Writers--Strike While the Iron is Hot!

You might wonder why I have used the Merry Christmas photo above when it is 9 days prior to that holiday. I did have a reason which came to me yesterday as we were driving home from Texas after visiting our son's family. Ken was driving, and I was doing the thinking. The title of today's post is a definite cliche, but it fit quite well as I pondered my topic for Tuesday.

It makes sense to submit a story regarding a holiday at least six months prior to the time it is celebrated--whether Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Valentine's Day, Groundhog Day, Mother's Day or Easter. That's all well and good, but it's not so easy to write a Christmas story in May or June. You could, but maybe the emotion wouldn't be as great, the glow might have faded, and your memory might not serve you well. 

So why not write your Christmas stories now? We saw three Christmas shows in Branson the first week of the month, and I was truly inspired to write something about Christmas. There are programs at your children's' schools or churches that might trigger a story idea. Shopping for gifts or the ingredients you need to make those special holiday treats could also be an inspiration. But it's NOW! Not next April. 

I can hear a good many of you saying something like Does she think I have time to write a Christmas story now when I'm already behind in my preparations? I get it. I'm there, too. What you can do is write the first draft, write a series of phrases that have popped into your head during December. Get the bones now and flesh it out in January or February. If you do that and start working on it some snowy January day, you could play some Christmas music to help bring the mood back. Or keep your Christmas cards, then look through them. Those Christmas thoughts might return to you. 

I've used Christmas stories as an example primarily because that is the season we are in now, but it works with any holiday story. 

When the story is finished, make a list of places you want to submit to and start sending it to the first one. If it is rejected, move on to the next one. You can also send simultaneous submissions if the guidelines say they accept simultaneous subs. I prefer not to do that as I once got myself in trouble that way. Two publications sent me an acceptance within a day of one another. I had to choose to withdraw one, and that was not easy. I felt bad as both editors wrote a very nice acceptance letter. I vowed to never do simultaneous submissions again. I think what happened to me is not the norm; it was more of a unique situation.

Halloween Brings Thoughts Of Other Holidays For Writers

Today is one of my least favorite days of the year. I know--I'm among the minority as most people love Halloween. I never did like it, even as a kid. I've written my Halloween confession and shared it here before so won't repeat. For anyone who would like to read it, you can do so here. It was written several years ago so those two grandchildren pictured are a lot older now.

One of the things I learned when I first started trying to market stories for kids was that editors love holiday-themed stories.But--and it's a big 'but'--they are overrun with Halloween and Christmas stories. I imagine the magazines/ezines looking for adult holiday stories find the same. You can still write and submit them, but they will need to be quite unique, not the same-old, same-old.

If you're willing to write a holiday story about a lesser holiday, you're far more likely to have it accepted. The problem is that we seem to have had many more experiences with Halloween and Christmas so it's far easier to pluck a memory and turn it into a holiday story than it would be for those more minor holidays. 

If you're willing to challenge your memory and your imagination, you can come up with a story for Thanksgiving. Might be something heartwarming or filled with caustic humor or that 'awful family get-together every November.' Valentine's Day is one most of us could manage to write about if we gave it some thought. 

Moving on to even less popular holidays--how about writing a story based on a Veteran's Day Parade? Or a Fourth of July pageant? What about Easter? You can gear those stories to either the religious side or the bunny and chick side of the holiday. Kwanzaa and Hanukkah are both holidays that fewer people celebrate but have importance in the life of those who do recognize them. Wouldn't it be a good way to inform others about those holidays if you wrote a nonfiction article or even a fiction story based on the holiday experience? 

Mother's Day and Father's Day should inspire some stories. I've written a few of them that involve this special day of the year and they've been accepted. 

