If you're going to be a writer, you have to have a subject to write about and it has to be a subject that others will want to read about. Right?
So, what do people like to read about?
First and foremost, they like to read about themselves! Think of something that most people do or would like to do and you're on a winner.
We all like to:
- Travel
- Eat
- Care for our families
- Make money
Note: you can use these ideas as the basis for a short piece or an entire book - it's up to you.
Putting the Right Slant on Things - writing a non-fiction article
Once you've come up with your subject matter, the next thing is to decide on the angle or slant you're going to adopt. This can make all the difference between a ho-hum piece and a best seller!
Here area few ideas to get your little grey cells pumping:
Travel
- Places to stay and see - guides to unusual travel destinations
- Exotic places
- Cheap holidays
- Adventure holidays
- Luxurious places to stay
- Educational tours
- Historical places
- Travelling with children
- Travelling with pets
- Travelling with handicapped people
- House swapping holidays
- Walking tours
- 'Live like a local' holidays
- Art appreciation tours
- And so on - choose a subject dear to your own heart and think of a holiday or tour that could be built around it, do a bit of research and then write an article that you would enjoy reading.
As well as the obvious articles on what to eat and where to eat, don't ignore the possibilities of how to eat. You could do a whole series of articles on the new etiquette. Consider some of these:
- Casual, outdoor entertaining
- Formal occasions
- Special occasions - weddings, coming of age, engagement, funerals(!) etc
- After show suppers
- Romantic dinners
- Vegetarian meals
- Cooking for the frail and elderly
- National and regional food differences
- Seasonal foods and cooking
- Growing your own food
There are many angles for this topic:
- Child rearing stories
- Raising children - past and present
- 'Behind the scenes' stories
- Life in an orphanage
- Children's hospital report
- Famous families
- Happiness on a shoestring (budgeting)
- Medical reports of new treatments / products
- Healthy mind and healthy body stories
- How to entertain your children
- Marriage advice
- Secrets of ... (dating / successful marriage / raising happy children etc)
On the Internet, this is one of the "biggies." Anything you can tell people to help them improve their finances, will be read with interest.
- A guide to some of the new schemes around, with some professional advice about their relative merits
- A "buyer beware" list - what to watch out for when considering purchasing products
- A round-up of businesses from around the globe - an investigation of the different way we all do business
- The 10 (or 5 or 20) best businesses you can operate from home
- Some famous failures
- Some spectacular successes
- The secrets of X revealed (we all love to hear something confidential - think how you can use this angle)
- The confessions of ... (see above)
These are just some of the possibilities - you can mix and match the ideas and the topics to come up with a new and catchy slant that will guarantee that your article gets read!
Helpful Links
These links are to sites where you can find the raw material for your articles.
You can always get ideas and content from newspapers - but don't forget to double check for accuracy. This site has headlines and stories from around the world:http://www.1stheadlines.com
Profnet calls itself the 'source of sources' and can find just about anything you need to know. It costs us (as writers) nothing to join, although you do need to allow a little time for the information to get back to you: http://www.profnet.com
Salon.com has a great selection of articles that may inspire you to write a follow-up or to approach the story from a different angle. You'll also find some excellent links to other useful sites from here: http://www.salon.com
If you're writing an article with a scientific slant (or if you just need to check a few facts) the Why Files will help: http://whyfiles.news.wisc.edu
For details on the life and times of any one of over 20,000 famous (and infamous) people, visit Biography.com: http://www.biography.com/bio_main.html
Maybe your article requires some statistics - we've got just the place to find them too: http://www.geohive.com
And for information on absolutely ANY topic you can possibly imagine, you can't go past the Internet Public Library: http://www.ipl.org
Jennifer Stewart spent more than twenty years teaching English and History before leaving to establish her web-based writing business in 1998. She offers Home Study tutorials and professional writing services and has written extensively for clients around the world. Her articles have appeared in ezines throughout the web and in off-line business magazines. For help with your writing, click now WRITE 101 ..Our Choice
