Airlines

Read Isaiah 19-21

Isaiah 19:1 "The burden of Egypt. Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it."

It must have been hard for Isaiah to picture the Lord riding on a swift cloud, but those of us who have been in airplanes have experienced the feeling of riding on a cloud. We’ve also seen at least one of the many airline magazines that are provided for passengers.

They offer an eclectic reading experience, trying to provide something that will interest all their passengers. Different airlines have different article needs.

As we read through the one in front of us, we can not only take note of the article ideas other writers have sold, but the advertisements and editorial staff listed. It will help us interpret what the writer’s guidelines are really talking about when we look to pitch an idea for that magazine.

Blank Page

Read Isaiah 16-18

Isaiah 17:2 "The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid."

The blank page can make us afraid. Sitting down during our writing time with no idea of what to write can terrify us.

If we are not trying to earn a living or meet deadlines, we don’t need to worry about letting the blank page defeat us. There’s no pressure, so what we write or don’t write is no big deal.

But with deadlines and budgets driving us, we have to make the time we write as productive as possible. Whether we need to do some freewriting or journal writing or list those things we should be writing, we have to do whatever it takes to turn that blank page into reworkable writing.

Commercials

Read Isaiah 13-15

Isaiah 14:13 "For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:"

Commercials are made to sell us something. Some serve to simply make consumers aware of a product.

Others let us know how one brand is superior to another brand of a product. Still others try to prey on guilt or embarrassment, making us feel like we and our lives are offensive to other people unless we buy this product.

Writers can be part of this world, especially through radio commercials. It’s a good place to start, to prove to companies we know the right words to sell products.

Safety

Read Isaiah 10-12

Isaiah 11:6 "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them."

A child leading wolves, leopards, and lions doesn’t sound like a very safe practice. Even a lamb, a calf, and a fatling could get the better of an unsupervised child.

Safety is a concern of many people and there are markets looking for safety articles. Safety subjects like how to recognize your sixth sense to avoid danger or the safest places to park in a parking lot are things most everyone needs to know.

But for fiction, safety can be boring for our readers. Even when our characters have taken every precaution, there needs to be a way for the villain to breach their safety so the plot can keep going.

Anecdotes

Read Isaiah 7-9

Isaiah 8:1 "Moreover the Lord said unto me, Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a man's pen concerning Mahershalalhashbaz."

Anecdotes make articles more interesting. These little stories give readers a glimpse into the life of the subject we’re writing about.

When we’re writing about a concept, not a person, we might find it harder to find good anecdotes to share. We can make something up, as long as we make it clear it’s fiction.

Fiction can also benefit from anecdotes. A character can share part of her backstory through an anecdote—or have her backstory shared by another character.

Writing Tools

Read Isaiah 4-6

Isaiah 5:28 "Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:"

All a writer needs is something to write with and something to write on. We don’t even need an idea—we can free-write or make lists or write about what has happened so far in our day until an idea comes.

But sometimes writing tools can help make our writing better and more pleasurable. Computers and tablets make it easier to read what we’ve written and make changes.

We’re going to need to type up our manuscript anyway if we want to market our work, so composing on a computer makes sense. Also, there are lots of fancy pens and enticing notebooks to help us enjoy our writing process.

Business

Read Isaiah 1-3

Isaiah 1:18 "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

Business writing is how many freelancers earn a living. They write brochures, letters, reports, and most everything else related to the business world.

But what about business how-to articles? We can write articles about how to get the most out of a power point presentation or how to be convincing when dealing with a reluctant customer.

There are several magazines that business people read and those markets are looking for articles to interest their readers. When we can’t find a freelancing job writing for a business, we might be able to sell an article telling business folk how to do the type of writing themselves.

Romance

Read Song of Solomon 5-8

Song of Solomon 5:16 "His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem."

What makes two people decide no one else will do for them? How do they know they’re in love?

As writers, we get to decide that. We get to set up the “meet cute” scene and show the initial attraction between them.