Here are a few more ideas not already mentioned for other holidays and days of recognition:

Flag Day

Arbor Day

Labor Day

Memorial Day

St. Patrick's Day

Columbus Day

Martin Luther King Day

Black History Month (February)

April Fool's Day

Write and submit these stories far ahead of the actual holiday you are featuring so editors have time to include them in their schedule. Sometimes you get paid on acceptance while other times it is after publication, so it might be a long wait to see those dollars.

Leap Year Stories and More Unusual Holidays

In my childhood, Leap Years brought on a gaggle of giggles from my classmates as we tried to figure out a person's age if he/she had a birthday on February 29th. There are all kinds of articles online and in newspapers and magazines giving Fun Facts about Leap Year. Take a look at one of them.

Leap Year offers writers another opportunity for writing a new story, poem or essay. Some countries say February 29th is a day when women can propose to men. Perfect base for a short story, isn't it? How about an essay with factual information about this only-once-every-four-years day? A poem about having a birthday on February 29th might be unusual enough to get published.

There are plenty of days in the year that are celebrated in some way or other but I have a feeling few writers consider them worth writing about. Why not be the one to do so? You could get published and those who let those days slip by might not.

I know I recently wrote a post about writing stories for the lesser-known holidays but it doesn't hurt to repeat, so...

Consider writing fiction, non-fiction, poetry or a childrens' story about:

• New Year's Day
• Martin Luther King Day
• Valentine's Day
• President's Day
• St. Patrick's Day
• Easter
• Mother's Day
• Memorial Day
• Father's Day
• Independence Day
• Labor Day
• Columbus Day
• Halloween
• Veterans' Day
• Thanksgiving
• Hanukkah
• Kwanzaa
• Christmas Eve
• Christmas Day
• New Year's Eve

You'll have better luck if you choose one of the lesser-known, lesser-celebrated days. Everyone wants to write about Halloween and Christmas but how many stories have you read that revolve around Columbus Day or Labor Day? I didn't include days like National Tooth Fairy Day (February 28th) or Johhny Appleseed Day (March 11th)  but you can find lists of those online, I'm sure. The one I think I'd like to celebrate is No Housework Day on April 7th. 

You'll have to think ahead so that you can submit your work long before the actual holiday. If you write a Leap Year story today, it's not going to get published for another 4 years. Aim now for those days we celebrate in the last few months of the year. Write it, submit it soon. 

Take advantage of this year's extra day and write a little more than you have during those 365 day years. February 29th gives you one more day to ply your craft. Go for it!

When Should You Write Holiday Stories?

                             

Halloween weekend is nearly here. When you see the decorations outside homes and inside stores and other places, you might get inspired to write the perfect Halloween story. Whether for kids or adults, all the hoopla over this autumn holiday makes you want to write a scary story. 

You know it's too late to send it anywhere for this Halloween. Maybe next spring is the time to write the story and submit it for October publication. Sounds good except for one major problem. If you sit down to write a Halloween story in March, you're not going to be nearly as inspired as you are now with all those great reminders around you for weeks in October. 

Write the story now and put it in your files. Send yourself a digital reminder to pull it out in February so you can revise and edit as well as search for a good market. 

It works the same for any other holiday--Christmas, Hanukkah, Easter, Valentine's Day, Flag Day and more. Find the inspiration close to the holiday. Write the story but wait til next year to submit. Try submitting it six to eight months before the holiday. 

That means you'll send your Christmas stories to an editor in April or May. Send Fourth of July pieces the previous November or December. 

I know I can write a better Christmas story when I'm completely engulfed by everything Christmas. I could write a fine Fourth of July story when patriotism is visible everywhere I go in early July. Doesn't your heart beat a little faster near Valentine's Day? That's when you need to write your story about Cupid shooting an arrow into ...well, wherever you want him to shoot it. 

Yes, you can write a holiday story most any time of the year, but I think you'll write a better story if you surround yourself with the trappings of whatever holiday your topic will be. 

Meanwhile, enjoy this Halloween weekend. Some of you regular readers know that Halloween ranks pretty far down on my list of favorite holidays. You can read my personal essay about same published in The Best Times in Kansas City here. It's also been posted on the blog a couple years ago.

