Niche

Read 2 Timothy 1-4

2 Timothy 1:6 "Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands."

Hopefully we have so many ideas that we are overwhelmed by the possibilities of writing projects. Articles, essays, nonfiction books, short stories, fiction books—we can write anything we want.

We may find that pursuing each idea requires lots of research and lots of research eats up our writing time. That’s when we may want to find our own niche to write about.

We may already have experience in an area and want to write about that or we may have done so much research on something that fascinated us that we have become experts on the subject. Once we have found our niche in something we enjoy writing about, we can use one research venture to write a variety of pieces.

Teen

Read 1 Timothy 4-6

1 Timothy 4:12 "Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."

There are plenty of teen markets in magazines and books. The magazines range from popular to Christian and are all looking for certain materials to appeal to their readers.

Teens are looking for information about how to fit in, how to be an individual, and for guidance about making the life decisions that are coming up like college and marriage. Nonfiction books can cover pretty much anything by focusing on one of a teen’s concerns.

For fiction, it still hold true that most teen readers would be looking for stories that have characters slightly older than the targeted readers. That’s not a hard and fast rule, however—just tell the story we want to tell and then look at what group it might appeal to for marketing.

Hero

Read 1 Timothy 1-3

1 Timothy 1:12 "And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;"

The hero of a story is the protagonist. It is the person who has the most to gain or lose in the story.

A nonfiction piece could also have a hero. If we are writing an essay, we might be the hero or if we are writing about someone we have interviewed, they could be the hero of the piece.

Usually the hero is the point of view character in fiction. But it is possible to have a narrator for the story and a hero of the story that are not the same person, like the Sherlock Holmes stories.

Underdog

Read 2 Thessalonians 1-3

2 Thessalonians 3:13 "But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing."

The underdog is the person or team who is at a disadvantage. The underdog is likely to lose whatever it tries.

But people love to root for the underdog to win against all odds. If we want to write articles, we will want to look for people who have succeeded despite the obstacles they had to overcome.

In fiction, our protagonist may be the underdog and the reader will cheer for her to succeed, no matter what we and the antagonist throw at her. We may also write about a losing team or make another character an underdog that the protagonist takes under her wing.

Hook

Read 1 Thessalonians 1-5

1 Thessalonians 5:21 "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."

Editors look for the writer’s hook in every story. For nonfiction, the hook is why the reader should read yet another article on a certain subject.

For a nonfiction book, the hook is what the reader will come away with after reading our book and what makes this book different from other books on the subject that are available. For fiction, the hook is what intrigues the reader about this particular story.

The hook is not just about what is different about this story, but what the story problem is. The hook should come soon in a fiction novel and keep the reader involved in the story all the way through to the end.

Men

Read Colossians 1-4

Colossians 3:21 "Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged."

Most parenting magazines and books are written with women readers in mind. Most sports-related magazines and books are written with men readers in mind.

When we think about writing for men, we think of sports, drinking, and sex. For writers who want to write for men, that may be a good place to start.

However, it is too limiting. There are plenty of magazines for Christian men, for family men, and for men in general who want reading material they would not be embarrassed to have their families read.

How To

Read Philippians 1-4

Philippians 4:9 "Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you."

The how to article is very popular. Craft and hobby magazines are mostly made up of how tos and other magazines usually have at least one how to article in them.

No matter what we are interested in, we will be able to find ways to share that with readers. Children, teens, and adults alike want to learn and look forward to the how to article.

If we have extended knowledge and are good at explaining we might even want to try a book length how to project. Even fiction might benefit from a how to scene as one character teaches something to another character and thus to the reader as well.