Animals

Read Psalms 49-52

Psalms 50:10 "For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills."

Animal markets include articles about pets, farm animals, zoo animals, animals in the wild, and even pest animals. Depending on our interests, we can find a place for nearly any article we might want to write.

We might write an essay about a favorite pet. Even books are written about animals, if we are ambitious or have a great deal to say.

Many fiction stories involve animals. An animal might be the star of the story or simply a big part of the human characters’ lives.

Writing is a Calling

Read Psalms 45-48

Psalms 45:1 "My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer."

When we get rejection after rejection we might be ready to give up. Maybe we aren’t meant to be writers.

We don’t want to keep doing the same thing over and over, hoping for a different response—the very definition of insanity. We can take a hint.

What we can’t seem to do is stop writing. Ideas, phrases, images, and the rest keep popping up in our imaginations because writing is our calling, whether or not we ever profit from it.

Wildlife

Read Psalms 41-44

Psalms 42:1 "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God."

We have to know something about wildlife in order to use it. We can research using magazines, books, and even television documentaries.

If we use magazines, we will want to be sure not to pitch an idea similar to what they have already published to them. However, the material we learn can be turned into articles for children’s magazines and other markets.

We can also use what we learn in our fiction. We might use wildlife metaphors or have our characters interacting directly with wildlife in all sorts of plot complications.

Disabilities

Read Psalms 37-40

Psalms 38:13 "But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth."

When we write about challenged characters, we might write about the protagonist or other characters. Whether we write about the protagonist or other characters being the challenged one, we can decide if the challenge is physical or mental.

We might write about a character who has already accepted and integrated the challenge into her daily life or about a character for whom the challenge is recent and still raw and how they cope. Whether the character is the protagonist or another character, the challenge will affect the other characters in the story.

If we have experience in challenges or interest in making others' lives easier, there are several markets specifically for disabled, handicapped, chronically ill, or other challenges. We could also write an essay about our own experience or interview someone who has turned his challenge into a mission.

Enemies

Read Psalms 33-36

Psalms 35:15 "But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together: yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not; they did tear me, and ceased not:"

Enemies are not necessarily the same as villains. We can use enemies to further our plots and still have a villain for the big showdown.

Our protagonist’s enemies might not be deliberately standing in our hero’s way to happiness. But in order to be considered an enemy, they do need to have an opposing agenda from our protagonist.

An enemy could be a childhood rival that hasn’t yet been made into a friend and continues to thwart the hero almost by habit. An enemy could even be an organization or group whose goals create hardships for our protagonist.

Voice

Read Psalms 29-32

Psalms 29:4 "The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty."

Our writer’s voice is very important to us. We tend to spend way too much time obsessing over it.

We want to write like our favorite author, but not too much like them. We want to be unique, but not so unique that our work is unmarketable.

Voice comes more naturally than we fear. As we rewrite and polish for certain publications or readership, the voice will come through. When we concentrate on the voice instead of the piece, we risk a stilted and boring read for all we are trying to reach.

Brochures

Read Psalms 25-28

Psalms 27:5 "For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock."

The first brochure we want to do will be one for our writing business. Not only will it be good advertising, but it gives potential clients more information than a business card will.

A good brochure tells a client something about the company, perhaps some history. Our own brochure could be a short biography or the story of why we got into the writing business.

A client is especially interested in what the company can do for her. That’s where our best salesmanship comes in as we convince clients we, or the company we are doing the brochure for, are the only solution for them.