Editors of children's magazines and ezines say they get an abundance of stories for Christmas and Halloween. They have little need for more, unless the writer has a new approach. What they seek are stories about the other holidays, especially the ones not celebrated quite as much as Christmas and Halloween. Think about those holidays when writing. Come up with a good story that centers on Veteran's Day, Flag Day, Thanksgiving or St. Patrick's Day and you have a very fine chance of seeing it published. 

Writing About Special Springtime Celebrations

There are lots of special days in the spring of the year. I've noted just a few above but you can also add Passover, St. Patrick's Day, Memorial Day and Father's Day. Many publications, whether in print or online, seek stories to commemorate each one of these celebrations.

It's a great opportunity for writers. Fiction, creative nonfiction, essays and poetry are all sought by editors of magazines, ezines and newspapers. The writing can be serious or humorous. It can be a made-up story or fact. Just be sure the made-up story is labeled fiction. 

Memoir writing works well in this holiday or special day writing category. There are anthologies filled with holiday stories. The market is there, but what should you consider when writing for it?

1.  Decide on a children's story or one for adults. This should be step one and an easy decision to make. Unless you're like me and write for both children and adults.

2.  Gather information and background before you begin to write. We have the information about our own family celebrations but it might be to your benefit to read all you can about the day--how it started, what different people do to celebrate, how it became popular and more. Weave these bits of info into your story or essay, or keep it strictly an informational article with many facts and figures.

3.  Don't try to hurry up and write something for a special day happening next week. This, to me, is one of the big problems when writing holiday, or celebration, stories. You know that Easter is on a certain date each year and a week or two ahead, you decide you'd like to write a story and get it published. Not likely to happen that quickly. Editors want stories for special days sent in far ahead. They need them early for planning purposes. But you and I both know, we do our best when writing for a special holiday when it is close and we are seeing advertising that brings back memories. Or, we're getting ready to celebrate within our own family. The emotion is there. If I try to write a Christmas story on a hot July day, I'm not going to be able to feel it as well as I might in early December. What to do? Go ahead and write the story when the holiday is close but save it to submit the following year. You'll have plenty of time to let the story simmer on the back burner, plenty of time to revise and edit. Write too close to the celebration day and you hurry, you have less chance of being published, and you probably won't do your best writing.

4.  Aim for a religious or nonreligious market, don't try to mix the two. Another decision that should be fairly easy. A mix of these two is pretty difficult to achieve in a satisfying way even though it can be done. I'd suggest aiming at either the religious side or the commercial as your main thrust.

5.  Look for a new angle. I see editors remarking over and over that they get too many of one kind of story or another. Approach it from a different angle and you might hit paydirt a lot sooner.

Write Christmas Stories NOW

Christmas stories! They're loved by so many and therefore published by myriad numbers of magazines, websites, newspapers and book publishers. They need to be marketed months and months ahead of the Christmas season. Think of how many editors are reading Christmas stories as air-conditioners keep their offices cool on a hot summer day.

Should you write a Christmas story in Apirl or June so you can send it out in July? Some writers can do it, but for me, my best Christmas stories have been written during the Christmas season. The simple reason is that during December, when we're surrounded by Christmas and all that it involves--from the religious to the commercial side--we have more emotion to spread through our story. We feel the story inside so strongly that we can write it easily.It's a time when so many memories are triggered. It's now that we need to write our Christmas stories.

I hear your question loud and clear Doesn't that mean my story won't have a chance of being seen until next Christmas?. You're right. Unless you send to a website that publishes instantly, it probably will not find a home for about a year. But that's okay. Your aim is to publish your work, no matter how long it takes. Remember that one of the keywords for all writers is patience.

