Shaping Your Ideas Is the Next Step

So, how do you develop your thoughts into an article idea? Often, a good magazine piece starts taking form in your brain because something about your work chronically irritates you. You may notice, in going from shop to shop, that programmers (or managers) consistently do something the hard, ignorant way. Why dont they do it this way? you keep asking yourself as you do the same task, using a simple alternative technique that youve come up with.

Thats just the kind of Aha! moment that you can turn into the springboard for an article query to the editor of an IT magazine. If the problem that your solution remedies is significant enough and widespread enough, an IT-journal editor is likely to welcome a query from you about it.

Maybe youd want to do a short articlean 800-word single-page article or a 1,000- to 1,500-word case study. Maybe youd need the 2,000 to 3,000 words of a feature article to get your thoughts across. Your editor will tell you how long he or she thinks the article should be. You can recognize and adopt the tone and approach of the current writers in the magazine (this is most likely to get your article accepted, because it shows you the style that the editors like), or you can use your own style and approach to effectively communicate your message.