Thursday, April 14, 2011

The Fine Print

Please comment and/or "like" my essay - The Fine Print - on Open.Salon.com

If it gets enough interest, it might get published!

I published this previously on this blog, under the series Five Years Later, parts one through eight.

On the advice of my superb editor, Jill Costello of Costello Editorial Services, I revised this to be more of a personal essay than a piece of science writing.

I originally wrote this piece five years ago, and it has been interesting to see it evolve. In my opinion, it's the best it's ever been.

Monday, April 4, 2011

My Top Four Tips for Telling Your Own Stories

Tomorrow I am participating in a panel discussion for grandparents who are interested in writing about their experiences raising their grandchildren. We’re going to talk to them about some ideas for getting started with their writing. In doing some brainstorming, this is what I came up with. Here are my top four tips for anyone who wants to get started telling their own stories:
  • Write everyday (journaling, blogging)
    I have journals at home that I use to write notes in as ideas come up. I also write in this blog, ideally 2-3 times per week. You need to write down your experiences and ideas as they occur, so you remember as much detail as possible and you can develop them further later on.
  • Know your audience
    What publication are you writing for and who is the primary audience? I think the biggest mistake I’ve made with my writing is that I go entirely with my inspiration—I write full articles or essays first, and then I begin the process of looking for an appropriate publication. Half the time I end up discovering that there is no market for what I’ve written, or the piece has to be substantially re-written in order to match the needs and interests of the publication I’m pitching it to. In fact, I often end up creating various versions of the same story for different publications, much like you tweak a resume for different job applications.
  • Read widely in your genre
    Are you going to write a magazine article or a personal essay? If so, become familiar with some of the publications that publish the type of writing you want to do. For example, here are a few publications that I know of that publish personal stories:
• The Sun http://www.thesunmagazine.org/
• Salon.com http://www.salon.com/
• Reader’s Digest: http://www.rd.com/submissions/article10717.html
• The Threepenny Review http://www.threepennyreview.com/index.html
And don’t forget your local publications! Sometimes a more manageable beginning goal is to write a short piece for a local magazine or newspaper…before tackling the overwhelming challenge of writing a whole book!
If you want to write a memoir, then you should read a lot of memoirs…and ideally you should know what kinds of memoirs have been published on your topic and which publishers would be interested in your topic. You will need to demonstrate an awareness of your market and how your memoir would be unique in the market, when you get to the point of writing a book proposal. Here is one publisher that is looking for personal stories from new, unpublished writers: http://www.americancarriagehousepublishing.com/submission.html
  • Find/follow blogs that are related to your topic (e.g., http://www.grandparentingblog.com/ ). Also there are many blogs about writing. Marketing and selling your writing requires another entire skill set that many writers overlook! For example, you will need to write query letters to magazines to pitch your personal essays or articles. You would need to write a book proposal to pitch your memoir to a book publisher. Following writing blogs will help you develop all sorts of skills in these areas:

http://wmfreelancewritersconnection.com/
http://www.makealivingwriting.com/
http://aboutfreelancewriting.com/
http://vu.ksurf.net/calendar.html
http://www.freelancewriting.com/guidelines/pages/index.php
http://www.freelancewriting.com/magportal.php 

Finally, don't let rejections get you down. Be persistent.


Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. — Thomas Edison
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...