bad you're too cheap to buy or subscribe to "Writers' Market"? Or perhaps the query is so terribly wrong because you didn't bother to even run the spell check no less proofread it for mistakes of capitalization, punctuation, grammar, etc. and you've just told an editor you're not really a writer just a mad typer. Finally, it could have been so far, far from being the right query letter because a good query convinces an editor that an article would be right for his magazine, meaning that it is sizzling, attention-grabbing and well-written. And you practically skipped over the expected paragraph about why you are particularly well-suited to write this article for this magazine. Having a B.S. in Biology doesn't convince an editor you are qualified to write about home decor, nor does college membership in that sorority you mentioned. 2. The article you submitted had no lead, for starters. It not only didn't grab the reader, it was so mundane and run-of-the-mill it made him want to just set down the article down and walk away. 3. The flat writing continued throughout the article like last week's 7-Up. There was no inspiration, no real shred of interest shown by the writer. There were too many cliche's and adverbs and not enough facts to make the generalizations ring true. 4. Again, how does a writer submit an article in today's cyber world without at least running the spell check on it? And why not just get a red marker and write "amateur" across the top of the thing if you insist on giving "it's' an apostrophe for possession not "it is"? And what about misspelling simple words like "decor" and "scheme". And if it had been proofread by anyone, perhaps someone would have noticed the use of the word "marvelous" in every other sentence. That is called gushing and it really doesn't have a place in most objective magazine review writing. 5. You submitted a seasonal article for a seasonal issue the magazine already put to bed three months ago. Publishing time is not like real time. In publishing time, Christmas has come and gone and so has Valentine's Day. 6. Your article is 1,500 words long. Had you read the guidelines you would have known that the maximum length they accept is 600 words. 7. Having shared some ego-deflating truths about the query and article, one can't help but wonder if it were actually wise and expedient to call the editor three times to inquire about its status? 8. It's a mistake to grieve early or even middle or late rejections. They are as much a part of writing as buying another ink cartridge for the printer or researching freelance help wanted ads. Paper your walls with them like some of the great writers did. Don't give up--just vow to do better next time. Spend more time on getting to know the market and the magazine. Do your homework. Research your demographics. Outline your articles. And, please, ask at least three friends to proofread and edit it for you.

Meet ED2010: A Website Every Freelance Magazine Writer Should Know

It may  the best magazine writing site going. It has lots of what you need and want. And it's not written in a slick, hard to take business style but a down-to-earth conversational one. ED2010 writes on its "About" section that it is: ...a community of young magazine editors and magazine-editor wannabes who want to learn more about the industry so we can fulfill our dreams of landing top editing and writing positions in the magazine industry... They go on to say that it was born in New York City, but now they have chapters in cities across the U.S., Canada, and in the U.K. They also have college campus chapters. It costs nothing to join. They only ask that you read their blogs, comment on their message boards, and look over the WhisperJobs. Oh, and they sponsor happy hours in your town and towns across the country. Great networking, huh? There is a lot of talk in the freelance press and Internet websites now about what rates freelancers charge, and what rates they should charge. Deborah Ng of Freelance Gigs did an anonymous survey recently, and the results weren't pretty. They were especially ugly now that there seems to be an increasing number of job postings that want to pay one dollar per article. ED2010 has real magazine industries anonymously post some of their positions, geographic locations. job perks and salaries. You can get a solid idea of what actual people at your level are making as they begin their careers, and an idea of what to hope to make later on. ED2010 provides an indispensable glossary to the jargon of magazine writing and publishing. Here's one acronym you don't want to find on your draft from your editor: "MEGO" = "my eyes glaze over". There are many more, including what all the position titles mean from market editor to copy editor. There are resources galore. "Extensive" barely covers all the job boards, freelancing sites, newspaper sites, magazine sites, writing, media and professional resources. The WhisperJobs are from all over the country and include online jobs where you can work from your home. ED even provides human resource email contact info with company email address formats for magazine staff at publishers like Conde' Nast, Hearst, and Time, Inc. There are lists of mailing addresses and phone numbers for quite a few of the heavy hitter magazine publishing companies as well. The college students' section offers internship listings, message boards, advice, and the opportunity to start an ED chapter at a college as well as attend an ED networking event that isn't a happy hour. Speaking of networking, they help manage ED book clubs across the country and will help start one in the area of any person who requests one. But don't think ED is all frivolous, light-hearted fun, games and finding jobs. There are serious blog postings about subjects like whether teen mags are going to be able to sustain their reader base because most teens want to read Cosmo; ad pages everywhere being hit by the recession; will college grads be able to get jobs in this economy next September; and are we soon going to witness the death of print magazines. The interns who write these posts include their complete profiles along with access to their other ED blogs like "Ed's Intern Diaries". The links alone would be worth the price of admission, if there were one. And there's something called "The 60-Minute Mentor Program" for new college grads seeking advice. ED2010 is the place to be for anyone who wishes to write or edit magazines

TODAY IT'S ARTICLES ON MAGAZINE WRITING

Today I am using this freelance writing blog to inform and entertain you the reader, I hope, as I publish three articles as writing samples for a position I am applying for at Suite 101.com. I have finished my first three months there, and now I am eligible to apply for a promotion to a feature writer. I just found out that there is an opening in magazine writing. I need to submit five articles on the topic with my request for this job. I wrote three so far today. I am publising them in the blog so they'll look good and be easier to attach with my request. I hope you find them useful. Okay, let's start with the next post.