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What Do Women Want Today? The Secrets to Writing Women's Stories for Major Mags and Newspapers
Have you dreamed of seeing your byline in the glossy women's magazines? Have you longed to share your ideas with millions of readers across the country? To mend relationships with tales of forgiveness? To save lives by recording the miracle of organ transplants? Have you longed to explore the Mojave Desert, climb the Alta mountains, even cross the Pacific--all on assignment? Would you like to meet fascinating people? Be fascinating? I've been there, done that--and I can tell you it's a hoot. For the past twelve years I've been freelancing women's feature stories top magazines such as Reader's Digest, McCall's, Woman's Day, Family Circle and Bride's. Just this year I wrote the book Feminine Wiles: Creative Techniques for Writing Women's Feature Stories that Sell, an insider's guide to the secrets, strategies and rule benders for freelance success. Information that will help your stories soar from the slush piles of unsolicited material filling New York editorial offices, to the assignment desk--then straight to the pages of your favorite publication. Before freelancing full-time, I reported for several newspapers, including The Baltimore Sun. But once I got a lick of the freedom and fascination that offers, I was hooked. Here's how it happened for me, and how it can happen for you, too. I began by giving myself an ultimatum: Two years to break into a magazine that would shine off the newsstand in Fargo, or else. (No, I never articulated what the "or else" would be.) During this time my articles were selling to specialty magazines like The Rotarian, St. Anthony Messenger, and Sesame Street Magazine Parents' Guide. (It never hurts to think big but start small, if you have a clever editor who will help you learn as you write. But once you gather a fistful of published clips, move along to more challenging, better paying markets. Funny thing is, sometimes it's no harder to snatch those several thousand dollar assignments than it is to write for a couple of hundred dollars.) While most freelancers graduate from small, to regional, then to national publications in a succession of steps, there's no reason you have to follow the rules. What matters most to editors is what you can do for them now. Translated: How hot is your idea, and can you pull it off? My foray into national magazines began with Family Circle. The publication was preparing to launch its high-profile "Woman Who Makes A Difference" column, spotlighting an ordinary woman doing extraordinary things for her community. So it would seem that I was incredibly lucky when my query about a mother, with a child with Down syndrome, who created a job training program for adults with mental retardation just happened to land on the hungry editor's desk. But remember I'd been pitching ideas for two years. I came across Kathy's story when her trainees catered my husband's college reunion dinner. (Now please don't believe for one moment that it's going to take you two years to sell to a national publication. We're going to straighten your learning curve. I'll walk you through it in this article, and in my book.) Family Circle assigned the story, although I'd never written for a major magazine before. They wanted the idea so they had to work with me, its writer. It was rough-going. I rewrote not once, or twice, but three times. And my ego was bruised, but I'd learned a lot from that first go-round. And herein lies one secret to breaking in: Offer an idea editors can't get from their staff writers, or their favorite freelancers. Your own experiences, or those of others that have not received national publicity opens doors to large publications. The key here is that these experiences must have a certain fullness so that readers who have never heard of a woman's hometown will still care to read about her. Here's a rundown of a few ideas that worked for me, and how I found them, so you can begin your own treasure hunt. "Lost in the Desert"--the most-widely read Reader's Digest drama in five years, and a cover story, was about a two-year old lost in the Arizona desert for four days, and rescued just in the nick of time by a young woman volunteer and her German Shepherd. I found this story by scanning The Yearbook of Experts, Authorities and Spokespersons for search and rescue groups. This book is free to published writers. Otherwise it's $60. Phone: 1-800-Yearbook (923-7266) for a current issue. I also used The Yearbook to locate organizations that led me to two more Family Circle dramas: "Reunited At Last", the story of a mother's 23 year search for the daughter snatched from her arms as an infant came from a private detective listed there, and a story of a lifelong relationship between "Little Sister" Mary Ta and her "Big Sister" Janet who rescued her from home abuse was found through Big Brother/Big Sisters of America. "The Whole World Loved My Daughter" told McCall's readers how Christa McAuliffe's mother's life changed since the death of her daughter aboard the space shuttle Challenger. I came upon this story as an after thought. I was writing a piece for Woman's Day about June Scobee, the widow of Challenger mission commander Dick Scobee, and how she and her daughter coped after his death when I phoned Christa's mother for a comment for a sidebar, or short accompanying story. Speaking with her I realized hers was the more important story, so I mustered my courage and asked her for the exclusive right to tell it. (I came across the Scobee story when daughter Kathy attended my writing workshop in San Francisco and mentioned the approaching ten year anniversary of the Challenger explosion.) "Leap of Faith," a