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Today’s five words are about flowers.

1. Careful – Always be careful around the flowers. Don’t stomp all over them with your big clumsy paws. Don’t lie down on them with your chubby belly. And don’t eat them!

2. Colorful – The flowers are as bright and perky as a good story. Stories should have lots of color, just like the garden, along with some pretty words, unexpected surprises, and pictures that stick in your mind.

3. Plan – Sometimes people like to plan how their gardens will look. Sometimes they just mix up flowers everywhere at random. Writers are like that too. There are planners and people who write with no plan in mind. Mom is not a planner.

4. Smell – Flowers smell yummy. But don’t eat them!

5. Seeds – Flowers grow from tiny seeds, just add water, sun, and soil. Stories grow from seeds, too. The tiniest seed of an idea can become a story when you add imagination, time, and work… And compelling characters, conflict, humor, a fun setting, action, playful vocabulary, unexpected twists, a satisfying ending, and about ten million other things.

6. Mulch – Sometimes flowers have mulch around them. Don’t eat the flowers, and also, don’t eat the mulch even if it looks like bacon.

By Barbara A. Tyler

When targeting markets for your queries, do you review their media kits?

You should.

Magazines spend time and money defining their audiences and creating a package to attract advertisers. With a little know-how, you can put that research to use and sell your ideas.

To get started, find the “media kit” link on your target market’s website. Most of the time you’ll spot one right away–after all, the magazines want it to be easy for advertisers to find it. If you come up empty on the main page, look under “Advertising,” or less frequently, in “Contact Us.” You can also type the name of the magazine and the words “media kit” (with quotes) into a search engine.

Once you have the kit in front of you, examine these three features before you write your query:

1. MISSION STATEMENT (a.k.a. “Positioning statement”)

What it is: A brief statement that defines the style and tone of the magazine. Editors use the mission statement to keep the editorial focused.

How to use it: Tailor your query to fit their mission.

Consider the opening line from the mission statement for Ladies’ Home Journal: “Ladies’ Home Journal is for women who recognize the importance of taking time for themselves.” Now, compare it to the opening line of Family Circle’s mission statement: “Family Circle celebrates today’s family and champions the women at its center.”

Though both magazines serve women with families, each wants a slightly different spin on the material they publish. For example, your pitch about a spa getaway would be better received at Ladies’ Home Journal, while a query about a round-up of historic destinations for families is better suited for Family Circle.

2. DEMOGRAPHICS (a.k.a. “Audience”)

What it is: A snapshot of the magazine’s readers.

How to use it: Slant your query to match the audience.

A publication’s demographics might pinpoint the basics about their audience. You’ll find Taste of Home’s audience defined in terms of age, marital status, college education, employment, etc. Other publications provide much more detail. For example, The Onion knows 52% of their readers drank beer in the last seven days, and roughly a third of them plan to buy a new computer in the next year.

Let’s say you have a fantastic snack recipe. If the magazine has a large percentage of readers with school-aged children, you might pitch your idea as “Easy Afterschool Snacks.” On the flip side, if your target publication has a readership made up of single women with high-powered jobs, you’d pitch “Quick Snacks to Go.”

3. EDITORIAL CALENDAR

What it is: A monthly breakdown of upcoming features and themes.

How to use it: Pitch them what they want AND need.

The editorial calendar is the freelance writer’s crystal ball when it comes to writing pitches. It tells you what the editor needs and when he plans to use it. A quick scan of Reader’s Digest’s editorial calendar shows planned issues about brain power, food, and miracles.

Queries fitting those themes w

By Tania Dakka.

After staring at a blank screen for the last 20 minutes, trying to write your next viral post (next, right?), you give in and give up. It pains you to let the blankness win, but you concede.

Next stop. Shower. No sooner does the steaming hot liquid permeates your pore than an idea flits into your head.

Dang.

No paper. No pen. No help.

And there she goes. Too bad because it was a good one, too!

