This is a guest post by Brad Painting. If you want to write for Daily Writing Tips check the guidelines here.

One of the great things about freelance writing is that you can invent your own projects and put your creative juices to the test. But what if your creative flow seems blocked, as writers so often lament? Writer’s block is actually just a matter of not asking yourself the right questions.

Imagine that you have just written the article “5 Easy Steps to Greening Your Home” for a popular home magazine. You put forth your best information, and the editor was thrilled, but now you are wanting for ideas. How can you create a new piece without choosing an entirely new topic and doing heaps of research?

The SCAMPER technique is just the solution to this dilemma.

Editor’s note: SCAMPER is a problem solving technique created by Bob Earle and popularized by Michael Michalko in his book Thinkertoys.

SCAMPER is an acronym for a set of actions that force you to ask yourself certain brainstorming questions. The letters of SCAMPER stand for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Magnify, Put to Other Uses, Eliminate, and Reverse. You can perform any of these actions on any component of any product or process.

Our product is the theme of an article. We could technically split the title “5 Easy Steps to Greening Your Home” into 6 components for every noun, pronoun, and adjective, but it may help to use the two components, “5 Easy Steps” and “Greening Your Home”. Let’s take a walk through the SCAMPER process.

Substitute. Replace one component with another. Focus on professional services, like HVAC cleaning, rather than do-it yourself jobs. Or write about the unique challenges of an apartment as opposed to a house:

5 Professional Services for Greening Your Home
5 Easy Steps to Greening Your Apartment

Combine. Merge two components into one. You can fuse a new component with an existing one, or combine two existing components. Can you add qualities to the act of “greening” or to the object, “your home”?

5 Easy Steps to Green Your Home and Your Lifestyle
5 Easy Steps to Green and Add Value to Your Home

Adapt. What components exist that are similar to current ones? Maybe much of your information also applies to commercial buildings:

5 Easy Steps to Greening a Small Business

Magnify. Try playing with the size of a component. Inflate “5 Ways” to “20 Ways” or “Home” to “Neighborhood”. Alternatively, zoom in on one aspect of the house, such as refrigerator-efficiency:

20 Ways You Can Green Your Home
5 Ways You Can Green Your Neighborhood
5 Ways to Improve Your Refrigerator’s Efficiency

Put to Other Uses. Towards what other markets can you tailor the article? Do these steps lower energy consumption, shaving down utility bills? Try writing from a financial rather than environmental standpoint:

5 Surefire Investments in Your Home

Eliminate. What happens when you throw away a component? Is the topic too specific to appeal to enough readers? See what happens when you eliminate some words and tie up loose ends:

5 Ways to Be Green
5 Must-Do Home Improvements

Reverse. Imagine reversing the order of components. Linguistically, this can lead to some creative outcomes, such as an ironic spin on your article:

5 Ways to Throw Away Household Energy.

SCAMPER will not always produce unique or viable topics, but the idea is to generate possiblities so that you can pick and choose. One thing to consider when fleshing out possibilities is whether you can make an article unique enough to warrant an exclusive-rights license. If you would consider a certain adaptation plagiarism when done by another writer, you should not sell it as a unique piece yourself. You can, however, make small changes to increase your sales of usage-rights. If nothing else, SCAMPER will give you the assurance that you have exhausted the possibilities for an idea.

Brad Painting is the author of the vocabulary site Word a Day Wonder, a site that embeds vocabulary in amazing facts.

This is a guest post by Rhonda Franz. If you want to write for Daily Writing Tips check the guidelines here.

The great thing about being a writer with young children is the material. There’s emotion (good or bad) in everything from how their first word was “NO,” to the way they walk when they’ve put their pants on backwards.

The difficult thing about writing with young kids at home is that they’re young, and, well, they’re at home.

Children in the high-maintenance stages between birth and Kindergarten make for an extremely busy, sometimes overwhelming, season in a mom and dad’s life. In order to manage writing—and the business of writing—from home, it’s important to treat it as the job it is, and expect family members to do the same.

Have a Routine
Children generally behave best when they know what to expect. If it works in your household to get a little writing done during the day, make sure your children have specific activities to work on, and/or special toys they get to play with only during that time. For toddlers and preschool-aged children, consider letting them use this time to look at books, “write” with their crayons, markers, or pencils, or, if they have one, work on their own toy laptop computer.

Then sit down, get to work, and don’t feel guilty about your children having to entertain themselves for a few minutes; it’s good for them.

