How My Addiction to Celebrity Gossip Has Helped My Writing (Really!)

© Catalin Stefan | Dreamstime Stock Photos

I was cleaning up the bathrooms in our home a few weekends ago, and started sorting through the pile of magazines on the floor for recycling.

“Wow,” I thought to myself. “There’s a whole lot of InTouch and Life & Style in this pile. No wonder Noah (my 9-year-old) was asking me the other day why Teresa was in prison.” I used to try and hide the magazines under more respectable publications like House Beautiful and The Writer but I guess I’ve been getting sloppy lately.

When it came time to brainstorm ideas for this post, I thought it might be fun to see if I could come up with some ways my addiction to celebrity gossip has actually helped me in my day job as a freelance writer and magazine editor. Pitiful, I know, but believe it or not, it wasn’t as hard as I originally expected. Here's what I discovered:

Cover blurbs really are important. Part of me groans when the time comes to put cover blurbs on the parenting magazine I edit. After working for the magazine for three plus years, I sometimes struggle with new ways to come up with teasers for evergreen topics like “back to school,” “summer fun,” and “summer camps/birthday parties.” But if I want readers to pick up our magazine, every word on the cover counts. Because let’s face it, I’m not sure I would have picked up the April 6 issue of a certain gossip magazine if the headline “540 Days Without Daddy: Why Tom Has Stayed Away From Suri” hadn’t screamed out at me.

Longer is not always better. I’ve been known to stress myself out when trying to come up with original content pertinent to our magazine. But when I flip through many magazines (and not just the celebrity ones) I find I enjoy the short “filler” pieces just as much as the in-depth articles. A few months ago I was reading a Facebook status from one of our local television news anchors, who often posts cute anecdotes about her kids. She had just picked up an Emmy, and I thought, “I should e-mail her and see if I can interview her for the magazine! I’ll bet our readers would love it.” I sent her a note that day, she responded immediately, and I sent her a few questions. We ran her interview with some snapshots of her kids and titled the short piece “Motherhood Musings.” She was thrilled, our readers enjoyed it, and the whole thing took hardly any time at all. So as silly as the “Night at Home with a Celebrity” column can look at first glance, it’s fun and entertaining for those of us who like to read about “lighter” topics from time to time.

Certain subjects can find a home in almost any magazine. Flipping through any one of my celebrity or women’s magazines, I find multiple articles focusing on nutrition, books, movies, fashion and exercise. Looking over the latest editorial budget for our magazine, we’ve got an article planned on “How to Make a Salad Your Kids Will Eat,” a picture book review, a column on maternity wear from our mommy fashion blogger, and a regular section on “Fit Fun,” which announces local races and sporting events families and kids.

So the next time I’m stumped on article ideas, this means I can head to the grocery store for my celebrity gossip fix and writing research, right? Are you addicted to any specific types of magazines? Do you ever use them to get ideas for your own writing?

Renee Roberson is an award-winning writer and editor who once got to interview celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton, and believes that never would have happened if not for her hopeless addiction to celebrity gossip. She blogs about pop culture, writing, books, and everything else in between at Renee's Pages.

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Leave a Comment celebrity gossip magazines, generating story ideas, Renee Roberson, Writing for magazines

Friday Speak Out!: All’s Fair In Love War and Writing the Modern Mystery Novel

by Nancy Cole Silverman

As a writer I get asked all the time where do you get your ideas? For me it’s easy. I steal them. Now let me explain, for years I worked inside a busy newsroom and saw stories, the likes of which you just can’t make up. Fact is stranger than fiction. So when I retired and the cuffs-were-off, and I no longer had an editor over my back yelling at me to stick-to-the-facts, I decided it was time to play. Let it rip! Blend fact with fiction and let the bodies fall where they will.

I was lucky that Henery Press picked up my first book and with very little pressure – believe me I was used to a whole lot more in a newsroom – convinced me to make it a series.

