Story ideas and other tips for authors

August 2013
https://medium.com/editors-picks/60ad7174718d

"Joshua is also one half of Epic Magazine, a new publishing start-up that is collaborating with Medium. We asked him about his writing."

From Joshua:

A lot of the distribution platforms that currently exist didn’t exist when I was starting out. There was no Kindle Singles, Audible, or Medium. I spent a lot of time trying to adapt my stories to the various magazines I was writing for. If I were starting out now, I would start writing in-depth stories for these new platforms, where the barrier to entry is low.

You learn from doing, so the best thing is to get out into the world, start reporting and start writing. And it doesn’t have to be a globe-trotting adventure. I love the idea of finding stories in my own neighborhood and just digging in. There are great stories everywhere.

Other tips:

Most days are very quiet. I don’t listen to music. I just struggle through 500 to 1000 words. I try to exercise in the afternoons. I try not to work at night. And then I wake up in the morning and try to make it happen all over again.

I believe in the old adage: Any writing problem is a reporting problem. Any time I get stuck, I do more reporting. So my tip is to try to report your way out any writing problems. Get more information and it’ll point to a way forward.

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