Novelist Barbara Kingsolver once said that she has always written while her children were in someone else’s care. That’s absolutely the best thing to do, but if you’re a stay-at-home parent with babies or toddlers (or both), and don’t choose daycare, the children are in your care. It’s essential to have a regular time—even if it’s when they’re sleeping—to work when they won’t require constant attention. Get up a couple of hours early, stay up a few hours late: whatever suits you and your family.

Certain Time, Same Place
Again, this touches on routine. If you plan to write while they’re around, try to do it at a certain time, or certain times, throughout the day. Of course, of course parents have to be flexible and deal with emergencies and crying babies and so on and so forth: ‘tis the life of the home manager. But the more consistent you are in making time for writing, the more it will become a habit, and therefore, just a normal part of your day, and of your child’s day.

Sitting in front of a computer looks different than teaching piano lessons or tutoring students in your home. The only visible action is that of your fingers on the keyboard. It can be difficult to get children (and sometimes, spouses) to take you seriously when you’re interacting with computer screen or notebook. Call it your “writing work,” or “writing job,” but refer to it as what it is: serious business. It’s up to you to set the tone.
If your computer usually sits in an open place, move it to a particular room or area of the house while you write. This way, you set up a distinction between Mommy or Daddy cruising mindlessly around the web and actual work being done. Save the cruising for after the children are in bed.

Make Notes
Place list paper, sticky notes, tablets, scrap paper, pencils or pens, in desks, the kitchen drawer, under the changing pad, and by your bedside. When an idea strikes during the day, it’s likely you’ll only have mere seconds to jot it down before your toddler heads for the stairs.

Get Out of the House
There’s always something calling out for attention in a house: laundry, phone messages, unpaid bills, dust. If you are fortunate enough to have someone who can occasionally watch your children, or you can take advantage of a local Mom’s Day Out or community program, consider getting out of the house and going to your local library, bookstore, or coffee house to write. Plant yourself in a corner and relish the fact that someone else gets paid to sweep that floor.

Multitasking is Great, But…
it isn’t always the most effective way to get something done. Use certain blocks of time to write, and certain blocks of time to do household chores. When you’re at the writing time, do not get distracted by the overloaded trash bin, or the dirty dishes in the kitchen sink. When ideas come to you while working on those tasks, jot down ideas on the nearest piece of paper. Do not get immersed in a household responsibility. Remind yourself that you will see to those jobs during the time you’ve made to work on chores. If you are easily distracted, see the above information about escape.

Remember Your Priorities
There are days when your children require special attention. This is a good day to shut down the computer, put away your notebook, and concentrate on the reason you’re staying home in the first place. Your writing can always be revised; your children can’t.

Rhonda Franz spent seven years teaching other people’s children before taking a leave to raise her own. She learned to keep paper and pens everywhere in her house after using a Crayola marker to write a phrase on a disposable diaper. You can read more about her views on writing in public places at Freelance Writing Gigs. She’s a regular contributor at ParentingSquad.com/, and writes on a variety of topics at her own blog, Coffeehouse Mom.

This is a guest post by Mary Hodges If you want to write for Daily Writing Tips check the guidelines here.

There are some writers who wouldn’t dream of entering a writing competition. They consider such things beneath their dignity. I’ve even come across someone who refused to take part in competitions because “someone has to lose”. My response to this would be “someone has to win, and it might be you. But if you don’t enter, you certainly won’t win.”

My own feeling is that writing for a competition is helpful for these reasons:

You have to write to a word limit.

You have a deadline to meet.

You often have to write on a given topic.

Even if your work is not among the winning entries you have a finished story article or poem that you can adapt for another market

Writing competitions seem to be a growth area. A Google search for “writing competitions” came up with over a million hits!

Prizemagic includes some interesting details about Michael Shenton and his book Stiff Competition based on his experience of entering competitions. The poetrykit site includes a link to story and other competitions and a warning to beware of scams.

There are numerous print magazines with titles like Competitors’ Companion but these include only a few writing contests. They are mainly devoted to general consumer competitions where the entrants need to provide proof of purchase and concoct advertising slogans for particular products.

Some points to remember when entering competitions:

Always read the rules for entry carefully. State age, sex, ethnicity, place of birth or residence, and whether or not your work has been published. – I’ve seen all these used to restrict who is eligible to enter.

Look carefully at the deadline. There’s no point in sending your work off too soon and making it unavailable for other uses any longer than necessary.