Family Circle story, reprinted in Reader's Digest, spoke of a mother's decision to risk her own child's life to save another's when she gave an organ intended for her daughter to her child's best friend. This story, without the nail-biting drama, appeared in our local newspaper. Another Family Circle drama, "Father Love," the tale of a single dad raising two critically ill young sons that is being made into a CBS movie, came to me through my then 9-year-old son, Ryan, who convinced me to writeabout his classmate. A Life magazine assignment about a 21-year-old autistic musical savant who could neither read nor write but could play eight instruments and more than 7,000 pieces of music by ear--thanks to a mother who believed in his potential--was discovered through Profnet, an on-line service linking more than 25,000 public information specialists from universities, public relations agencies and corporations across the country with writers seeking stories. The search is free to writers. Phone 1-800-Profnet. Sometimes the best drama is your very own. Lynn, a friend, wrote a first person piece on the emotional trauma she experienced when her father remarried six months after her mother's death--to a woman to whom she had introduced him. Her query attracted editors' attention from both Woman's Day and Ladies' Home Journal. Not every woman's story has to be extraordinary. On the contrary, now what seems to matter most is reader identification. Jeanne Marie Laska, a contributor to Good Housekeeping, wrote about a single mom raising three special needs kids. Good story, great reader identification for every harried, loving mother. Some women's stories aren't dramas at all. Family Circle's "Barter, Don't Buy" began with my own trading experience and was fleshed out with stories from women I located through a national barter organization listed in the Encyclopedia of Associations. Bride's Magazine's article on the importance of play in a happy marriage began with a university press release about a professor's research resulting in such hard data as the power in pillow fights and pet names to keep a relationship humming. I shored up these facts with examples from my own marriage, and those of my friends, and friends of friend, much removed. Service pieces--teaching the reader anything from now to pick the perfect lettuce for her next salad to how to speak French by Friday--are perennial favorites with women readers. Maybe it's the guilt thing: She suffers less of it when she's learning something--even if it's fun. Leads for service pieces are everywhere. One writer discovered hers in an adult education brochure listing a class taught by the "Queen of Clean." Relationship articles, too, are a must read. Every woman wants to know how to get along with her sister-in-law, her child' s teacher, even the clerk at the cosmetic counter. Feminine Wiles offers these formulas, and others, that serve as springboards to articles you seal with your own imagination. Easy ways to locate people willing to share are on-line chat groups. Also try experts like counselors, psychologists, university researchers, professors. (The Yearbook and Profnet as well as the Encyclopedia of Associations found in libraries can help.) Public relationships people will be delighted to link you with experts who in turn can introduce you to their clients. Also, explore the potential for leads in yours and large city yellow pages. Never be afraid to write about yourself. Feminine Wiles' Chapter, "I Is Not A Four Letter Word," spells out the difference between writing in the first person that is a self-indulgent tap dance, and writing that's really sharing an experience with the reader. While you're sleuthing for ideas, become a guru of the women's magazines. Notice what's on their covers. Cut out an advertisement and post it above your computer. Then write to the woman in that ad; she is your reader. Notice the sentence length, use of anecdotes and quotes--even how much an editor "dummies down the language" in the articles to make them resonate with the reader. Read the letter from the editor. The style in which the editor addresses the reader is the way you should, too. Most important, immerse yourself in several back issues so you'll soak up the tone by osmosis. Nothing matter more than tone. If you think all women's magazines are alike, you haven't been reading them regularly. Consider for a moment a comparison one editor made: Family Circle never writes about a woman having sex. Ladies Home Journal writes about a woman having sex with her husband, and Redbook writes about a woman having sex with anyone but her husband. An exaggeration for sure, but you get the point. Finding an idea is only the beginning, you must spin it into gold by massaging it to fit a publication's reader. An editor once remarked, "When a writer pitches an idea, I ask myself if this could fit any other magazine, and if the answer is 'yes' I don't want it." Once you customize an idea, how do you convince an editor to assign the story to you? One thing you don't do is to write the story. Instead you write a pitch letter. First. Resist writing the proper, professional query, translated boooorrrrring, that's going nowhere but into the trash. Instead drum up passion, with a capital P. In my book I suggest writing a "love letter," a personal missive targeted to the editor that is bold and creative. Second. Think holistically. Envision the article already published. What's its title? Blurb? Is there a sidebar (a short spin-off story) offering strong service information for the reader? How about photos? Traditionally this is editor's job. Do the work for her and she'll love you; she may even assign you the story. Three. Launch your letter at the climax of the drama, or if it's