It Never Fails

Don’t you hate that? You stress and worry over ideas. You waste precious time searching through Facebook and flipping through your lists on Twitter (pretending that you’re going to actually come up with an idea). Then, you look up and the 15 minutes you intended to spend has turned into an hour.

Productivity averted – again.

Trying to generate ideas online is an occupational no-no. You know that.

So you leave your post to “relax” doing something else. And it never fails that as soon as you’re occupied, that great idea pops into your head. But you’re busy so you let it flit on through because you’re – well – busy.

You’re Out of Focus

You’re geared to work when you’re at your laptop. And you spend so much time at it that you just want a break when you’re away from it.

Don’t get me wrong.

We all love freelancing (as much as a piping hot pizza on a Friday night with our favorite beverage of choice). But, the fact remains, as workaholics, we sabotage ourselves by forcing productivity instead of enabling creativity.

That forced focus time creates the habit of letting go precisely when you should be holding on, but we’re too tired to focus when we’re not supposed to be “focusing.”

Learn To Focus Even When You Let Go

Letting go of the plug is the one thing that your brain needs to release all the greatness packed between your ears.

That’s why your shower is your number one idea generator. Not sitting in front your creativity’s arch-nemesis and standing under a stream of bliss loosens the hold that fear and anxiety have on your psyche.

And by forcing yourself away from your desk or laptop and forgetting what you need to do, you’ll release your Inner Creative Beast.

But beware. Releasing the Beast means you have to be ready to capture whatever ideas flow.

I said capture. Not capture and edit – did you catch that?

You’ll be tempted to critique and edit said greatness. Resist. Resist with all you have. Because your perfectionism is going to let that awesomeness fly right past your ears.

Trap your ideas as they happen. Yes, even in the shower.

Create The Habit Of Capturing Creativity Wherever You Are

With the right tools, you can take hold of your most creative and powerful ideas and keep them for when you need them.

Where You Are: In the Shower

If you’re a technology lover, this won’t be the place that you want to use Evernote. Nor is paper and pen going to help you.

But this handy Scuba Slate is just what you need. And at less than $10, it’s a powerful little investment. Hang it on the wall in the shower. And start writing as soon as any idea hits you. Hang up your editor until you towel off.

Another way not to lose any shower gold is recording your shower. Okay, yeah, it’s not for everybody. But it works. I simply turn on the recorder before stepping in and I start talking as soon as the ideas hit. (Warning: let others k

Sometimes, I’m just plain tired. Belly-up-worn-out. Head-upside-down-exhausted. Desperate for a nap.

Resting is good. Recently, I had a busy day visiting friends, almost eating stones (till Mom yanked them out of my mouth), and almost eating an ant trap (till Mom dragged me out from under the chair and picked up the trap). I also dodged the treacherous air conditioner vents in the floor which I’m pretty sure were trying to kill me, and I navigated my way past the dangerous grill, which had a mysterious cover on it to disguise the perils underneath. So clearly, after such a difficult day, I needed to clear my head and get some rest.

Writing is like that, too. If Mom has too many perils to navigate, too many imaginary friends to visit, some close calls, danger, strangeness, and pressure, she gets tuckered out like me. She doesn’t go belly-up and nap, though. She does an hour of writer-relaxation, instead. She organizes notes and computer folders. She reads blogs and Facebook posts that her writer friends write. She browses around on the computer doing research or looking for unusual character names. If it’s a lucky day for me, we go to the park or the ice cream store or the playground or Starbucks to people-watch. If it’s an unlucky day for me, Mom says, “I’m going to the bookstore.” or “I’m going to the library.” and she drives off in the car without me to go and read millions of books. If she brings any home with her, she says, “Do NOT eat the books!”

Duh. Why would I eat books?

Andy J. Miller’s blog has been a great source of ideas, thoughts, and philosophies on creativity, being an illustrator, and what it all means:

innod:

5 Reasons You Have to be Creating Your Own Content


The definition of content we are looking for:
the substance or material dealt with in a speech, literary work, etc., as distinct from its form or style

Bring your style to the table, but add your own substance, your own story, ideas, and material. Create projects for yourself with all your own material. Create content: zines, info-graphics, daily projects, posters, comics, etc.