When we’re writing a romance novel, we also have to come up with plausible ways to keep them apart until the end of the story. For a short story, depending on how short it is, all we need to do is show them acting on their initial first impression.

Sex

Read Song of Solomon 1-4

Song of Solomon 1:13 "A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts."

The Bible doesn’t shy away from sex. And some of the sex incidences caused those involved a great deal of trouble.

There are erotica markets, but most books and short stories treat sex with respect. Some fiction briefly lets the reader know what’s coming, then discreetly closes the bedroom door on the actual activity taking place next.

Stories like that means we would not be embarrassed to share it with our daughters and our mothers. It also means we would not be ashamed to admit we read it.

Keep Trying

Read Ecclesiastes 9-12

Ecclesiastes 11:6 "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good."

This verse is a writer’s creed. We need to keep sending queries, proposals, and manuscripts out.

No matter how many rejections we receive, or how many things we have sent out and never heard back about, we need to keep trying. We need to keep our market lists handy and send the rejected piece out again to the next one on the list.

Eventually we will begin to get acceptances as long as we are careful to send out our best work to the right markets. But we will never publish if we never submit.

Back-Story

Read Ecclesiastes 5-8

Ecclesiastes 7:1 "A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth."

Chances are the protagonist’s back-story is about why he no longer has a good name. It will be about the reason why he is in this predicament and the story is how he gets his good name back.

It’s tempting to start the story with the back-story to give the reader the hero’s background and gain sympathy. But no matter how interesting the back-story is, dumping all the information at once is unlikely to keep your reader engaged for long.

It’s better to parcel out the details a little at a time to keep readers intrigued and unable to put the story down until all their curiosity has been satisfied—somewhere towards the end. Back-story also includes other things like your character’s background and history—details that may not necessarily need to be shared to serve the story.

College Age

Read Ecclesiastes 1-4

Ecclesiastes 2:21 "For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil."

There are a few markets that target college age young adults. College has its own challenges that students need information about.

But other markets interest college agers. Many are concerned about how they will get a job when they graduate or finding a temporary job during school breaks.

Others are looking for information about their field of study. Along with the classes they are taking, they want insider information that will serve them well when looking for jobs or internships.

Parents

Read Proverbs 28-31

Proverbs 31:28 "Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her."

Even though children don’t come with an instruction booklet, there is plenty of information out there for parents. Fortunately, that means there are lots of parenting markets for writers.

Some parenting markets have age specialties. There are magazines for parents of very young children and each stage right up through teenagers.

Writers with specialized experience might want to go a step beyond a magazine article. Parents are also looking for how-to books on subjects from handling a difficult child to teaching your child how to cook.

Motive

Proverbs 25-27

Proverbs 25:2 "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter."

Our characters need reasons for the things they do in our stories. Even something as common as eating can be used to move the plot along depending on the character’s motive: is she eating because she is hungry or because she is angry and uses food to calm herself down?

When our stories begin, we need a motive for the protagonist to begin the pursuit of his goal. Even if we write a story where a character ignores the compelling need to begin the story quest, we will need to show why the character spends the story in denial.

Most readers will identify with a character’s initial resistance to pursue the changes forced on him by the story’s inciting incident. Or we could write a story about a person who likes change and whose motive is a desire for something different or more exciting in his life.

Education

Read Proverbs 22-24

Proverbs 22:12 "The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge, and he overthroweth the words of the transgressor."

Much of what we write for children can be considered educational. They are just learning about the world and there are so many things they have never heard about.

But there is a whole market of educational writing projects. There are magazines for teachers, magazines for home schoolers, curriculum for classrooms, Sunday Schools, and Vacation Bible Schools, and plenty of non-fiction books about teaching or about history for the student readers.

Even more markets have needs for adult education courses, including GED (General Education Degree) classes and adults who are just learning how to read. There are even markets exploring education for children still unborn as well as educating children before they enter Kindergarten.

Actions

Read Proverbs 19-21

Proverbs 20:11 "Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right."

