Resolution

Read Amos 7-9, Obadiah 1

 

Amos 9:14 "And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them."

 

Once the show down is finished, the story is over. However, readers don’t want the book to end abruptly.

 

They look for resolution. They want all the loose ends to be tied up, all the explanations clarified, and they want an idea of what the characters plan to do next.

 

A short resolution channels the readers’ emotions from the breathless excitement of the climax. It leaves them with positive feelings and satisfaction.

Complications

Read Amos 4-6

Amos 5:19 " As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him."

When the story first begins, we show our character in a typical day, but solving a problem. That may not be the crux of the story we want to tell, but our first complication should derail our protagonist off into the story problem.

The plot consists of how the protagonist solves the problem and we keep twisting the plot with more complications. Sometimes the complication is directly a cause-effect sequence, but other times it’s not.

When we want to throw other complications into the story—for instance a relationship issue that doesn’t directly affect the story problem, we have to be careful. We want even those complications that seem unrelated to affect our protagonist’s ability to keep fighting until victorious.

Games, Puzzles, and Quizzes

Read Amos 1-3

Amos 3:15 "And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the Lord."

Some magazines are well known for their quizzes. People like comedians joke about them.

But that doesn’t mean writers can’t enjoy creating them. Different magazines and even newspapers are looking for games, puzzles, and quizzes that will be fun and also challenge their readers.

Writers who excel in creating games, puzzles, or quizzes might consider putting together a book. We might even come up with a whole new category that becomes popular.

Epic

Read Joel 1-3

Joel 1:3 "Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation."

An epic is a sweeping tale. Sometimes it is adventure, like Homer’s The Odessy.

Other times the epic follows several generations. The story could be spread over several books.

But often the writer will put the entire story in one book. It can become very lengthy if it is as full of the drama that defines the epic.

Theme

Read Hosea 11-14

Hosea 14:9 "Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein."

When we write what’s in our hearts, we will find a theme emerging. It’s easy to find the theme of an essay or other nonfiction piece—chances are the theme is what prompted us to write in the first place.

But theme is likely to come through our fiction as well. Even if we write without a theme in mind, we will see a theme emerging.

When we start our fiction with a theme, we will want to beware that the theme is not too heavy-handed. We will want to take the risk that a reader might not get the theme, rather than annoy the reader when they think we are preaching to them, rather than entertaining them.

Television

Read Hosea 7-10

Hosea 8:1 "Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law."

Fanfare is associated with television, but in a good way, not a negative way. The stations all have their logos and signature catch phrases.

Most of the writing for television will be for the sitcoms, dramas, and movies. Each has their own requirements and each show has different parameters that must be met.

Writers who don’t want to watch the television shows in order to write for them have other options. News shows, reality shows, and even journalistic shows also need writers.

Nonfiction

Read Hosea 4-6

Hosea 4:6 "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children."

Nonfiction is fact-based writing. Some nonfiction uses fiction techniques to get the information out, but the piece is not a made-up story.

Some writers will want to pursue the most extreme fact-based information and write things like scientific articles or exposes. Others will write articles about a product or issue, using a personal example to get the information out.

Essays and humorous articles also fall into the nonfiction category. They tend to use even more of the creative techniques and are sometimes referred to as creative nonfiction.

Style

Read Hosea 1-3

Hosea 2:19 "And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies."

We get so hung up over style. We want our writing to be distinctive and recognizable.

Some of the choices have been made for us. When we write for a publication, our writing will need to blend in with the magazine or newspaper’s style.

Even our fiction writing style may have guidelines. If we write for a genre or for a publisher well known for the style of their fiction, our style needs to reflect the publisher’s style.

Writers Conferences

Read Daniel 10-12

Daniel 12:3 "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."

Writers Conferences energize writers. Whether we are going to our first one or our hundredth one, we will leave with renewed determination to write.

No one knows all there is to know about writing, so conferences offer workshops on a variety of topics. We can find something to learn whether we are beginners or old pros.

One of the best features of all is the opportunity to meet face to face with editors and publishers. If we hone our pitches as well as we have honed our prose or poetry, we may leave with “send me your manuscript” ringing in our ears.

Violence

Read Daniel 7-9

Daniel 7:7 "After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns."

The amount of violence in a story will depend on the genre. Even stories based on violence may require that the crimes happen off-camera.

Fiction like mysteries and thrillers and television and movies about crimes and crime fighters will have specific expectations about the amount of violence shown. Many are aiming for a wide readership or viewers, so the graphic nature will be downplayed.

Other genres, like horror, graphic novels, or video games, thrive on open violence. Depending on the writer’s own tastes and skills, we will head towards whichever works for us.

