Most magazines, if you read them carefully with an eye toward noticing patterns in each issue, have themes. The Cricket group, for instances, chooses from amongst the wealth of material they've purchased to give each issue a thematic unity. But some magazines decide upon the themes first, then ask writers to send in material that fits only those themes. For some writers, theme lists can be frustrating because they mean you cannot send a really great article about Ben Franklin's Magic Squares to Cobblestone unless they are doing a theme on Ben Franklin or Mathematics or some similar theme that would fit. But theme lists can actually help you make more sales - and that makes everyone happy.

STEP ONE: GATHER THE LISTS

Although not all themed magazines generate lists [Cricket and the other bugs create their themes from submitted materials rather than creating lists to limit types of submissions.], the number that do is probably greater than you thought. All of these magazines have theme lists:

Appleseeds
Calliope
Cobblestone
Dig
Faces
Odyssey
Fun for Kidz*
Boys' Quest*
Hopscotch*
[*At the website, click on the kite tale for the magazine you want, then scroll to the bottom of the frame and click "writers" which will take you to the link for themes.]
Cadet Quest
Devo'zine
KNOW
Learning Through History
Moo Cow Fan Club [email to request theme list]
My Friend
New Moon
Our Little Friend/Primary Treasure [Not a theme list, but a list of topics/themes they would like to see]
Pockets

Wow, that's a lot of idea lists, but the more lists you have, the more likely you will find one that spurs an exciting idea. Which leads us to the next step.

STEP TWO: BRAINSTORM

Some of the themes will be very specific and easy to understand. For example, it's not hard to think up appropriate topics for a Faces theme on China - but what about a Hopscotch theme called "Far & Away" or a New Moon theme called "The Great Debate?" Many times theme lists are ambiguous on purpose, especially for magazines that publish fiction. Editors want to see what kinds of interesting ideas writers come up with inspired by the words "Far & Away" or "The Great Debate." When you ponder "Far & Away" what do you think of? Travel in exotic lands? Homesickness? Refugees? Transportation? Any others?

Even the obvious themes require a little brainstorming to find the right article idea within the larger topic. And you need to know the magazine. Faces, for example, is a multicultural social studies magazine and the theme of "China" will be looking for people-focused articles. If the topic of "China" were to appear in an issue of Calliope, you would be brainstorming about historical topics related to China. And if "China" appeared in an issue of Dig, the focus would be on China and archeology. So knowing what a magazine publishes will affect the direction in which you brainstorm.

Lets zero in on the topic of China with the magazine target of Faces. They publish retold folktales so a theme on China could include Chinese Folktales, if you happen to know some. They also publish plays - which could be written based on a folktale as well. Writing your story as a play script might be just the unique slant that could make the sale. They publish activities, so it might be a good time to look into Chinese handcrafts to see if something could be adapted to a young audience as a how-to. And of course, Faces runs nonfiction features - how about an article on protecting the Great Wall of China. It's an important piece of history, what things threaten it? What is being done to protect it? Oh, and guess what? There are legends related to the Great Wall as well!

So how did I know that about the Great Wall of China? I brainstormed about China and hit the "obvious" idea - the Great Wall of China. Now, if you choose an "obvious" topic, it's good to find an unusual slant within that topic so your idea feels fresh to the editor. So I used Google to learn more and see if there might be a Faces slant (since their focus is more on people than things) and I found http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china_great_wall/index.htm - from there, lots of ideas bloomed. Google is often a part of my brainstorming process. But story ideas are just the first step - then you have to write the things, but when?

STEP THREE: CREATING A THEMED SUBMISSION CALENDAR

Most theme lists also have deadlines for submitting to the issue. Sometimes you need to query (as with the Cobblestone group) and sometimes you simply send the manuscript (as with Hopscotch/Boys' Quest/Fun for Kidz). But sending the submission at the right time matters. If a magazine gives a specific deadline, you'll want to send ahead of that deadline but usually not 3 - 4 months ahead.

To best know how to submit, read the guidelines carefully. And don't assume all magazines by the same copy handle submissions the same. For example, technically Cricket, Cobblestone, and Click have the same owner but they handle submissions very differently. Cricket wants to see manuscripts and build their themes from submissions. Cobblestone wants to see queries related to posted themes. Click uses themes, but they don't want manuscripts or queries - they prefer to see resumes and then assign articles based on their theme list. Understanding how to submit takes careful reading.

When you know from the guidelines what is the optimal submission time for the magazine, you can create a writing calendar based on your brainstorming session. Allow yourself time for research and writing, then give yourself a "deadline" for beginning the project and put the idea on that deadline in your submission calendar. Then, whenever you have time to write but you're feeling a little blocked for ideas - you can check your themed submission calendar and see what ideas are "ripe" for working on. Then you have an idea ready-made by you. Happy Writing!