Why can’t we just write, “she felt sad” about our character? It’s because we want the reader to experience the emotion right along with our character.

So we show the character in actions that are recognized as sadness. Or we can pair less common actions associated with a particular emotion with telling why the character is acting in a particular way.

A character’s actions show what kind of person she is. And the character’s actions will show how she changes and grows throughout the story.

Story Stages

Read Proverbs 16-18

Proverbs 16:9 "A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps."

Writers are the ones who give direction to our stories. We want the tale’s events to follow logically from one point to the next.

What happens in the first scene should cause what happens in the second scene, and so on. To help us come up with ideas for the plot, it helps to know the stages most stories follow.

The story starts with showing the characters’ normal world, but in the middle of dealing with a problem typical of their normal world. From there, the story requires an occurrence that rocks the protagonist’s normal world, the steps the hero takes to get things back to normal, the incident that proves the hero’s world will never be normal again, the steps the protagonist takes to create order out of this new chaos of a life, the moment the hero is ready to give up, the big battle with whatever is keeping the protagonist from reaching the goal, and the resolution that ties up loose ends and shows the protagonist in the new normal life.

Don't Quit

Read Proverbs 13-15

Proverbs 13:12 "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life."

This verse seems to be saying just the opposite of the title. Rejections are discouraging and disheartening, making our stomachs and our hearts hurt.

But read the rest of the verse. When the editor agrees to publish our work, it’s exhilarating—a tree of life.

If we quit now, we’ll never experience that incredible rush of elation. So keep going, keep writing, keep reading and studying the target markets, and keep submitting—don’t quit.

Query Letter

Read Proverbs 10-12

Proverbs 11:24 "There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty."

Whether we are trying to market a book or an article, editors overwhelmingly request a query letter. The query letter tells the editor about the idea and introduces the writer to her.

We want to intrigue the editor so she will be as fascinated with the idea as we are. It’s tempting to hold back, hoping the editor’s curiosity will get the better of her.

But the biggest job of the query letter is to sell the idea. That means we need to give the editor all the information we can fit into one page so he knows how well we will be able to pull off the article or book we are proposing.

The Naive Character

Read Proverbs 7-9

Proverbs 7:7 "And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,"

Naïve characters aren’t limited to children and mentally challenged characters. Nor are they limited to being background characters.

A naïve character can either be the one that changes and becomes wise or they might be the catalyst for changes in the other characters. Other characters could change to become kinder or spend less time working and more time with family because of interaction with the naive character.

A naïve protagonist may have a lot of changes he needs in his life to better cope with reality. Or he might only be naïve in one area.

Advice

Read Proverbs 4-6

Proverbs 4:1 "Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding."

Advice columns are popular with readers. If we’re interested in becoming an advice columnist, we may want to contact our local newspaper to see if they might be interested.

First we’ll want to know what else is out there so we can pitch something unique. Or we might write a blog if we have a certain passion or expertise and want to give our readers advice about a specific topic.

Essays and articles can also be in the form of advice, if slanted correctly. We might also want to write a book of advice, especially if we have been through something and want to warn others so they can avoid the mistakes we made.

Proverbs

Read Proverbs 1-3

Proverbs 1:6 "To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings."

We love quoting proverbs. They are nuggets of wisdom and advice for living.

The stand-alone proverb has a few potential markets. We have to think small like fillers or greeting cards.

Or we can think big. We might be able to sell a book of proverbs if we can generate enough of them.

Nature

Read Psalms 146-150

Psalms 147:4 "He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names."

Nature is not limited to walking through the woods. Nature articles can cover anything from food to animals to camping.

There are magazines dedicated to nature and they will need for us to do lots of research in order to pitch to them. However, any market we are familiar with probably has featured some aspect of nature in them.

Our fiction will be enriched with attention to nature in our settings and our characters’ preferences. We don’t need to spend lots of space in description, but we’ll want to use all the senses we can to better involve our readers in the story.