Write your Christmas story now. Write it while the scents of this beloved holiday are wafting through your home and other places you go. Write it while the sights and happenings of Christmas touch your heart. Write it while you hear the sounds of Christmas--the bells, the carolers, the commercial songs. Write it while you care about it. Don't wait until March and hope you can dredge up those Christmas emotions while drinking green beer on St. Pat's Day.

Write it now, then put it in a file marked "Christmas Stories" and keep that file somewhere that you'll see it occasionally. Come spring, go through the stories in that file and study market guides to see where you might submit your work.

You're busy with Christmas preparations. We who celebrate this holiday are all in the same boat, different paddle. Make writing your Christmas story a part of your Christmas tasks. Write it NOW!

Independence Day--Perfect Time For A Fanily Story

As the Fourth of July week-end dawns, you might think back to Independence Day celebrations in your childhood or perhaps your early married years. Families tend to gather on holidays, and when that happens, stories occur, too.

Let your 2010 holiday agenda trigger your memories and take time to jot them down. You needn't write the story immediately, although I find it's better if I do it as soon as possible when something triggers a memory of years ago.

Surely everyone has a firecracker story to tell, or how they decorated their bikes with red, white, and blue crepe paper. Part of it was to show patriotism, but mostly it was just great fun to do that once every year.

How about the family picnics, the community parades you may have either watched or participated in? Wasn't it a thrill to see marching bands playing songs that belonged to our entire nation? Still is in 2010 as far as I'm concerned.

Did you have big fireworks displays put on by your community, or were your fireworks strictly a family activity like mine?

Were politicians prominent in your town's Fourth of July celebrations? Or was it a day to forget politics and have a good time with friends and family?

Did your family fly an American flag in the yard or on the house? Or did you come from a family that gave little attention to America's birthday? Maybe your parents were immigrants and you can tell what the holiday meant to them.

Answer these questions I've posed, and you'll have a story to add to your Family Memoires Album. Pack it with emotion as well as description. We're a land of holidays to celebrate, and you can write about each and every one of them.

Christmas in June?

No, I haven't lost it. It's not Christmas, but I'm certainly keeping my thoughts centered on Christmas since receiving the call for Christmas stories from the Chicken Soup publishers. When we're in the middle of the actual Christmas season, it's easy to feel the joy, the love, the warmth--the emotion--of the holiday. Not so easy to bring it back on a hot June day.

But that's when a Christmas story must be written and sent if it's a quick call like this one. Especially with a short deadline of less than a month away. How do you go about writing a good Christmas story in the middle of summer?

Two days ago, after the call came via e-mail, I skimmed through my story files to see what I might have that I could send as is or revise and submit. That's always going to be easier than writing something brand new. I found a couple stories that were possibilities, but they weren't true 'stories'--more memories than a full story. And Chicken Soup wants a story with a beginning, middle and end. They specifically say that they do not want an essay. Ever since, I've had Christmas thoughts swirling through my mind trying to devise a way to use the memoirs and turn them into true stories.

Yesterday afternoon, I went to the grocery store. People seeing me push my cart through the aisles had no idea that I was mentally writing a Christmas story. I find that letting a story come through slowly in this manner is better than sitting down cold at the computer and trying to come up with it. The story isn't in my head word for word, but the idea is, the specifics scenes are there. Once I feel ready, I can sit down and start writing the first draft.

The ideal way is to write a Christmas story during Christmas season when the house is decorated, packages wrapped, good smells coming from the oven. Write it with the emotion that the holiday brings to you, and then put the story aside and submit it 4 to 6 months later for publication the next Christmas. "But that's a whole year away," you might say. And my answer wuld be--"Yes, but that's the way this writing world works."  After awhile, it becomes easier to write Christmas stories in the summer or Halloween stories in February or Valentine stories in October. First choice is to write them at the holiday time and save them for later. 

Right now, I've got to start thinking about snow, fir trees, ginger cookies, and childrens' nativity plays so I can write my story. I'll write it, revise it a few times and send it in.