In my first book, Shadow of Doubt, Carol Childs, a middle-aged mom, is embarking on a new career as a reporter, when her friend and next door neighbor knocks on her door and tells her, her aunt, a top Hollywood agent, has died suspiciously in the bathtub of her Beverly Hills home. Poisoned. Where did the idea come from? A news story of course. The day after an Academy Awards show here in Hollywood, I read an article about a Hollywood Agent who had been shot and killed as she drove home from the awards show. That in itself was terrible, but what followed in the paper was even more intriguing. The agent had twin nieces and had left a will in which one niece inherited one-million dollars and the other niece just one dollar. One dollar! I couldn’t let that pass. The story just wouldn’t let go of me.

In July, the sequel, Beyond a Doubt, will be released and as I sit here and write, I find myself rubbing my hands, hoping my readers and reviewers will enjoy my second book as much as they did the first. But I have a confession at make. I stole ideas for that book as well.

Beyond a Doubt opens with a body dump. Is the idea original? Not entirely. Years ago I woke up to the sounds of helicopters above my house in the hills where I live. Commuters had spotted a body and called the police. The story stuck with me, the emotion of seeing a body airlifted from the canyon, not easy to forget. Am I guilty of theft? Absolutely. The idea of a body being pushed from a helicopter isn’t exactly original, but it certainly is gripping.

My point is that as writers we’re like emotional sponges. We soak in all that we see and hear around us. We have to. To be authentic on the page, one has to be able to recall a similar experience from within ourselves, or that we’ve experienced vicariously through others. Whether it’s a scene we’re writing or the same gut feeling we need to show our character experiencing, we have to pull it from somewhere. To do that a writer must steal from all around him, blur the lines of fact and fiction, then wrap it up in from of a novel or a short story. It’s a larceny I can live with. I hope you can too.

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Nancy Cole Silverman’s new series with Henery Press is available in bookstores and online. For more information about Ms. Silverman, please visit her website; www.nancycolesilverman.com or her publisher http://henerypress.com/nancy-cole-silverman/
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!

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1 comment book ideas, finding a story idea, Friday Speak Out, generating story ideas, Nancy Cole Silverman, novel writing

Cashing in on Your Vacations

This time next week, I will be on a much-needed family vacation at one of our favorite South Carolina beaches. Workwise, the timing couldn’t be better, as we will have just sent the latest issue of the magazine I edit to the printer and my next round of freelance assignments aren’t due for a few more weeks. But, as most freelancers know, vacation is no time to rest upon our laurels.

I’ve turned many a vacation into blog posts and travel articles, and over time, I’ve definitely learned to keep my eyes open to possible story ideas while traveling. I’ve been able to write about several trips for different magazines I write for, such as this article, Which Carolina Beach is Best for Your Family? This past year, when we ventured out on a weekend trip at a bed and breakfast in the North Carolina mountains, I reviewed the inn in a regional magazine parenting article that began, “As much as I love my kids, there are times I need to get away with just my husband.” It doesn’t have to be a lengthy or expensive trip—even just a few days to decompress works wonders.”

The great thing about brainstorming while on vacation is that it’s relatively simple. All you really need is an open mind and a good camera to help you take photos to accompany any articles (editors love it when you can do this). And the best part? Save all your receipts, because if you write about specific places/restaurants/experiences within that year, you can possibly deduct them from your taxes.

Vacation is also a great time to snap photos of things you don’t normally see that you can then archive for future blog posts, such as the image I've included at the beginning of this post. I’ve also started a Pinterest board combining some of my travel photos and articles.

In addition to mining the brochure racks for story ideas, I also plan on spending some time each day doing a little prospecting, so that I can make sure to start lining up assignments for the fall and winter. But don’t worry—I won’t spend too much time behind my computer. I have a tote bag full of books and several more saved on my Kindle that I’ve been saving specifically for next week. Until next time!

Renee Roberson is an award-winning freelance writer and editor who also works as a Blog Tour Manager for WOW! Women on Writing. She also blogs at Renee’s Pages.

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1 comment freelance writing and vacation, generating story ideas, Renee Roberson, travel photos, travel writing