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Networking on the Net

12
May 2009

By Linda Sherwood and Teri Brown

It’s finished, but not quite right. Unsure of what the problem is, Linda passes it to her writing partner, Teri, to take a look. After looking it over, Teri passes it back with a few suggestions. A pretty normal day at the office for most, but Teri and Linda are separated by over 2,000 miles. They work “side by side” in a virtual office with the help of the Internet.

Teri and Linda met in an online community for new and beginning writers. By becoming partners, the solitary life of the writer was history. Linda may be writing her weekly newspaper articles while Teri is writing a chapter in her fiction novel, but neither is alone in their work. Teri can stop and ask Linda how to spell a word and Linda can ask Teri for input on a tough lead.

Email and instant messages allow us to work together even when working on individual projects. The relationship has helped us to achieve even more than we could do alone. One example is this article, which began as the brainchild of one of us, although we aren’t exactly sure which one of us anymore. In forming writing partnerships, we’ve found the best thing to look for is someone opposite you in terms of writing abilities, but similar in other ways.

In our case, it’s Teri who develops the idea or the dialogue and Linda who puts the commas and periods in their proper places. For Joy Thomas and Karen Hertzberg the ability to utilize one anothers talents can account for a large part of their success in their efforts to create Coffee House for Writers, an online community for writers.

While the idea for Coffee House for Writers originated with Karen, who is the editor of the site, Joy plays an integral part of the operation. The pair teamed up in 1998 when Joy volunteered to moderate a workshop for Karen. This year, Joy became articles editor at the Web site and began to work on its newsletter, Fiction Fix.

“By taking over the content side of the newsletter, I freed Karen up to do some great marketing work on behalf of Fiction Fix, and as a result, our subscriber rate has doubled,” said Joy. “Our joint work on Fiction Fix really showcases how an Internet partnership can flourish.”

While finding someone who complements your writing style is a great goal when developing writing partnerships, sometimes you just get lucky. When Helen Hegener, editor of Home Education Magazine, needed an articles editor she didn’t have to look very far. Kim O’Hara, a contributor to the magazine, was only a click away.

“We worked on a few things for a year or two, and I was impressed with her obvious ability and sparkling personality – which comes through even via email!” said Helen about how Kim began her job as articles editor for HEM, a monthly print magazine for homeschoolers. “I think mostly through she was the right person, in the right place at the right time, when we needed a good articles editor.”

Though separated by miles they have formed a working relationship that is both efficient and successful. Even after a year, both prefer working via e-mail then actually having a side by side relationship. As Kim puts it, “It allows near-instant transmission, receipt upon the convenience of the recipient, a record of what was sent, and a way of copying the previous correspondence and responding to relevant pieces as needed.”

Though Kim and Helen have never had any trouble in their working relationship, Helen admits that she has seen problems develop in other collaborations. “I’ve known many relationships between other people trying to work together online which just didn’t workout, often resulting in harsh words and hurt feelings. Usually one partner or the other isn’t openly communicative, which leads to misunderstandings. One really must be clear about needs and expectations when email is your only tool for communication.”

Collaborating online offers greater flexibility for writers and more efficient use of time than many face-to-face collaborations. Despite living just four hours apart, Angela Adair-Hoy and M.J. Rose chose to do most of their work online rather than in person when writing their book, Secrets of our Success.
“Online collaboration is much faster,” said Angela. “Our book took only five weeks to write. If we were meeting to get it written, this would have taken much longer.”

M.J. agrees. “In the past, I have collaborated with several people on screenplays and found it a difficult process. Sitting in a room with a computer, one of us got to talk, the other to write. It was never fair.”

While online relationships like these are bound to become more common place, sometimes there is no substitute for a real phone conversation. No one understands the high excitement of an acceptance better than another writer. Be sure to pick up the phone and share your joys and triumphs the old-fashioned way. In the end, it will make your online relationship that much stronger.

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Agenda Setting

12
May 2009

It doesn’t matter what is happening in your area, the newspaper is printed on time every time regardless of whether or not it is a “slow news” time. The ads have been sold and the number of pages have been determined long before any of the news has even occurred. All that remains is the decision of what is and what isn’t news. Agenda setting.

What stories are going to get covered? What stories aren’t? What is going on the front page and what will we bury on page 12? The decisions aren’t always made on whether or not the story is newsworthy. For many stories, it could be a matter of timing, other stories just might “fit the hole.” It doesn’t matter what process made one story end up on the printed page while another is quickly forgotten in Circlular File 13 (my trash can). What matters is you have just set the agenda. You just determined what is important in your community and the way it will be handled.

