Looking for bylines or extra cash? Or just want an “in” to that certain kids’ magazine? Perhaps you just have lots of creative ideas you’d like to share. If any of these thoughts spur you, you might want to try writing puzzles and activities.

Puzzles

First, realize that it takes effort to create a good puzzle. If it’s a cinch for you to write a puzzle, it’s a cinch it probably won’t sell. For example, “Here’s a list of words. See if you can unscramble them.” Anyone can fill a page with a grid of letters, hide a few words in it, and call it a word find. Editors don’t need to pay someone to do that. But making up a more clever word find, one in which each “found” word intersects with another word, is more difficult to create and more likely to sell. It’s also a good idea to go the extra mile and give kids a goal to accomplish. In a word find, for example, make use of all the “leftover” letters. These letters (the ones not circled in the course of doing the puzzle) can spell out something when extracted from the puzzle (such as the answer to a riddle). Keep your puzzle to one topic, as well. A word find about breeds of dogs is more likely to sell than a word find with a random word list like bacon, scissors, anteater, and nose.

Second, consider the topic areas covered by magazines. In many magazines, puzzles are written to go along with the theme of an article or feature, which is why they are often staff written. But freelancers can participate, too. If you know what themes a magazine will be covering in future issues, and you know they carry puzzles, try sending them a puzzle idea. You can often find out about future themes by looking for ads calling for submissions. Or, if you write a feature for a magazine that does puzzles, too, maybe you can snag some extra cash by writing a puzzle to go with your article.

Third, use humor. If you’re writing for a kids’ magazine, remember that kids are doing the puzzles for fun. These are not school worksheets. Even if children are learning something while they are doing a puzzle, they should be having fun. Humor is often enough of a spur to encourage them to do a puzzle. Those old word puzzles about Farmer Brown feeding three pigs so many ears of corn can be jazzed up a lot. Farmer Wignose feeding three hippopotamuses so many buckets of mashed potatoes is a lot funnier.

To get ideas, pick up kids’ magazines, books of puzzles, and the like to find the formats, then take them off on a tangent. For example, to get kids working with letters, put the letters along paths in a maze. The path that takes a kid to the end of the maze will cross over letters that, when put together, spell a word or the answer to a question or riddle.

Puzzles can also be seasonal. Use the above ideas to create holiday- and weather-related puzzles, such as a reindeer finding its way through a maze to deliver a Christmas toy; misspelled Valentines that are insulting because they’re misspelled and need to be fixed; and putting American flags in the right historical order for July 4th. Once, for Presidents’ Day, I did a word find using the names of presidential pets throughout history. The leftover letters spelled the name of Amy Carter’s cat, Misty Malarky Ying Yang. —Christina Wilsdon

Activities

So how do you create activities? First, know your market. Find out what kinds of activities a magazine uses and what format(s) they use. Does the magazine number steps or use a bulleted list for instructions? Does it use a lot of illustrations? You don’t have to be an illustrator to suggest illustrations (i.e. written descriptions, sketches, and even clipart). Are the magazine’s activities written in second person (i.e. you), or more impersonally? Many magazines are quite specific in market books or theme lists about the type of activities they need, but you must look at samples of the magazine itself to see formats.

As with puzzles, knowing a magazine’s themes can be very helpful in writing activities. The first activity I sold was a recipe to go along with a story I’d written. I knew that Jack and Jill liked activities, especially ones that related to a story or article. I also knew they wanted seasonal stories. My Halloween story and activity seemed a perfect fit and the editors evidently thought so, too. The story could be told without having the recipe with it, but having the recipe written in kid-friendly terms was a bonus that earned me a bigger check. It might have been the clincher for the sale, since the only other thing I’ve sold to them was another activity.

So, what activities can you create? Take a look at you and your family. What hobbies and skills do you have that might be new to children? What traditions or customs might you be able to share with others? What methods have you used to teach some subject to children? What’s your pet peeve about some holiday activity? Come up with an alternative, try it out on your family or friends, and if they like it, maybe an editor will, too.

Activities don’t have to be hard, just fresh. Especially if you have your own children, or work with children, you may have already created or modified activities to amuse, entertain and/or educate kids. These original field-tested ideas only need to be shared with others. Think about what you do with kids, then write up the activity in a clear and friendly manner. Make sure your activity is written so kids and/or adults understand how to carry out the activity, think it would be fun and/or useful, and worth the effort on their part. One activity I sold was a “pick up game” we’d created to help our kids clean up the toys. I sent the write up to a parenting magazine who printed “how to” articles. Not only did the editor buy the piece, but it gave me an “in” to the magazine.

Many magazines have seasonal needs. During a holiday or time of year, think about activities that you could share with kids. (i.e. It’s easier to have an idea for April Fool’s Day, when friends are pulling tricks on you on April 1st, than in August when you’re thinking about how to keep cool.) By the time you write your activity, get it critiqued and rewritten, the holiday or season may be past, but since most magazines want 6-8 months lead time on seasonal material, you are ahead. Your piece will be ready in plenty of time to be sent to a magazine where it might appear for the same season or holiday next year.

Activities can be combined with puzzles. For example, an outside activity such as “what animals are in your backyard?” could have matching puzzle for kids to connect animals to their homes or their food source. Again, don’t worry if you’re not an illustrator. Get the visual idea across to the editor and they’ll get someone to illustrate it. Although, if you are an illustrator, activities or puzzles can be a good way to get your work seen.

Writing puzzles and activities can be fun, can expand your writing and/or illustrating skills, earn a bit of money, and get bylines. Maybe you’ll want to give it a try. – SM Ford