Copywriting

Read Daniel 4-6

Daniel 5:5 "In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote."

Somebody wrote everything we read. Whether it’s on the back of a cereal box or on a billboard, someone came up with the words.

Copywriting covers a lot of ground. When we hear the word, we think of advertising or commercials.

But we can look for copywriting jobs everywhere. We can pitch our skills to all kinds of businesses—we just have to open our eyes to see where the need is.

Weight Loss

Read Daniel 1-3

Daniel 1:12 "Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink."

Nearly every article market has a need for weight loss, health, or exercise articles. Even children’s markets can use articles about food that’s healthy to eat.

Whatever idea, experience, or expertise a writer has, we can find a niche for diet-related articles. Some magazines are dedicated to health or weight loss and others have an article on the subject nearly every issue.

Books are also an outlet for weight loss information. Whether we have lost weight and want to write a memoir-type book, whether we have discovered a new way to lose weight, or whether we want to round up information of lots of diets, their results, and their pros and cons, we will find a demand for information.

Government and Politics

Read Ezekiel 46-48

Ezekiel 48:19 "And they that serve the city shall serve it out of all the tribes of Israel."

If we want to write manuals and pamphlets for the government, chances are we will need to be working in a government job. Writing about the government is a different story.

Writers who are interested in government and keep track of what is going on will find markets in newspapers for their articles. Writing for magazines may be trickier because of how quickly things can change.

Writing about politics is close to government writing as they go hand in hand. But it is possible to volunteer for a politician and use writing skills.

Articles

Read Ezekiel 43-45

Ezekiel 43:11 "And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them."

Articles are information packed and fact based. They aren’t all exposes, however.

Whatever a writer’s interest and expertise, there are markets for article ideas. There are how-tos and roundups and everything in between.

Whether we want to write scholarly issue heavy articles or chatty inspirational articles, we can find a niche to fill. The market’s writers guidelines will give more specific parameters.

Facts

Read Ezekiel 40-42

Ezekiel 40:30 "And the arches round about were five and twenty cubits long, and five cubits broad."

Facts can be very boring. Statistics and lists—there’s no inherent drama.

But the pieces we write need facts. Readers depend on the accuracy of our nonfiction and expect nothing less than truth.

Our fiction needs facts, too. Some readers will be more familiar with our worlds than we started out being and we will want to do a thorough job of researching to keep the reader in the story world. Even science fiction and fantasy need fact, even if it’s only an internal set of detail that propels the story world.

Horror

Read Ezekiel 37-39

Ezekiel 37:8 "And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them."

Horror involves more violence and blood than mysteries or thrillers. It often involves monsters as well.

Books, short stories, television shows, and screenplays are markets for horror. Guidelines will be more specific about what the market is looking for.

This is a category that sounds easy to write, but is harder than it seems. When writing horror, it’s crucial to be familiar with parameters the of the genre since it can seem so similar to other genres.

Travel

Read Ezekiel 34-36

Ezekiel 34:28 "And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid."

Not everyone has an adventurous streak in them. But writers who do can use their wanderlust as fodder for ideas.

As with all categories, there are magazines dedicated to travel. Those will be very specific about what kinds of articles they are looking for.

Other magazines and newspapers have needs for travel-related articles. Whether a writer wants to combine the photos taken on a recent trip with a destination article or share what was recently learned about smart packing, we’ll be able to find a niche for our idea.

Unique

Read Ezekiel 31-33

Ezekiel 31:8 "The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty."

Whether we’re writing fiction or nonfiction, short pieces or books, we have a better chance of publishing if we are unique. The same old, same old will only get us rejection letters.

The tricky part is that too unique will also be rejected. If our ideas are too different, editors and agents will not be able to see a market for our work.

We will want to strike a balance between the familiar and the unique. The idea needs to be different enough to give a new slant on a subject or quirky characters or story line but familiar enough to find a readership.

Money

Read Ezekiel 28-30

Ezekiel 28:5 "By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches:"

Everybody needs information about money. There are article markets specifically for handling money.

Writers who are experts may want to write books about money—handling it, budgeting it, investing it. If the writer is successful in their own finances, others want to know the secrets.

But other markets have need of money advice. Readers are hungry for information about everything from creating and staying on a strict budget to making millions.

Reporter

Read Ezekiel 25-27

Ezekiel 27:24 "These were thy merchants in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar, among thy merchandise."

Writers are reporters, ferreting out facts for articles and books. As reporters, we enlighten our readers with information they want to know.

Our fiction benefits from the reporter in us as we search out facts for our stories. We don’t want knowledgeable readers to toss our books across the room because of our inaccuracies.

 We might even want one of our characters to be a reporter. That insatiable search for information will add interest to the plot whether the reporter is the protagonist or another character.

