This month we have a student forum special in the form of successes and tips from students, expert advice from Heather Cooke on how to generate ideas, Ten Tops Tips to help you with your poetry competition entries, plus the usual mix of inspiration and useful websites.

• Editor's News
• Successes
• Expert Advice
• Top Tips
• Useful Sites
• Inspiration

Steal or No Steal?

by Heather Cooke

We’ve all been there. The mind’s gone blank. “What on earth am I going to write about?” It’s at moments like that when we’re tempted to give up, go off and curl up with a magazine. Some might call that a displacement activity, others a cop-out. I call it research.

Reading stories and articles that other people have written (and have had published for payment!) can spark off ideas for your own work. “Hang on!” I hear you say. “Isn’t that plagiarism? Aren’t there laws against stealing other people’s work?” And of course you’re right. But applying a little bit of lateral thinking to something that’s already in print can be exactly what you need when ideas dry up. You wouldn’t be using the original author’s words or even the same basic idea, and you certainly wouldn’t use any of that writer’s own research. Confused? Let me explain.

Subjects
In the magazine I’m looking at, there’s an article about a celebrity’s battle with anorexia. The subjects there are: celebrity, battle, anorexia. Can I write about any of those? Do I know any celebrities? Have I met any? Celebrities always sell, but you don’t need to be bezzie friends with an A-lister. Some magazines have slots for personal accounts of meetings with stars, so maybe you once hung around outside a theatre for an autograph or photo opportunity or queued to have a book signed by someone famous. Did you once spot a “face” in the supermarket or the pub? Perhaps a famous (or even infamous!) person went to your school, and you can use that as a hook to write about education or your home town or how fame changes people... or doesn’t.

Battle? You could write about someone else’s battle with an addiction or health problem, whether famous or not. Or has someone been fighting for justice?

Anorexia? You might decide to write a factual piece about eating disorders. Which brings us to:

Style
The original article is an interview, with plenty of quotes from the celebrity. You might decide to approach one of the subjects in a completely different style. Yours could be a straightforward factual piece, giving the background to a subject, or you could decide on a practical how-to approach.

On the other hand, if an article that catches your eye is a factual or practical one, could you write a personal account of your own experience of that subject? Or could you interview someone, celebrity or not, who has some connection with the topic? Perhaps you know someone whose battle against the odds has been particularly inspiring, or is there a local expert who could shed further light on the subject?

If the original article is emotional and heart-rending, is there scope instead for a humorous approach to the subject? Almost all topics can be treated in a light-hearted way, often to great effect, if angled correctly and sensitively. Depending as always on the target readership! Which brings us to:

Markets
The magazine I’m looking at is a chatty women’s weekly, but the subject could be of interest to a wide range of markets as it stands – and an even wider range with a little imagination. A thought-provoking piece about the downside of being a celebrity could sell to a magazine on any of the performing arts as well as sports magazines. If the magazine you look at is a national one, is there a local angle on the subject that would sell to a county magazine? And vice versa!

Eating disorders might fit into any of the health magazines (an original angle would help, as the subject will obviously have been covered before) but also parenting mags, specialist cookery titles, or teen markets. The latter might prefer a more snappy approach, a quiz maybe. Which brings us to:

Shapes
If the article you look at is a conventional shape, with a beginning, middle and end, could the subject lend itself to a different approach? Many publications use the Top Ten (ways to lose weight, beat the bullies, meet your heroes) and you’ll have spotted E-Zee Writer’s own regular Ten Top Tips slot below. A similar idea is the A-Z of whatever.

Conversely, if the published item has a shape like this, could you write about the subject in a more conventional way, expanding on those bite-sized chunks of information and developing it into a feature?

Other variations on letters and numbers are popular, too, such as the initial letters of a relevant word. Facts about that celebrity could use the letters of the star’s name, or a series of health tips might use the letters of HEALTHY – Help, Exercise, Alcohol and so on. You could use a number that fits the subject: Seven Pillars of Wisdom might be tips on improving your brain-power or little-known facts about Sir Norman. Nine Lives might look at caring for kitty, and so on. Six of the Best, perhaps – or Famous Five, or Dirty Dozen! Which brings us to:

Titles
Here’s a final trick. Next time you flick through a magazine (and of course all these principles also apply to magazine websites, if you’re glued to the PC!) try not to look at the content of the items at all, but just the titles. Chances are that the ideas generated by those titles will be very different from the original articles ... or stories! Which brings us to:

Fact or fiction?
The focus so far has been on non-fiction, but exactly the same principles apply to fiction. Too good to be true? Try it and see! When ideas run short, take some time out with a fiction magazine. I guarantee it works, and plagiarism this is not. A story you read could give you an idea for one of your own, simply from something a character says or a location used or the title. And be prepared, too, for cross-fertilization. A short story might give you an idea for a feature, or an article might spark off a story.

And why stop there? Who knows, your next novel might be about a celebrity who battles against an eating disorder ...

Heather Cooke is a Writers Bureau tutor, teaching both fiction and non-fiction. She has had hundreds of short stories and articles published in markets ranging from Chat to the Church Times, as well as three novels.