The job of reporters and journalists is to report what is happening without being a part of what is happening. It is a good theory, but no one can do that. As a regular part of my job, I attend council and board meetings. When I first began attending the meetings and no one knew who I was, I was able to report on the meeting without influencing it at all. As the members begin to recognize me, however, that changes.

It doesn’t take much for the council or board to recognize I’m a reporter. My scribbling in a notebook throughout the entire meeting usually tips them off that I am a reporter from somewhere. And the fact that there is a reporter attending the meeting DOES change how things are done. Sometimes people grand stand for their position, other times they use vague language to discuss items they don’t want publicized. Other times, they are more obvious and make comments to me directly like, “don’t print that,” or “maybe we can have a front page story about this?” I usually try to ignore these comments or make noncommital noises. I don’t want to be part of the meeting.

But I am whether I want to be or not. My presence and eventually my artice may change the outcome of an issue just because it was publicized. Council and board members have done complete reversals in their position once they fall under the scrutinty of the press.

When you attend community events to take photos, when you report on council meetings and school board meetings and when you interview the high school kid who won an award, you are sending a message about what is important in your community.

So, the next time you are faced with a “slow” news week, be sure your choices of what to cover and where to put it are made realizing you are setting the agenda for the community.

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Market Match

12
May 2009

After you’ve studied a market, you will want to develop a query letter — a one page letter that explains your idea, how it fits that specific market and why you are the person to write the article.

When I write a query, the first paragraph I write usually ends up being the first paragraph of the article. The first sentence for both the query letter and the article have the same purpose – to make the reader interested in reading more. In the query letter, it also demonstrates the tone of the article that I am pitching, so the editor can see how it will fit in with their publication.

In most cases, you won’t write the actual article until after the editor has accepted the article based on your query letter. Most of the work in writing a nonfiction article happens after the editor accepts your query letter. An exception would be for an essay, especially a humor essay. In that case, the editor is going to want to read the entire essay before agreeing to publish it.

Matching Tone to Market

Even when you have the same topic, the tone will vary depending on how or where you plan to pitch it. To demonstrate this, I’ve used one basic idea and written several different first paragraphs of a possible query letter. This is purely to demonstrate how the same idea can be used for a wide variety of markets, and how important it is to match your tone to your market.

The basic premise for all of these pitches is a snake being inside a home instead of outside where it belongs.

Humor Essay… Barely awake and without the aid of coffee, I trudge through my living room on my way to the kitchen. I barely noticed my three oldest children were all huddled together in a single chair. The girls, ages 5, 4, and 2, were being unusually quiet and Maxine, the two-year-old, wasn’t demanding breakfast. I should have known something was wrong.

Woman’s magazine….When the outdoors comes indoors it takes more than screaming from your perch on the chair to show those unwanted visitors the way back outdoors. Joe Expert recommends….

Trade magazine…Rodents and bugs are two of the leading causes hotel guests to lodge complaints. They are also two of the hardest things for hotel management to keep a handle on. Exterminator Joe Expert has a solution….

How-to article…. When removing unwanted pests from your domicile, determining the extent of infestation is often the first step. To do that, call in the experts for a free evaluation.

For a true-story confession…. I’d never fallen in love before and I was convinced I never would. I changed my mind when Sam slithered into my life.

For a children’s story…. Slithering Sam sat sunning himself of the slate-blue slab of rock.

For a newspaper story….A mother of four was arrested today for indecent exposure. The mother’s defense lawyer claims the woman ran into the street after waking up to find a snake in her bed. Police officials reportedly found a gardner snake in the laundry room, which may confirm the woman’s story.

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Sample Multiple-Topic Query Letter

12
May 2009

A number of writers hope to land a regular column, or pitch several topics to an editor at once, but they don’t know how to do it and do it in less than a page. This is a successful query I sent by e-mail to an online market in a response to a job ad I read about seeking someone to write a regular column.

In her response, the editor mentioned that many of my ideas for the section echoed her own. I went on to land the columnist position, and I did write two of these four suggestions for the teens and money area.

From: Sherwood
To: AMOMSha
Subject: Writer for Teens and Money Center
Date: Monday, October 11, 1999 4:44 PM

October 11, 1999

Momsonline
Sharon Thompson

Dear Ms. Thompson,

I would like to apply for the opening you have for the upcoming Teens and Money Center at Moms Online. The teenage years are the perfect time to start teaching teens the importance of handling money in a responsible manner. A noble idea, but the reality of dealing with teens eager to prove their independence is another matter.