Self-Defense

Read Psalms 141-145

Psalms 144:1 "Blessed be the Lord my strength which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight:"

Self-defense is a hot topic these days. There are specified markets for everything from weapons to martial arts.

But other markets are open to self-defense articles as well. Even without weapons or fighting skills, people want to know how to protect themselves, their loved ones, and their property.

Ideas about what steps to take to keep your car from being stolen or how to keep yourself from becoming a victim of assault are welcome in many general magazines and newspapers. We might also want to write about insurance or home security systems, comparing them or an essay about our experiences with them.

Poetry

Read Psalms 136-140

Psalms 136:1 "O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever."

We might have hated poetry assignments when we were kids in school. We couldn’t think of anything to write and knew we wouldn’t get a good grade on our efforts.

But once we leave the classroom, we don’t need to be afraid of poetry anymore. We don’t need to stick to an assigned theme and we don’t need to be afraid to write yet another poem about springtime or the symbolism of storms or the ocean when we're writing for our own pleasure.

If we plan to market our poetry, they will have to be good, and there are plenty of markets for good poetry. There are many different forms of poetry, so if we get bored with our usual Haiku, we can challenge ourselves by trying a new style.

Song Writing

Read Psalms 131-135

Psalms 134:1 "Behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord."

If we long to write a song, we can’t go wrong with using the Psalms to jump-start us. As we read through the Psalms, we’ll run into lots of them that we have learned, thanks to them already having been set to music.

We don’t have to stick strictly to the way the verse is worded. We can change the words, combine verses, anything to get going on the lyrics.

For the music, we can use variations of tunes that are in the public domain. We can even start with a familiar modern tune and change it up if we are having problems coming up with something original.

Psychology

Read Psalms 126-130

Psalms 129:2 "Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against me."

Psychology has a few exclusive markets. We might write a book or an article for a magazine.

But since people have a fascination for why other people do what they do and even what made themselves the way they are, there are plenty of openings for the right kind of article in most any market. All we have to do is find the right slant for a unique idea.

Psychology is important in our fiction, too. It’s the basis for the backstory we create for our characters that drives them to act the way they do.

Outdoors

Read Psalms 123-125

Psalms 124:7 "Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped."

The outdoors has plenty of markets. There are some magazines dedicated to the outdoors, but the outdoors lends itself to a variety of subjects.

Whatever our interest or expertise, as long as it falls outdoors, it will find a place. Everything from gardening to nature to scenery to weather to buildings has somewhere it can be slanted and marketed to.

In our fiction, we need to be aware of what our characters interact with when they go outdoors. Historical fiction especially because certain forests are no longer around, while certain cities didn’t always exist.

Architecture

Read Psalms 120-122

Psalms 122:3 "Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together:"

For writers who have an interest or expertise in architecture there are a few specialty magazines that we can market our work to. We may find that we have to dig deep in our idea pool to use that knowledge for other markets.

But with the right slant, architecture is an interesting enough subject to find outlets for. Perhaps a travel market, a children's market, or other magazines and newspapers.

Our expertise can shine in our fiction. When we write description and details about our characters’ setting, the accuracy will set us apart.

Journal

Read Psalms 119

Psalms 119:105 "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."

Diaries are not just for girls. And journals are not necessarily diaries.

Lots of folks from ship captains to scientists need to keep journals in order to track progress or to be referred to in case of disaster.

We can keep any kind of journal we want. It doesn’t have to be consistent—it can go from a recording of the day’s events to an idea list to an outpouring of emotion.

Fillers

Read Psalms 116-118

Psalms 117:1 "For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever. Praise ye the Lord."

Fillers have their own market category. Magazines and newspapers both carry fillers.

A filler is a short paragraph or even one sentence that contains one thought or piece of information that interests the readers. The market will let us know what the word limits are.

Usually the most effective way to submit a filler is to send it along with the query letter. The market will state if that’s their preference and whether or not to send more than one at a time.