Wrong Choices

Read Ezekiel 22-24

Ezekiel 22:14 "Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it."

One of the ways to move a story’s plot along is for our characters to make wrong choices. Those wrong choices have consequences just as right choices do.

But the consequences of the wrong choices should be to get them into more trouble. More trouble leads to more conflict.

More conflict forces our characters to act to make things right again. The wrong choices that a character makes will depend on what kind of person the character is—what kinds of hang-ups or blind spots they have.

Technical Writing

Read Ezekiel 19-21

Ezekiel 20:19 "I am the Lord your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them;"

Technical writing sounds like we have to be experts in the latest technology. That’s not what it means.

Technical writing is what is done in companies to spread information. It’s things like writing manuals and other company how-tos.

It might also be writing instructions for consumers to put together and use a company’s products. Different companies will define technical writing in different ways—just like other markets have their own guidelines for manuscripts.

Child Care

Read Ezekiel 16-18

Ezekiel 16:4 "And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all."

Salting newborn babies sounds like an item from a child abuse file, not a childcare list. Writers who have been parents, older siblings, babysitters, teachers, nursery workers, or in any other child-contact role could write for childcare markets.

Different ages have different needs and go through different stages of development. Also parents are looking for one kind of information and professionals another.

Depending on experience and expertise, writers will be able to market anything from articles to books. Market guidelines will be more specific about what the editors or publishers are looking for.

Home Decoration

Read Ezekiel 13-15

Ezekiel 13:18 "And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Woe to the women that sew pillows to all armholes, and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature to hunt souls! Will ye hunt the souls of my people, and will ye save the souls alive that come unto you?"

Home decoration involves more than throw pillows, but they are part of it. Readers want to make their homes look classy and be comfortable.

Different markets cater to different clientele. Some are looking for a more homey approach and others have readers wanting a clean and modern appearance.

Whatever a writer’s taste and abilities, there will likely be a home decoration market for the pictures and articles. Even miniatures and dollhouses might be looking for a decorator slant.

Imagination

Read Ezekiel 10-12

Ezekiel 10:21 "Every one had four faces apiece, and every one four wings; and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings."

It must have been hard for Ezekiel to describe what he was seeing. We have the advantage of science fiction movies and television shows, even cartoons and commercials to see strange creatures and improbable activities.

But our imaginations can be as active as Adam’s, even with the visual aids. In fact, it may be harder for science fiction, fantasy, and horror writers to come up with something new.

The rest of us also depend on our imaginations to come up with fresh plots for fiction and novel ideas for articles. Our imaginations are as important as our word processing programs.

True Crime

Read Ezekiel 7-9

Ezekiel 7:23 "Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence."

True crime is a genre all its own. It uses the drama of fiction writing, but the story is fact.

Some true crime stories have shed new light on guilt or innocence or uncovered new information. Most of the markets are for book length, but there are markets for shorter articles, too.

It can be a dangerous genre to try if new facts are exposed and people wanted the information to stay hidden. But it is a way to marry fiction and journalism.

Fashion and Beauty

Read Ezekiel 4-6

Ezekiel 5:1 "And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair."

There is plenty of fashion and beauty information out there. Clothes, makeup, hair products—we can find anything we can think of.

However, most of that advice is from people wanting to sell us something. How can anyone know if the information about the product is true?

That’s where writers come in. There are markets for any kind of fashion or beauty article, or book, a fashionista might want to write.

Technology

Read Ezekiel 1-3

Ezekiel 1:4 "And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire."

Some like to buy the latest gadgets as soon as they come out. Others want to wait until the bugs are worked out before spending their money.

Both groups are looking for information. That’s where writers come in.

For technology-savvy writers, there are plenty of markets out there. Editors and readers are looking for everything from basic Dummies books to articles the tech masters can use.

Bible Studies

Read Lamentations 1-5

Lamentations 3:23 "They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."

The target readers for Bible studies are people who want to delve deeper into scripture. Some are general studies and others are designed for women, for men, for youth, etc.

Most Bible studies center on a certain book, for instance James. Others might concern a topic, like money.

Guidelines from publishers will give more specifics. Usually, a Bible study is a book, but some magazines might also be interested in Bible study-type articles.

Sports

Read Jeremiah 49-52

Jeremiah 50:29 "Call together the archers against Babylon: all ye that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none thereof escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her: for she hath been proud against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel."

Writers who like sports have an advantage. There are plenty of markets open.

There are magazines for sports in general and for a particular sport. There are local newspapers for those who are watching their child’s game anyway.

There are books for the how-to writer and for the historian or biographer. Once we start making a list of the possibilities, we’ll find a sports-related market for anyone who wants one.