Creating and Using
“Pegs” for Features, Essays, and Articles
By Shoma A.
Chatterji
The word “peg” is
used in everyday language, as a small hook-like contraption to hang your clothes
on. In the terminology of writers and journalists, “peg” refers to something
topical, very newsy, or very interesting. Just like you hang your clothes on a
peg attached to the wall of your bedroom or inside your wardrobe, you use a peg
to hang your story on. For instance, the minute Lady Diana's death came to be
known, her entire life story became a huge peg on which to hang several
stories-- both content-based stories as well as photographic albums. It also led
to several stories on other famous people who were killed in auto accidents.
Another third possible story to hang on this peg would be car crashes across
Paris and a fourth would be stalking by the paparazzi. Branches that could shoot
out from the Lady Diana “tree” would obviously hark back to Sarah Ferguson. Use
your Diana peg to write several stories about Lady Diana, her slowly eroding
relationship with the royal family, her relationship with her split parents, her
love life, and so on.
Another possible link sprouting from the peg of Lady Diana's accidental death
would be stories about Mother Theresa. Her death coincided with that of Lady
Diana who, interestingly, came down to Calcutta, India to meet her just a couple
of months before she died. From Mother Theresa one could switch over to the
winners of the Nobel Prize for Peace before and after Mother Theresa. Let us now
find out for ourselves how many ideas we got from the peg for Lady Diana's
death:
1. The accidental death of Lady Diana in Paris
2. The mystique of Lady Diana
3. Famous people who died in car crashes
4. How is the British royal family reacting to her death?
5. Why are the paparazzi after the lives of the rich and the famous?
6. Famous people and their right to privacy
7. Lady Diana and Prince Charles
8. Lady Diana and her two sons
9. Lady Diana and Mother Theresa-- is there a link?
10. Mother Theresa-- a life lived for the service of the dying and the destitute
11. What leads to the Nobel Peace Prize?
See? We have eleven articles that could easily hang from the peg of Lady Diana's
death. And some of these issues could be tackled in many different ways for ten
years after the deaths of Lady Diana and Mother Theresa. We are recreating and
redefining news all over again over time. We are not capitalizing on someone's
grief or death, remember. We are digging out more facts that will inform and
educate our readers. We are not violating the privacy of the dead. We are not
engaging in anything unethical or immoral.
Stated more simply, you could create several “calendars” that serve as pegs at
the right time and the right place. The Lady Diana and the Mother Theresa
stories could go into a famous people calendar which includes people both living
and dead. If famous people happens to be your area of expertise, you could
create different slots for them such as politicians, filmmakers, musicians and
singers, artists, sculptors and painters, poets, writers, playwrights and
novelists, and so on. You can create a table for your calendar like this:
Name Profession
Nationality D.O.B.
D.O.D
Rabindranath Tagore Nobel Laureate (Literature) Indian 5/08/1861 8/07/1941
Satyajit Ray Filmmaker (Oscar for L.A.) Indian 5/02/1921 4/23/1992
Mahatma Gandhi Political Leader Indian
10/02/1869 1/30/1948
I have given Indian names in the example because I am more familiar with Indian
links. You may make your own people calendar the way you wish to use it.
Another calendar I
use, the important national and international days calendar, is comparatively
easy to maintain and with time, memorize. You can prepare a table and put it
somewhere near your work-table for ready reference. You could also prepare a
folder and store it on your computer. I give below an example of such a calendar
prepared for the months of November and December. The national days here refer
to India.
Month Date Nature
Importance
November
14 National
Children's Day
25 International
Meatless Day
25 International
International Day for the Elimination of Violence
Against Women
29 International Rights of the Child
December
01 International
World AIDS Day
02 National
Anti-Pollution Day
03 International
International Day of Disabled Persons
04 National Bhopal
Disaster Day
10 International
International Human Rights Day
11 International International
Children's Day of Broadcasting
17 International
International Day of Mentally Disabled Persons
25 International
Christmas
31 International New
Year's Eve
You can customize your calendar according to your field of specialization,
suitability of your work style, and so on. Every single day of importance leads
to several articles, features, interviews, etc. Anti-Pollution Day could lead to
articles on noise pollution, air pollution, water pollution, diseases resulting
from a polluted environment, individual precautions to be taken against
pollution, growth of slums in large cities, the social environment of children
in slums, global warming, village life versus city life, nature trails,
preservation of wild life, merits and demerits of air-conditioning, and so on;
the list is endless.
When you are sending a peg-based article, it is a good idea to mention the peg
above the title in the center of the page in bold letters to draw the immediate
attention of the editor who reads the piece. He may not be aware of the peg
before he sees it, which means you are actually feeding the idea into the
editor's head! And I promise you, it works!
Shoma A. Chatterji, 62, is a freelance journalist and author. She has
authored 15 books on gender, cinema, short fiction, and urban anthropology. She
has won two national awards for her writing on cinema, one state award and one
award for excellence in journalism.
