story ideas

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More than just the “facts” – How to make your articles grab your readers

I’ve been seeing a ton of people expressing interest in having an article published on major media like HuffingtonPost, MindBodyGreen, or Chicken Soup for the Soul.

030315-StoryWhile these media outlets accept the standard ‘How to’ type articles or the ‘7 Steps to a Better {blank}’ the real juicy bylines go to those people who can tell a compelling story. These are the stories that have the potential to go viral as they change lives.

But what makes these stories so great?

(And for the record, I’m not going to go into the “givens” of making sure your article length is correct, you submit according to the guidelines, and that your article has been read over for grammar mistakes!)

1. They’re compelling

It’s not JUST the facts, ma’am. It’s a glimpse not just into what you did, but how you feel. The emotions coming through the page are what turns these articles from a ho-hum accounting of an event, moment, or epiphany into something that transcends the screen and makes you feel.

2. Not a word is wasted

Not only are the best articles NOT stuffed with fluff, but they are crafted to move the reader easily from one sentence to the next; one paragraph to the next. And note, this isn’t the blogging Golden Rule of using bullets! This is the crafting of the language itself from something mundane into something beautiful.

3. You can “hear” the author’s voice

I’ll be the first to admit that a lot of writing on the internet is completely homogenous – it all sounds the same. And for a lot of it, it SHOULD. But in these stories, the author’s voice shines through and you get a glimpse into his or her head.

And how do you do this?

#Stories help people relate - How to make your #story sparkle! Click To Tweet

First off, realize that these articles aren’t exactly non-fiction. They’re not fiction by any means – they’re NOT completely made up. Think of it as the difference between a photo you snap with your phone versus one you run through Instagram. The POWER of Instagram is to take a true-to-life picture and apply filters and adjustments to turn it from something okay into something fantastic, artistic, and moving.

You’re doing the same thing with your story…

Keep Reading!

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Product Review: Writer’s Blocks

I’m a HUGE fan of anything that will spark creativity, storytelling, and basically just get me unstuck in my writing. Even though I primarily write non-fiction, sometimes taking an hour or so to work on a fiction piece can just get the words flowing.

And sometimes just THINKING about fiction stories will do it!

Just so we’re 100% clear: I think fiction is way harder than non-fiction. I have the greatest respect for fiction authors. And since my video project is within a week of being completely finished, I’m rapidly running out of excuses to avoid starting the novel.

So when I got an email from Writer’s Digest saying that they had these little six-sided dice guaranteed to get your writing juices flowing, I was all in.

They are very similar to a tool I made a million years ago called a story machine. Basically you come up with two decks of index cards, one with occupations and one with situations. Pull a card from each deck and whamo! write a story about it. The problem was that I had to come up with the ideas for both decks of cards. AND, after playing with it for a while, it wasn’t really a “random” story. It just wasn’t easy enough to create permutations.

Enter “Writer’s Blocks”

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There are four six-sided cubes:

Green – genre
Orange – plot twist
Red – protagonist
Blue – plot archetype

Sounds pretty straight forward, fun and easy, right?

Keep Reading!

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