This week, I\u2019m working on my speech for the Cat Writers\u2019 Association Conference November 19-22. I\u2019m looking forward to meeting the cat writers in White Plains, New York. Should be a warm gathering in a chilly place. And the Westchester Cat Show takes place in the same city on the same weekend. How cool is that?<\/p>\n
On Friday morning, I\u2019ll be talking to writers about how to break away from cat writing and expand into other genres and topics. As you may know, I started my freelance article-writing career writing about horses. That was what I knew about at the time. I was also familiar with horse-related magazines and knew what was lacking\u2014what was needed. So I got my start writing how-to and informational articles for these magazines, along with an occasional humor or human interest piece.<\/p>\n
Are you a freelance writer stuck in a writing niche and you don\u2019t know how to expand your horizons? Here are my suggestions in a nutshell:<\/p>\n
Okay, so you\u2019re writing about what you know and love. Consider what else you know or are involved in. For me, way back when, it was the subjects of a column I was writing for the local newspaper. <\/p>\n
I had developed a business column for the Ojai Valley News<\/em>\u2014Profiles in Business. I met some interesting people doing interesting things and I began selling some of their stories to regional and national magazines\u2014with their knowledge and permission, of course. <\/p>\n Early on, I also wrote articles for cat magazines. I did a lot of work for Cats Magazine <\/em>before it folded. And I\u2019ve written quite a few articles for Cat Fancy<\/em>. I wrote a piece on the calico cat, for example; one featuring the Pallas cat (the wild and rare cat that lives in the steppes in Asia and parts of Russia). I\u2019ve written about cat personalities, holistic medicine for cats, feral cats, how to bring a kitten into your home, and so forth. <\/p>\n So what else do you know well, parenting, caring for elderly parents, gardening, quilting, woodworking, collecting swords or cars, shopping\u2014are you an expert at shopping with coupons? Maybe you work with therapy animal, you\u2019re good at budgeting, you pride yourself on your happy marriage or you operate a volunteer organization. Consider writing about these things. <\/p>\n Here\u2019s another idea: stay with your original theme, just go in a different direction. If you write about cats, for example, consider creating articles on your pet topic for non-cat magazines. I sold articles about cats in the workplace and in libraries to a few regional magazines. (I was one of many to write about Dewey, the Library cat). I\u2019ve also sold pieces on how to teach children responsibility through caring for their pets, for parenting magazines. How about a piece featuring animal-related paying jobs for business publications? Yup, I\u2019ve done that, too. I even sold a piece on using mind-talk with cats, reflecting an experience I had with my calico, Daisy. This sold to a metaphysical magazine.<\/p>\n Eventually, of course, the goal is to come up with totally new article ideas. <\/p>\n Many freelance writers are at a total loss when it comes to article ideas outside of their areas of interest. But I can offer a whole list of prompts for locating new ideas to write about. Let me know if you\u2019re interested and I\u2019ll write a blog telling you how.<\/p>\n