Creating your content no longer seems like an option to me as an illustrator and designer, and here’s why I really believe that:

1. Traditional Marketing and Advertising is dead!
Look at an extremely successful designer or illustrator and you will see a strong body of content.

We all know advertising is actually SPAM! We want value, we don’t want to look at something someone paid a price for us to see, we want to see good stuff that we choose to see. We choose to see great content, and we form great bonds with people and organizations that make great content. Forget about mailer campaigns, make something worth sharing!

2. The Best Projects Require More Than Your Hands!
The best clients I have ever had were asking me to add more than drawing. It can be a little scary, but these opportunities have all been on the back of content I have made. When you create content you show the value you can add with your head, not just your hands!

These projects are the best paying and most fun, but the only way they will trust you with this type of work, is if you prove you can do it with your own content.

3. Add Value To Your Community
If you are part of community of any kind, creating content is the most valuable part of your conversation. Instead of taking and critiquing the community, you are making it. This gives you authority in the conversation and appreciation. Be lavish in your giving of content, you probably owe your community a lot.

4. Learn About Yourself
When you start to make content you will notice what you enjoy, what is best received and where you feel most comfortable. When you start adding material to your style, your style develops and starts to follow your material. When you start looking inward for content you start to get to know yourself better, which develops your craft.

5. If You Don’t Want to Make Your Own Content Maybe You Need to Do Something Else…
At the end of the day, if creating content sounds like a chore, or you’ve tried and it is a chore, I can see only two conclusions: one you haven’t found the type of content you love to make or worse… you need to find something else to do with your life. If you don’t love this creative field you will not make it, and if you hate creating content you probably don’t love this field, i.e. time to take the career aptitude tests all over again!

Has creating your own content been valuable to you? 

I love to jump – onto the couch, off the couch, onto the bed, off the bed, into the car…

You get what I mean.  So Mom decided to teach me to jump through a hoop.  This sounds simple, but it’s not.  Sometimes I forget to jump, and I accidentally run UNDER the hoop and stand on the other side, waiting for a Cheerio. Sometimes, my front feet jump, but my back feet don’t.  Mom says, “Why did I waste $8 on a hula hoop?” and “Up. Up! UP!! Ugh.” and “You’re only halfway there.”

Mom is also halfway there in her 12×12 Challenge. She and a bunch of other picture book authors decided to join Julie Hedlund and challenge themselves to write a picture book a month for 12 months in 2012.  Now that it’s the end of June, they’re halfway there. 

Mom is actually a little more than halfway there!  She has written 7 and a half picture books.  She likes most of them, but she thinks a couple stink.  She says, “It’s only a first draft.” and “This one isn’t my favorite.” and “I have Cheerios in my pocket. Let’s play Fetch for a while.”

Yeah…I’m only halfway there, too….

I’m not worried about Mom. She always finishes what she starts.  She has to keep trying like I do, and we can get a new box of Cheerios, so we don’t run out.

By Kayleen Reusser

[Did you know I now pay $50 for guest posts? —Linda]

A few years ago, my husband and I rode the Discovery Riverboat on the Chena River near Fairbanks, Alaska. As a freelance travel writer, I’m always on the lookout for stories and interesting experiences. During the relaxing and informative three-hour trip, I took pages of notes and shot dozens of photos.

Upon our return, I queried my Features editor at the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel newspaper. Prior to the trip, the editor had not run travel stories, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to try.

The gamble paid off. He had just received permission from the publisher to begin a weekly travel section. My article on the Discovery Riverboat was the first article for the column, complete with three of my photos used to illustrate the article. Over the next couple of years the same editor used dozens of my travel articles.

The best thing about travel writing is you don’t have to live in a beautiful place like Alaska or Hawaii to write travel articles (though it doesn’t hurt!) Fascinating places and events are everywhere. The travel writer’s mission is to be observant and record unique qualities about an area or event so readers will want to go there or at least wish they could.

