Writing Information

Put a Spin on Your Idea!

Eight or nine times out of ten, picking up and leafing through a magazine's or book's table of contents, you will find at least one or more articles or chapters that will catch your attention immediately. Never mind that that article or chapter's subject had been written about many times before. The one that caught YOUR attention stood out, most likely, because it put the topic in a new perspective.

For starters, that new perspective, aka, "spin" may have involved saying "no" to something that everyone seemingly agrees with or "yes" to something that everyone seemingly disagrees with. If most people agree that going to college is great, an author such as Caroline Bird will take the opposite tack, arguing that going to college is a bad idea. So reviewing commonly accepted concepts in your field and taking an opposite stance on one of them may yield a unique spin.

Another way to put a different spin on a topic is to examine its related issues and problems. One time, I was interested in writing a book for substitute teachers and recalled from my own experiences what substitutes had to deal with. One of the issues was the lack of good activities to be used immediately with restless students. This led to a book about activities using common objects, such as confiscated toys, in motivating students to write.

Still another way to put a new perspective on things is to establish a connection between two seemingly unrelated concepts or things. This can be tricky, but very effective if you can pull it off. Your expertise in a given field will be very helpful, and you can always connect the dots with additional research. For example, everyone is familiar with gardens, but how many people are familiar with out-of-space gardens or Mars gardens? Also, asking yourself "what if" can yield a few interesting connections.

Yet another way is simply to offer your own definition of a term or make up a term, such as mompreneurs. Look through references such as thesauri as well as regular and specialized dictionaries for common nouns. Then take some time to play around with combinations of words and see if you can't create a word that is related to your expertise. To discuss it completely to a specific audience just may require a book that you can write! Even better, you are not likely to have much competition in attracting a publisher's attention.

And there you have it. Choose a strategy that you find especially appealing and go to work. You may be pleasantly surprised with your results! Remember to have fun while you are at it.

Dorothy Zjawin has used her creativity in developing her published book, articles and website, http://www.profitable-pen.com