Getting the Flow of Ideas Started

Ideas are fleeting. If you don’t catch them in time, they’ll likely disappear. Your main source of material is your ideas, so as a writer you need to practice some idea-saving techniques. Granted, not all ideas are worth saving, but if you don’t do something when the idea enters your mind, you won’t know unless you save it.

Get your idea out of your mind and onto paper—any kind of paper. This might be a piece of scrap paper, a used envelope, or a page in an organized notebook. It really doesn’t matter, just as long as you write your ideas down. Above all, look for ideas that are ripe with meaning for your reader—not yourself.

The are two main methods for developing those bits of concentrated thought. The first is
brainstorming. This method uses word associations to develop lists of words that get more detailed as you go.

To begin, start with one word, preferably a noun. Under this word, list five to ten words that come to mind that are related to that word. Now take a word from that list and place it at the top of the page, then repeat the procedure from before. After completing the second list, repeat the whole process a third time so that you have three lists. Now look carefully at the original word and compare it to the last word in the third list. Notice how far removed or not it is from your original idea.

Brainstorming helps to empty your brain of related ideas. While you may not use any of the words you produce, some of them may spark new ideas of their own.

The second method for developing ideas on a subject is clustering. To begin, choose a word, again preferably a noun, and place it in a circle in the middle of a sheet of paper. Free associate branches of words fanning out from the center, each encircled and connected by a line to the original word. Some of the words you’ll come up with are details of words you have already, so place them in a circle connected by a line to the secondary word or subject that branches off from the original one. Let evocative words on the branches be nuclei for other branches.

Clustering enables you to develop groups of words on topics related to the main subject in the middle of the page. In this way, you’ll be able to focus your subject down to a narrower level.

And even though you generate lots of ideas, focusing them down so they’re manageable is important. To do so, you can start with the broader subject, then focus it down to a central idea which, in turn, can be focused even more to detailed questions that will help you decide exactly how you want to write about the subject. Remember, a subject is the broader term, a topic is what you write about.

For example, begin with the subject “holiday.” Under your Central Idea, list “Thanksgiving.” Finally, under Detailed Questions, try “ What are some Thanksgiving traditions?” Notice the difference between subjects and topics.

But to begin writing, you need to have more than a question. You need to have a Topic Statement, a simple statement about what your finished piece will be about and what it will try to accomplish on your given topic. Using a Topic Statement will help you achieve consistency in your writing.

You can take this focusing procedure one step further. While you’re at it, why not list as many detailed questions as you can think of concerning your Central Idea, in this case Thanksgiving. But what about a different Central Idea, say Christmas. Now you can do the same thing with a different holiday. And the list is endless.

Most writers have an idea and begin to write about it before developing it, not fully developing all its potential. You’ll soon discover it pays to do so. 

Gallant Giveaways

As a freelance writer, promotion can come in variety of forms. Sometimes traditional advertising works, depending on what sort of writing you’re doing. But often, you’ll need to think creatively about promoting yourself and your work.

First, think about your specific qualities as a writer. What would best project your image in some silent, ever-present reminder to your readers or clients? The obvious answer is some form of writing—a visual example of your work, but with a twist.

Make a list of places where you can place an example of your work—Web sites, blogs, newsletters, etc. Do a search for Web sites that deal with the type of subject matter you write about. Check them out individually and see if they accept articles on their sites. Pick a half dozen and either prepare short, 500-words-or-less articles on topics that would appeal to them or customize and update pieces you’ve written previously. Send your sample articles off to the webmasters of the sites you’ve chosen. Do this for each separate subject area you write about. You may not see instant results, but eventually you’ll notice Email messages from people looking to know more about you and your subject. You may be asked to write for other sites or give permission to use one of the pieces you’ve already posted.

In today’s world of social media, you should have no problem getting some attention from your sample promotional pieces. People will tweet about them on Twitter, post links to them on Facebook, and in general talk about them. But most of all, you’ll have gotten the word out about you and your work. Remember to include a short bio with your pieces with links to your Web site and Facebook fan page. This is how you get people to notice you.

A second easy way to promote yourself and your writing is by writing something special to include with your holiday greeting. While many people have stopped sending Christmas cards as such, there are lots of other ways to get a greeting out there. For instance, you can prepare an ecard. Write a holiday article or story and find or create an illustration for it. Put the illustration and the story in the body of an Email or lay it out in your word processing program and save it as a PDF file. Just about everyone can open a PDF file. And those with ebook readers can read your story on them. If your story or article is memorable, you’ll be surprised how many people will send an Email to let you know that they’ve shared it with their family and friends. You can send the same story or an even more professional version to your editors for both periodicals and books. You’ll be amazed what a little viral marketing can do.