Look for contests that give a clear date by which the winners will be notified. Once that date has passed, you know you can submit your work elsewhere or enter it in another competition,

Note the prizes and the entry fees – if any. Remember, a bigger prize might attract more entries; you might have a better chance of winning in a smaller local comp. albeit with a smaller reward.

Contests you can enter by email are to be preferred every time over those that require hard copy entries. Some ask you to send an S.A.E for an entry form, requiring wo lots of unnecessary postage.

Look carefully at what the organizers say they will do with the non-winners. I’ve come across one contest where the entrants granted the organizers “a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual license to feature any or all of the submissions in any of its publications”. Do you really want to give your work away when you might submit it to another publication or enter it for another contest?

Keep a copy of your entry and a record of where you sent it.

I should come clean and say I haven’t won lots of writing competitions. I seem to get to the runner-up stage quite often, but don’t make the big time. Of course prizes in writing competitions are not always in the form of cash. You might win a holiday, a place on a writing course in some exotic location or as I did many years ago you might win a lavatory seat!

I’m not kidding. This was part of a prize for writing a poem about Convent Garden in London. Prizes were items from the various shops in Covent Garden including one that specialized in wooden loo seats with the owner’s initials on the lid!

But when all’s said and done it’s not the winning that counts, it’s the taking part.

Mary Hodges has published poems in The Oldie, Freelance Market News and Quantum Leap magazine. She edits the Garstang Arts Centre Newsletter and is Press Officer for her local Women’s Institute. She also writes plays, one of which was produced for the Women’s Institute Drama Festival. Although computer literate and interested in the web, she has not yet set up her own website or blog. Two sites she’s found particularly useful are PrizeMagic and The Poetry Kit.

This is a guest post by Barbara Youree. If you want to write for Daily Writing Tips check the guidelines here.

If your goal is to be published somewhere—anywhere—to build up credits that will open the door to larger publications, the religious market is a good place to begin.

Study the market
Determine what publishers are looking for and where you will fit in. Many religious/spiritual magazines are limited to a single denomination, whereas others attract a general audience.

All religious publications operate according to a particular slant—from conservative to liberal. Some are family oriented. Others focus on world events with a peace/justice theme.

Studying Writers’ Market and leafing through magazines in a library or bookstore are good ways to begin. Find a publication that looks like a comfortable fit for you.

My focus here is on magazines, but the same principles apply to books, on-line writing, flyers, and tracts.

Content
Most magazines reserve their articles on theology for recognized religious leaders such as professional ministers, priests, rabbis or others, but almost all have plenty of space for other writers.

Many editors seek first-person stories about faith or personal spiritual experiences. These can be your own, or those of someone you know or have interviewed. Some to consider: Angels on Earth and Alive Now!

Additionally, most religious magazines accept articles on travel, child rearing, finance, health and other topics of general interest. In such articles there is no need to mention God or make any religious reference at all. The writer simply needs to keep the tone clean and family friendly. Some examples are Mature Living and Parents & Teens.

A few, including Christian Century and Sojourners accept poetry.

Avoid “religious” language
You may be surprised to learn that the quickest path to rejection of a piece for the religious market is the use of religious terminology. Even denominational magazines hope “non-churched” people will read their articles.

Instead of “washed in the blood of the lamb,” say something like, “awareness of a higher being.” Rather than she “loved her neighbor as herself,” tell how she always asked people about their concerns and offered to pet-sit for the elderly person during his hospital stay.

Keep the wording as broad and as inclusive as possible. For most publications, use the word spiritual rather than religious, God rather than Jesus, and scriptures rather than Bible.

Like love, religion is difficult to write about without using clichés or maudlin sentimentality. Editors of religious publications appreciate articles on spirituality that are fresh and insightful, written in lively, non-churchy English. If you can offer that, opportunities abound.

Barbara Youree has written extensively for the religious market. In addition to numerous magazine articles, she has authored four historical Christian romances and six children’s books about missionary children and their friendship with their peers in foreign countries. Courageous Journey, Walking the Lost Boys Path from the Sudan to America is her latest nonfiction book. She makes her home in Rogers Arkansas.

This is a guest post by Lela Davidson. If you want to write for Daily Writing Tips check the guidelines here.

Love it, hate it, or tolerate it, Facebook is here, maybe not to stay—because nothing is changing faster than media—but it’s here now.

Facebook is an important way to reach readers and network with clients, fellow writers, and editors.

