Seven Tips for Writing Personal Experience Stories

Do you blog or journal your experiences? Do you have a story to tell? Here are seven tips to follow as you develop your story for publication.

1. Consider what magazine you would like to submit your story to. Get a copy or two and study its style, departments and columns so you can suggest how your article will fit into their periodical. Find their writer guidelines. Do they want queries first? Do they want submissions by U. S. Mail or e-mail?
2. Think of an attention grabbing title.
3. Start with a powerful hook--action, problem, or conflict.
4. Use fiction techniques--show (don't tell), multiple scenes, plot, climax, dialogue, description.
5. What is the point of your story? Make it your takeaway. Christian editors are looking for takeaways.
6. Write your query or cover letter. This has to be every bit as good as your manuscript or better. Make the editor want your article.
7. If the publisher sends you an assignment from your wonderful query letter, submit your story exactly as assigned and within the prescribed deadline. Sometimes assignments are on a speculation basis. Make your story excellent so it will be accepted and so you can get more assignments with this publisher and build a working relationship.

Here are some great books on writing:
Writers on Writing-Top Christian Authors Share Their Secrets
Writing for the Soul by Jerry B. Jenkins
On Writing Well by William Zinsser

Ending Your Query

You've grabbed your editor's attention with a great opening and outlined your take on an area of interest for her readers. In the closing you must sell yourself. This is the part of the letter that is cousin to a resume. Tell what qualifies you to write the story whether it's life experience or writing clips. If you're a beginner, do not say you have not been published. Instead, describe your experience or research on the topic.

This is the place for experienced writers to say where you've been published and include clips with your letter. If you submit your query by e-mail, be sure to include links to your clips and/or your website.

Don't miss the opportunity to ask for the assignment. I usually end my queries with something like, "I appreciate your consideration of my story "Title," and I look forward to hearing from you. All that is left is a polite closure. I like to use "Blessings" for the Christian market and "Kind regards" for the general markets. Be sure to include your contact information in your signature.

If you haven't already done so, I hope you'll purchase your copy of Queries and Submissions by Thomas Clark.

Ten Steps of a Successful Query Letter

Would you like to cut down on your rejections? Who wouldn't? The query letter is key in a writer's success. Here are ten proven steps of great queries.

1. Make a thirty second phone call to the publishing house. Request the editorial department. Request the name of the editor who covers the topic of your proposed article or book topic. Confirm spelling and address.
2. Write an attention-grabbing story title and use it in the subject line of your letter after "Story Proposal."
3. Hook the editor in the first paragraph with your best creative writing.
4. Introduce something new, maybe provocative, that will make the editor want to read your manuscript.
5. Deliver your manuscript's focus. Tell why the readers will find value in your story.
6. Suggest the area of the publication where your story will fit. If you do this, the editor won't have to figure it out. One less job of him/her to do.
7. Give the approximate word count. The editor wants to know if it will fit in the section you suggested.
8. Tell why you are qualified to write the story. Do you have credentials or have you interviewed and/or performed the required research?
9. Tie up your query letter with a convincing statement that will make your project hard for the editor to reject.
10. Attach samples of your previous work and close with your contact information.

As a Christian writer, I start and end my letter with prayer, asking God to bless my efforts as well as go before and with my correspondence, trusting Him to lead me to the right projects and publishers.

I am offering Queries and Submissions by Tom Clark, and recommended by Terry Whalin, to the first five people to subscribe to this blog and leave a comment. Also, please e-mail me at suetornai@ymail.com with your mailing address.