A key element of the Get Slightly Famous marketing strategy is getting published. But if you to break into print with contributed articles about your expertise, take note. Beginning writers have a hard time understanding the difference between a genuine, workable story idea and what is merely an interesting topic. You need to know the difference if you want to get published.
Magazine editors hate to see queries that are little more than amorphous topics. "I'd like to write a story about marketing” is not likely to win an assignment unless you narrow it down, establish a specific angle and tie the subject to the concerns of a specific readership.
Now for some definitions:
Topic vs. Story Idea. A topic is a vague, universal entity that does not, in itself, constitute the subject for an article.
“Employee Management” is a TOPIC…vast and formless. “Should Employers Be So Tight-Lipped About Former Employees” is a focused story idea and the possible subject of an article. “World Hunger” is a topic, whereas “What Is UNICEF Is Doing About World Hunger in Ethiopia” is a STORY IDEA, a narrow portion of the encompassing topic “World Hunger.”
Focus. This is how you will tackle a small-enough part of your subject to write about within the confines of a magazine article. The length of the article determines focus. For a 500-word article, your focus must be laser-sharp—covering one tiny aspect of the subject. A 2000-word article on the same subject would have a larger focus and a book a much larger focus still.
Slant. This is the way your idea will be directed to the interests of a magazine's readers. A slant is a particular way of looking at a topic. Specifically, it's the way readers would look at a topic.
Few ideas are original; it's usually only the SLANT and FOCUS that makes them different. It narrows the field by restricting itself to the concerns of that particular audience. Then it narrows the field still more by addressing only some examples that illustrate your point.
In the real world, slanting a subject is the equivalent to walking around a building and seeing it from different angles and perspectives. Slanting enables you to see your subject in a variety of ways as targeted audiences demand.
Summing up. FOCUS insures that you don’t bite off more than you can chew. SLANT enables you to look at your topic from different perspectives. The end result is a STORY IDEA, which is a focused, slanted article topic drawn from an overall TOPIC.
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