Here are four ways to land travel writing gigs by thinking beyond been-there-done-that destinations and events.

1. Start local.

Start with where you live. Is a famous landmark nearby? The Johnny Appleseed Festival held each September in Fort Wayne, Indiana, hosts a festival in a park where the famous fruit bearer is buried.

As morbid as it sounds, this event has become one of the highest-attending festivals in the Midwest. It also became the lede for my article that sold to Good Reading Magazine:

“In Fort Wayne, Indiana, a lone grave sits atop a hill in the middle of an empty field. It remains quietly undisturbed during the year until the third weekend in September. Then, more than 250,000 people converge on the area surrounding the grave, paying tribute to the man buried there who gave his life to helping others.”

Attending the festival provided me with loads of sensory details for description so readers could imagine being at the event: noisy cannons firing in the midst of a Civil War military encampment, scents of apple dumplings baking in food booths, children winding through a straw maze, women dressed in mob caps and calico dresses spinning wool under shady oaks.

Capper’s Magazine bought a reprint of the article. A few years later, a blurb about the Johnny Appleseed Festival appeared in my round-up story about area festivals for a Fort Wayne Magazine cover story.

2. Go beyond destinations.

A travel article can also center on a building. Upon returning from a visit to eastern Montana, I queried the editor of Cowboys and Country magazine with a round-up of possible article ideas. He voiced interest in a profile of a restaurant in Billings called The Rex. The building dated to the late 1800s when Buffalo Bill Cody’s chef established an eatery in the Wild West.

My focus was on the history of the place, but the restaurant’s specialty — Montana-raised Rosemary Roasted Buffalo — was a big mention. The editor liked the historic angle and menu details and published the article.

As counterintuitive as it sounds, a travel article can also be about a person. Gene Stratton-Porter was a popular nature novelist who lived in Indiana during the early

Some ways to help you never run out of ideas. 

http://www.rachellegardner.com/2012/05/never-run-out-of-ideas/

I think I look adorable when I pose nicely in a pretty dress. For this Take-My-Picture-Tuesday it’s just me – not posing, not dressed up, and possibly not so adorable – but it’s me being me, squiggling around on the couch with a couple of toys.

Mom wrote a story for May of her 12×12 Challenge where she was not her best, dressed-up, posing self.  Yup.  She wrote it from the beginning all the way to the end, and she said, “Eh…” She didn’t love it! That is a surprise because she usually LOVES all of her work.  This one was just OK.   

Mom said, “I have a new idea for my June story.” and “I guess they can’t ALL be my favorite.” and “Smile pretty for the camera…or not…”

After months of prep work, Surtex 2012 is history.  It was a great time of meetings, and visiting with other artists.  It almost feels like a dream now that it is over.  I am filled with ideas and hope for the future!

Here is a picture of Margaret Anastas, my editor at Harper Collins, me, and Annie Stone, Margaret’s assistant.  It was so fun sitting at Harper C. and visiting with everyone who worked so hard on Peepsqueak and his promotion.  I do love my HC family.  They had a nice breakfast for me and we all met in the Harper Collins library. I wish I had a picture of Jeanne Hogle.  She was my graphic designer.  She escaped the room before I could snap her picture.

After our meeting, I packed up 30 books and headed to the Javitz Center in a doozy of a rainstorm!  I LOVED that cab driver for picking me up!!

Messing around with my friends Jane Shasky and Megan Halsey during my Peepsqueak book signing at Surtex. Everyone was in such a good mood!

Here is my teeny tiny room at the Best Western.  I was surprised at how small it was, but in the end, it was cozy and I was so glad I stayed there. It was a good retreat after a busy day.

Can’t forget my sweet agent Alicia Dauber. She had everything running smoothly!

Outside my window all the horse drawn carriages were lining up.  New York is so full of LIFE!

As amazing as the big city is, it is always nice to come HOME!   I had to get my zinnias planted!!  Now it is back to work for the next show!

2 Comments on New York Fun – Surtex 2012, last added: 5/30/2012