© 2003, Don Vaughan In the nonfiction game, it's easy to overlook the obvious. Especially when it comes to ideas. Our gut tells us that the big magazines want big stories. Massive articles on the most important issues of the day, or outrageous profiles of the Hollywood flavor of the week. Those are the kinds of articles that many beginning freelancers strive to sell their first day out, even though they usually lack the skills or connections necessary to do the job right. Thinking big is good. Thinking too big is a waste of your time and that of the editors to whom you're pitching. I'm not trying to squash your dream of a Vanity Fair cover story, I'm just trying to be realistic. Sometimes it's better to start small and grow, rather than start big and fail miserably. One of the best and easiest ways to build a solid freelance foundation is writing about what you know. Your hobbies, your interests, the many intriguing people and things that fill your life. It's familiar territory, so you'll be able to write a solid, hard-hitting, fact-packed query. And editors will be able to feel your enthusiasm, which is half the battle in making a sale. (Okay, maybe a third of the battle). Better still, your innate interest on a particular subject will make it easier for you to do research, and add life and depth to your interviews. In my writing class, I give my students ten minutes to make a list of everything they know about. It's a simple exercise and a very revealing one. Some of the lists are short, others are very long. Some people have a wide range of interests, others appear to be very limited (though often the student is just shy). The goal of this exercise is to show my students just how numerous and wide-ranging their interests are, and thus their scope of potential article ideas. If you've never done this, give it a try. You'll be amazed at what you come up with. "Stuff I know about" has served me well as a nonfiction freelancer. For example, one of the very first articles I ever sold was a piece to Cat Fancy on cats in Walt Disney movies. I love movies and I love cats. It was a natural pairing. During those early years I also sold a profile of my wife (then my girlfriend) to Collectibles Illustrated. The hook? She was a nurse who collected nurse dolls. Lots and lots of them. I'm also a tremendous fan of comic books and cartooning in general. I learned to read with the help of comic books, and my love for this uniquely American artform (I learned that from Harlan Ellison) has never diminished. As a result of this fascination, I've sold six articles on the International Museum of Cartoon Art (where I work as a volunteer docent) to magazines ranging from Good Times! to South Florida Parenting. I've also sold profiles of former MAD magazine editor Al Feldstein to Outre and a Seattle-based web-zine; profiles of Green Lantern creator Marty Nodell to Modern Maturity and the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, and profiles of EC Comics artist Graham Ingels to Sunshine, The Scream Factory and Outre. And it was my love of cartooning that helped land me a big feature on cats in the comics for Cat Fancy. Not surprisingly, I'm also a big fan of really cheesy movies and the people who make them. The result: Lots of work for Filmfax, including profiles of Kenny Miller (I Was A Teenage Werewolf, Attack of the Puppet People), William Schallert (Man From Planet X, Colossus: The Forbin Project and more television appearances than any other living actor), as well as Billy Mumy, June Foray, Ann Sothern and Donald O'Connor. It's all been tremendous fun, and it all stemmed from stuff I was familiar with and enjoyed. So the next time you're brainstorming for ideas, take a look at yourself first. What are your hobbies? Your areas of interest? Your favorite things? What intriguing jobs have you held? How about your friends and family? But the most important question facing you is: "What kinds of articles do I really want to write?" Answer that one from the heart and you'll be set forever!
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