Fresh Ideas
The Thanksgiving Detective:
Finding That Holiday Story
By Gabrielle Linnell
We are at the brink of The Holidays, a time when
everyone spends too much, eats too much and sleeps too little. In spite
of the plethora of activities, it can still be hard to find a unique
holiday story to sell to editors. Because the holidays play such a large
role in themed issues, there isn't much that hasn't been done before. Or
is there?
Put on your Nancy Drew hat and follow these five suggestions for
tracking that brand-new holiday tale.
Scour your diaries. If you kept diaries throughout your younger
years, hunt them down. Look for any and every mention of what holidays
meant to you as a child. Make a list of emotions felt, scenarios written
down (Did Santa arrive in a bikini one year?), and even menus. Pay
attention to unusual observations or circumstances: who wants to read
about an ordinary Hannukah?
Interview family members. This is when you appreciate your
more-than-chatty relatives. What you can't remember, they most certainly
will. Ask your three-year-old nephew what he does at Thanksgiving, and
ask your grandmother what she did for Easter. Check in with your
workaholic cousins to see what drives them nuts during the hectic winter
months. Get an idea for what makes a holiday experience unique, and use
it as a building point for a story.
Read really old magazines. Have you seen a vintage copy of Ladies
Home Journal? Or St. Nicholas? Find copies of older zines online or
through your library, and compare them to holiday stories published now
in Highlights and New Moon. Mark what's different and what
hasn't changed. Could you write about a time travel Christmas, where a
1950s boy shows up in a 2008 Toys R Us? There's a story there.
Take me on vacation. Does the average fifth-grader know about
holiday celebrations in Sri Lanka? Probably not. Whether you've
travelled abroad or know a good reference librarian, international
slants on holidays are always a good sell because they're unique. What
would happen if that same fifth grader's divorced dad took her on a
business trip to Sri Lanka for Thanksgiving?
Happy Odyssey 2100. Holiday traditions started thousands of years
ago in ancient cultures, but what will Christmas look like in a hundred
years? Nobody knows (or if they do, they're not telling) but that
question can kick off a number of ideas. Your story of a robots on a
snowy Mars would be a perfect sell for a fantasy magazine looking to
incorporate holiday tales.
Hunt down your holiday story like it is the next Professor Moriarty,
polish it off with Watson's advice, and you'll have your editor
declaring you the next Sherlock Holmes.
Gabrielle Linnell has written for
Cobblestone, FACES, New Moon, ByLine, Once
Upon a Time and Funds for Writers among other places. She
runs a
blog for YA enthusiasts and teen writers.
This page last updated on 01 November 2008
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