I have several article ideas on the topic already including:

– A Teen And His Money Are Soon Parted – A look at ways parents can limit a teen’s spending their part time job income. This would include solid financial options such as direct deposit as well as “from the trenches” advice from parents who have dealt with this issue.

– Junior’s Savings Can Limit Financial Aid – A look into the best ways to set up your teen’s finances to offer the maximum benefits when it comes to applying for college. For instance, a savings account in your teen’s name for college will be required to contribute a higher percentage to the cost of college if that same amount was in a saving’s account in your name.

– Preventing a Credit Crash Course – Ways to ensure your teen will be credit savvy when alone at college and faced with numerous offers for credit cards. For many credit card companies, the only requirement for credit is a copy of your college registration. The thrill of a credit card issued in their name can be a temptation to hard to resist. With the number of credit offers, incoming college freshman can receive four or more credit cards before Christmas break. This is despite the fact they don’t have a job to pay the minimum payments. This article will explore ways to teach your teen credit card smarts with your supervision. This can prevent serious damage to the teen’s credit report that could haunt them for years.

– Spending Smarts – This article would explore new ways for parents and teens to look at spending. The teen wants to buy a $80 pair of sneakers with their own hard-earned money? Can a parent say no? Rather than drawing a line in the sand, this article would think of creative alternatives. Buying a pair of $80 sneakers while making $5.35 an hour means the teen had to work 15 hours to pay for them. Are the sneakers worth 15 hours of their life?

I am a full time writer who works from my home in northern Michigan. I have a bachelors degree in journalism and over five years experience as a reporter and editor for weekly and daily newspapers. In addition, I have written newsletters, and designed and written special promotional materials for several businesses. Clips are available upon request. You can view an article I’ve written online at The Writing Corner at http://www.writingcorner.com.

Thank your for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Linda Sherwood
Contact Info Here

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Sometimes you feel like a nutgraf

12
May 2009

Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t, but a nut graf is a good idea even if you aren’t hungry.

The nut graf offers readers a quick explanation of the article and helps explain the lede. Sometimes it might be background information on an ongoing topic. It’s where you say in as few words as possible, why this article is important. If your reader only reads the lede and nut graf of your article, they at least know the basics.

Of course, you want them to read more than just the lede and the nut graf, but you want to get as much information to them as possible while still writing well and making it interesting. That’s a tall order for anyone and, of course, I forgot to mention you will be working on a very tight deadline in order to get all of this accomplished.

So what is a nut graf? Well, graf is short for paragraph. So the nut graf, is the meat (or nut) paragraph in your article. It’s the paragraph that gives you the rundown quickly about the article. Why isn’t it called the meat graf? Who knows! By the way, some may spell it “nut graph.”

When you write the lede, you make a promise to your readers. With the nut graf you fulfill that promise. Did the lede say someone died? The nut graf will answer how he died and then you’ll give the details.

Here’s an example of an opening lede and nut graf:

FRANKENMUTH — On Saturday, Dianne Szostak clutched a shopping bag, pleased to have found a sculpture of a fairy for her herb garden. On Sunday, she clutched a .38-caliber revolver.
Welcome to Michigan Shop and Shoot, which was held over the weekend in this Bavarian-themed tourist town about 80 miles north of Detroit.

Do you see how the nut graf immediately answers the reader’s questions raised by the lede? By saving the “nuts and bolts” for the second paragraph, you are able to write an article that is more interesting to the reader.

Now there can be more than one “nut graf” that gives basic facts. For instance, the third paragraph of the article I use as an example, explains more about the event such as who sponsors it and how many attended.

Whenever you write an article, there is going to be information you have to convey that is straight facts. You want to be very careful with how you present the information. You don’t want to over do the cutesy ledes or use them inappropriately. (Don’t use cutesy ledes in articles where people die and/or seriously injured.)

You’ll often see the lede and nut graf combination in stories about crimes and arrests. The lede will mention the crime while the nut graf will name the suspect.

Here’s an example:

A Michigan man pulled over for drunk driving tried and tried again when he attempted to flee police not just once, but twice.
John Doe of Anywhere was arrested Sunday for drunk driving and two counts of fleeing and eluding police. Doe was arraigned in District Court Sunday and is currently lodged in Anywhere County jail.

Practice writing strong ledes and nut grafs. Read through your local newspapers and find examples of nut grafs that work and don’t work. Analyze the reasons. Did the nut graf fulfill the lede’s promise?

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