Along the same lines, check out blogs that may invite you to be a guest blogger. Like Facebook, not only will all your followers read it, but so will all the followers of the person for whom you’re guest blogging. To begin, check with fellow writers and see if you can exchange blogs with any of them. Not matter how you do it, the results will benefit you.

Of course, if you do more corporate writing, you may want to consider small gifts from time to time, but especially during the holidays. What would you like to be representative of your work through the year—a desk calendar, a bookmark, a pen with your name on it? You can have your contact information imprinted on a variety of objects, from pens to penlights. It pays to be creative here. Choose an object that stands out from the crowd. One writer/photographer saw an ad in a national coin magazine—a reproduction of a Viking ship on an old coin. He had some of these inexpensive but handsome items attached to a paperweight with his name and phone number on it and sent them to his favorite editors.

A travel writer knew a craftsman who could inexpensively reproduce various items from her world travels into almost anything. From time to time she commissions felt bookmarks, picture frames, desk boxes, etc., and sees that the editors and publishers she knows get a unique reminder of her work each year. If you’re going to go this route, make sure your gifts are well made and not tacky. A shoddy gift will hurt you more than help you. Try to give gifts that are useful as well as tasteful, so the person receiving it will see your name frequently.

Just as there are ideas all around for articles and books, there are obviously all manner of ideas for publicity about your freelancing business. Watch for them everywhere. Allocate some of your time to develop them in your special way. Make notes on possible angles, amusing tactics, or catchy jingles and slogans. You can interpret many of these ideas, so they won't require expensive chunks of your budget.

Give 'Em What They Want

As a freelancer, it’s important to give editors what they want, not what you think they want or what you personally feel strongly about. This applies not only to periodicals—magazines and newspapers—but also to books.

Editors will tell you what they want, if you ask them. Their needs aren’t a closely guarded secret. But for the most part they’re too busy trying to fill those needs to broadcast them. They do, however, try to get the word out to writers by publishing writer’s guidelines for their particular publication. You’ll usually find these on the publication’s or book publisher’s Web site. These guidelines, and they’re just that, guidelines, cover all the basics about a publication—the number of readers, preferred subject matter, length of articles or books, method of submission, amount of payment and when you can expect to receive it, and, most importantly, the number of articles or books published in a year.

But these are only guidelines. Editors don’t often know exactly what they want until they see it. They’re kept busy trying to please their bosses, trying to make next month's issue better than the last, and trying to figure out what their readers will want to read six months ahead. At the same time, they’re keeping a watchful eye on the market—for magazines, paying attention to newstand sales and subscriptions, and for books, checking on print and ebook sales.

Magazine editors also have to worry about the amount of editorial space they have to fill each month. What if a writer doesn’t meet a deadline? What if the story submitted is badly written? What if the story doesn’t end up the way the editor thought it would? That’s a lot of “what ifs.”

And while book editors may not have to worry about one article, they have to think about whole books not working out. What if the writer fails to develop the book the way he or she intended? What if the writer drastically overwrites and the manuscript needs extensive editing? What if the market for the book fell apart during the time the writer worked on it? Again, that’s a lot of “what ifs.”

Sometimes it takes an on-the-ball freelancer to come up with a snappy new idea that grabs the editor’s attention. As a professional writer, you’ll need to have your fingers in lots of pies. You need to keep up with the latest trends. You need to prospect for nuggets of information, which you can assemble with other nuggets into a cohesive whole. In short, you need to be a gold mine of ideas.

Besides studying numerous writers’ guidelines, you’ll also need to analyze a magazine's or book publisher’s needs, so you can keep up with the changes, such as spot an editorial rearrangement or a shift of emphasis in editorial matter. Study at least a year’s worth of issues of a magazine or, for books, study the publisher’s latest book catalog to see what’s on the docket for the coming year.

Remember, editors think ahead—sometimes way ahead. Just like retail clothing buyers, editors think six or more months ahead. They’re planning their June or July issues in January. In July, they’re planning their December, holiday issues. If you’re submitting a proposal for a Christmas story in November or December to a magazine with a three- to six-month lead time, you're wasting your time. Length of lead time is the first question you’ll want to ask an editor. The second is when can you expect to be paid. Often you’ll find the answers to these two important questions in the writer’s guidelines. But just to be sure, it pays to ask. Magazines often plan their issues six months to a year ahead while book publishers often plan their projects two years ahead, depending on how long it takes them to get a book in print.

The only surefire way to find out what an editor wants is to try to give it to him or her. Don't query once, then stop after one rejection. If you do your homework and query repeatedly with different ideas, you’ll eventually hit your target.

Generally, editors want—or at least wish they had—what their competitors already have. They  want top-name writers, even if they can’t afford them. They want what their readership surveys to  tell them their readers want, even if they often don’t. They want writers to do their part and write stories that their readers will love, even if this doesn’t always happen. To hit the mark, you have to keep trying, again and again and again.