a how-to service piece that you're proposing kick-off with the reader luxuriating in whatever it is you're going to teach her. Use all your senses to describe the nirvana. Now's the time to play novelist, employing such fiction techniques for description, action, maybe even dialogue. Four. In the middle of the letter spell out how you'll execute the assignment: who you'll interview, what you'll do to experience it. And the last part is why you are the writer for the story. If your words haven't reached The New Yorker, yet, relax, dig deep within yourself to find the passion that propelled you to punch out the query. This passion is what's needed to convince the editor you're right for the job. After you've written the query targeted to one very special editor at one very special publication do the unthinkable--find another five or six editors, half at larger and half at smaller publications, to which you can send the same basic letter, tweaked to them. And mail these letters all at once. In my book I show why multiple submissions are essential to freelancers breaking into new markets. But for now, trust me. The chances of an unsolicited idea making it into print--as if its sent out to only one editor at a time, with whom you've had no relationship--is as likely as the Publishers Clearinghouse van pulling up to your home with the smiling guy sporting the million dollar check springing to your doorstep. Forget the editor's rules saying you can offer the idea only to them. These commandment were conceived back in the days of Elvis, hula hoops, bouffant hair-dos, and snail mail. With the advent of the fax, e-mail, and the proliferation of 24-hour news shows, the rules have changed. Learn the new ones, then bend them. Before you slip the query letter into the mail with up to five of your published clips, wait. Write two more query letters. (The only exception to this is if you have a red hot idea--really.) Package all three ideas, fully fleshed out, autonomous letters in a large manila envelope with the word "proposals" scrawled across the outside. By creating this editorial package of three queries, a few published clips, and a SASE, you're showing editors you're in it for the duration. If these ideas miss the mark, the editors will likely encourage you to send others. Now you have the start of a relationship, and your next envelope will say "Requested Proposals" on rise to the top of that heap of mail. Okay, once you snag the assignment, it's time to play. That's right. The worse thing you can do now is to think of about the millions of readers who will pore over your published words. Do it, and you'll be wound as tightly as the old Tonette perm, and the pulse in your prose will be silenced. Instead think about your story before you write one word. The images that come to mind, the scenes that take center stage when you play out the drama in your head. And if you're writing a how-to service piece, what's the most fab fact your reader must know? Imagine what you would say if a good friend phoned and asked, "Sylvia, what's your story about?" Of course, assuming your name's Sylvia, you wouldn't rush to grab your notes, you'd just speak. Now, do the same. On paper. But before you begin: Time out. Take ten minutes to read something written in the tone you wish to write. (It can be an article published in the magazine you're targeting.) Then start to write and don't look back. Or worse, yet, stop until you've finished the first draft. This will give you a voice that will shake the reader out of her stupor and make her pay attention. It will also help you to tell the story. You must untether yourself from the facts, the data, the quotes to discover what it all means for you--and for the reader. My Hopkins writing professor explained it this way: The two most important questions any feature writer asks are, "What is my story about?" And, "What is my story about?" The answer to the first question is the way a reporter responds: Just the facts. The answer to the second question is the one to which the feature writer replies: It's the flesh on the bones. It's what it's all about, as Alfie was asked. I love this quote from Jan Harrigan of The Editorial Eye: "The story is not in my notes, the story is in my head." (This one thought taken to heart is worth a graduate degree in writing.) "Never Listen to an Editor," a chapter in Feminine Wiles explains, why editors don't want exactly what you've promised in your query. After you've written your article go back and look it over and make sure it's not exactly what you've promised the editor in your query. That's right. "Never Listen To An Editor" in that they want more. But they're not out there in the trenches with you while you research and interview so they can't articulate what's missing. They just know they want something bold, creative, and dazzling. "If you give me nothing more than what you promised in your query, I'm disappointed," one editor commented. "It's like Christmas morning, with no surprises under the tree." Lastly give the reader something no other writer can: Give her a bit of yourself. Editors complain that writers give them only the facts. Break loose. Give readers a peak into your world, or at least your kitchen. Donna Elizabeth Boetig is a freelance writer specializing in women's feature stories. You may order her book, Feminine Wiles: Creative Techniques for Writing Women's Feature Stories That Sell from this link at Amazon.com It is also available through the Writer's Digest Book Club. Donna teaches writing workshops internationally. For more information, e-mail her at boetig@erols.com.
Copyright © 1999 Donna Elizabeth Boetig. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. |
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