Getting started. What to write about?

Many would-be, or potentially great, writers worry where to start? My view is that it's always best to try in your mind to write something that might be published in your local newspaper, favorite magazine or
on a blog. The topic is not hard - it's something to do with YOU. The length should not be too long, up to 350 words.

Length is very important, even if your' writing your own blog. It's important that you're capable of writing to the length asked for. Editors don't want 3000 words of perfect prose, if you've been asked for 500 words. Length, as a professional writer, is one of the first questions you ask. 'How long?' right before you ask 'How much do you pay?'

Writing about oneself can be tough, even though it's very cool these days to come out with the deep inner confessional. Maybe you feel you're not that interesting, in these days of gory confessionals. But remember, treat this as a writing exercise. By taking yourself as the topic, you will be tackling various important issues in the article-writing process:

• how to make something interesting to your editor and to the reader
• what to pick out of your own experience
• how to find the nugget that will make the piece come alive and have resonance for the reader

Search in your own, well-known to you biography, for an anecdote; a story that will bring something to life. It doesn't matter how true it is - we will never know. The challenge is to write a 'neat' short piece that will tell some form of story.

It has to come alive to the reader. In this case, the readers are your online colleagues.

• take something from your family history
• from your present-day job
• hobby
• love entanglements 
• friends
• vacations

A short article is not so different from a short story. It's a question of finding that essential moment of truth.