You’ll never forget that first time an editor tells you, “your piece is live!” It takes work to get to this thrill, but you can do it.
You’ve been writing in your journal or on your blog for a while now. Your ideas are good and the more you write about them, the better your teaching gets and the richer your writing becomes. You read other people’s articles on sites like WeAreTeachers, Two Writing Teachers, and Teach Write and think to yourself, “I can do that.” You’ve decided you want to try getting an article published on one of these or any of the hundreds of other sites out there.
What’s next?
I’ve been down this road. In fact, I wrote so many articles while I was teaching, that I left teaching in March of 2017 to become a full-time writer and editor at WeAreTeachers. So, I know exactly what you’re going through.
Believe me, I didn’t think I could do it at first either.
Here’s What I Learned:
1. Read and Deconstruct Published Posts
Find a place you want to write for and read at least 25 of their posts. Then, find a particularly engaging article, and copy and paste into a document. Now deconstruct it.
- How many words are in the article?
- How many sentences?
- What do you like about the first sentence?
- How many subheads are there?
- How are the subheads written?
The more you take it apart, the better you’ll understand what you have to do. You’ll create your own roadmap or structure to follow. This isn’t cheating! This is smart work. The site already published the piece. The editor liked it enough to put it out there to readers who, like you, engaged with it.
2. Generate a Headline
With online writing, the headline (or Hed, if you’re in the biz) is where it’s at. Research shows that many readers only read a headline, so the better yours is, the more likely an editor will want to read what you’ve written. There is no shortage of great headlines out there. Find ones you like and imitate them. Are you seeing a theme here? The world is your classroom. Look around.
3. Write a Short Pitch
Once you have a good headline, you pretty much know what you plan to write. Don’t write the article! Most editors would prefer that you share the headline and a short pitch that show what you plan to write about, what angle you’re thinking of taking, and why you think their readers will love it. Here’s a good example of a pitch one of my writers sent to me for our School Leaders Now site:
I’m a school administrator in Maryland, who’s been writing about my reflections for years. The more I write about the work I do as a principal, the more I think about how many principals need to simplify their lives. I loved the articles you have published on School Leaders Now. I think your readers need a post about how to simplify their lives by building a capsule wardrobe. The headline could be: Principal Life Hack: Build a Capsule Wardrobe. I’d like to share how by curating 18 or so items from your closet and storing the rest, you can be more productive and efficient. I’ll use images that show how to use different pieces together and help principals look pulled together without taking too much time. I look forward to hearing from you.
I loved this pitch. I knew just what she wanted to write. I knew she’d taken the time to review our site and knew what our readers would like. I accepted her pitch and gave her the parameters for writing for us. She wrote and submitted this: https://schoolleadersnow.weareteachers.com/principal-capsule-wardrobe/
Start with these tips and you’ll find that with each piece, accepted or rejected, you’ll learn more.
But you won’t know unless you try.
Kimberley Moran is an Editor at WeAreTeachers. She holds a masters degree in literacy and was a teacher in the Maine public school system for ten years. She is also the author of Hacking Parenthood. Follow her on Twitter @kimberleygmoran or on FaceBook.
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Thank you for your thoughtful ideas. This is what we try to teach students in our classrooms when they want to write in a particular genre or style. Have a mentor. Study a genre. Try to imitate it. Make it your own.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for this post. It's like Hacking the Online Magazine. I often deconstruct or borrow structures for poems but haven't thought about doing this for writing an article. Why does this intimidate me so much?!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a helpful and informative post, Kimberly. Like Margaret said above, I’ve never considered deconstructing an article, but this makes so much sense! Thank you for sharing.
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