I use Facebook every day to engage readers (and potential readers), and to network with those who can help me reach more readers.

Through significant daily interactions, ‘branded’ messages, and posting links to my work, I hope to build that all important ‘platform’ we someday-to-be-bestsellers need.

A Short History of a Reluctant Facebook Junkie
I opened my Facebook account under duress. A client required links from a Facebook profile to the blog posts I’d written. I’d already tried (and given up on) social bookmarking sites like Digg and Stumble and I resented the extra time it took to pimp my posts. I wanted to be a writer, not waste time working the system of you-click-my-link-I’ll-click-yours.

However, in the short time the assignment lasted, I got hooked on Facebook.

Interacting With Readers and Others
Chatting up old friends on Facebook was training for how I use it now, which is more strategic, but not too different. I’ve branched out from my ‘real’ friends, embracing the concept of “Facebook Friends,” who may or may not be people I actually know IRL (in real life—do the kids still say that?).

The decision about what to share and with whom is the biggest challenge for writers wanting to use Facebook for professional networking.

For me it has been a seamless transition from my friends, to their friends, and beyond because most of what I write is personal. If I’m writing about the hair balls in my bathroom for a magazine essay, I don’t mind telling you about them in my status bar. Facebook allows me to engage readers and convert would-be readers, by giving them a preview of my longer writing.

Keeping Your Distance
If you don’t want to get too personal with readers you set up a Page, which is different from a Profile. Readers can become fans of your page and this fan status shows up in the information section of their profiles. Interaction from a page is limited, but it’s better than nothing.

In addition to frequent status updates, it’s also extremely important to comment on your Facebook Friends’ status and links. This is interactive media. If all you do is talk about yourself, eventually no one will listen.

Developing a Platform
Both established and aspiring writers need a platform in order to sell their work. In Get Known Before the Book Deal, author Christina Katz defines platform as:

. . . all the ways you are visible and appealing to your future, potential, or actual readership.

Katz emphasizes that platform development is important not only for authors, but also for aspiring and soon-to-be authors.

Interaction with your Facebook Friends builds the foundation of your relationship so that when you post a link, they may read it or pass it along via the Share function of Facebook. This lets every one of their Facebook Friends know that 1) it exists, and 2) they think it’s cool enough to be associated with.

And Finally, Posting Those Links
Wherever you are in your writing career, you have a core fan base of people who like what you write because they like you—family, friends, neighbors. Even my ‘real’ friends who aren’t interested in my writing are still interested in me. Maybe their friends and family might like what I’m writing. Facebook is the easiest way for them to share my stuff. The more I interact with them the more they are likely to find something they like. When that happens, the spread can be viral. I hope.

It’s important to note that links are different from status updates. They don’t show up in your status bar, and unless they get a lot of Likes (thumbs up) or comments, they may not show up in your Facebook Friends’ news feeds either. I don’t feel like I’m pestering people with my links if I occasionally post more than one in a day.

Also, when I’m commenting on someone else’s status, sometimes it’s natural to include a link. For example, I write a lot on family topics so whenever someone posts a status about their kid losing a tooth, I’ll comment with a link to an essay I wrote about the inflation of Tooth Fairy payouts.

Friending Editors and Fanning Magazines
As my essays have started to get picked up in more print magazines, I try to Friend the editors and become a Fan of the magazine’s website. (Sorry, fellow DWT guest author, but Friending and Fanning are verbs.) A lot of print magazines publish online versions. When the piece runs, I post a link, as well as thanking and tagging the editor in my status update.

Before an editor has bought something of mine, we can connect as Facebook Friends. Though we may never meet in person, Facebook savvy gives me an edge over the hundreds of other writers hitting the inbox. Many of those editors use the same email on Facebook as they do for submissions, so I use Facebook’s automated ‘Find Friends’ utility to identify them.

When it comes to social media there are no experts. So jump in—from wherever you are—and play. That’s what I did. Facebook has expanded my reach, helped build my ‘platform’, and put me in direct contact with readers, clients, and editors. It can do the same for you.

Oh yeah, don’t forget to Friend me. And Fan me.

Lela Davidson’s award-winning column, After the Bubbly, appears regularly in Peekaboo magazine, and periodically in other magazines throughout the country. She is the parenting columnist on HubPages and a regular contributor to ParentingSquad. Find out more on her wildly entertaining blog. Or just Google her. She loves to be Googled.