Thinking about writing a RR article...

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Limitedclear

QUOTE: Originally posted by Limitedclear

Well, I have put the short lie article on hold for now. I plan on taking a little time around Christmas to get down that way for a couple days and there are things I need to check out. In the meantime I will keep working on the draft...

LC

That's SHORT LINE article...

lol....

LC

LOLOLOLOL [:D] [:D] [:D]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Limitedclear

Well, I have put the short lie article on hold for now. I plan on taking a little time around Christmas to get down that way for a couple days and there are things I need to check out. In the meantime I will keep working on the draft...

LC

That's SHORT LINE article...

lol....

LC

[Anonymous]

L C [:)]

Thanks for letting us know. Now we know not to bug you until after Christmas. [:D]

Good Luck and do keep us posted.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Well, I have put the short lie article on hold for now. I plan on taking a little time around Christmas to get down that way for a couple days and there are things I need to check out. In the meantime I will keep working on the draft...

LC

[Anonymous]

More.. ALCO's would be good. Maybe I am just a novice ( currently working on an article to submit to Warbonnett on GCSF Northern District, Paris, Texas ops. ) Now there's a narrow focus! I would agree on some of the comments I have seen re: putting as much detail and personal observations as possible in it. Railfans seem to lide lots of raw data. Track plans and equipment photos are good too, as well as old structures. Anyway, I say write it the way you see it and it will probably fly. As far as content, it probably depends on which magazine you submit to.GO FOR IT.mike

[Anonymous]

I really appreciate articles on shortlines and would buy that magazine.In my humble opinion, what with all the "big guys" mergers/buyouts/etc., shortlines are becoming more and more important to the rr industry and to shippers. Small guys to big guys to small guys, sounds like a big circle to me. Mike

[Anonymous]

Mr. H [:)]

I found your previous post very informative. I believe it will be printed in many of the forum members homes over the next few days. I know it will be in mine.

[Anonymous]

LC:

The pitfall most would-be authors make is to assume that everyone in the world is chomping at the bit to read a story about the Middle Division of the Santa Fe, or the Aberdeen & Rockfish, or the design of Illinois Central 2-10-2s. Well, they're not. Most of them don't care. To avoid this, think about what 110,000 people spread all across the U.S. and Canada, and a good proportion in Europe, too, want to read about. The readers of Trains are from all walks of life, and include a sizeable proportion of railroad employees (30%).

So how do you do that? By providing a bigger message -- a bigger story -- than just what you see in front of you. Suppose I wanted to write an article about a specific short line -- say, for instance, the Great Western. Well, the first question a reader is going to ask, is, "Why should I care? Prove to me I should care." So I have to look for a deeper meaning or message, and then I have to figure out how to tell that clearly. Then I can make what ostensibly seems to be a local story into a national story. I can appeal to the other 108,000 of the 110,000 readers who do not give two hoots about the GW.

For instance: Maybe the Great Western set some pattern that everyone later followed, so, if you wanted to understand EVERY short line in the U.S., you should first understand the Great Western. Or, the problems the Great Western faces are typical of every short line everywhere and it serves as a lesson or example. The key is to look for the meaning.

A good story has three elements: a question, a conflict, and a promise of insight. The question should be some fundamental aspect of railroading that every reader wants to understand (like, for example, why railroads can't recapture market share from trucks). The conflict is the stake-setter: it's why we care. It's railroads vs. trucks, or big railroads vs. small, or management vs. labor, etc. The conflict is the proof to the reader that this is IMPORTANT, by showing that people are risking lots of money, their way of life, their quality of life, etc., over it. The promise of insight is what you, the writer, is going to impart to the reader. It's the guarantee that if the reader gives the author just a few minutes of his life, he or she will learn something meaningful, important, and with the potential to change the way the reader thinks or does things beginning the next morning.

A really good story will set out all three elements within the first few paragraphs. Not every story succeeds as well as we would like it to, but this is the goal.

The alternative to this type of story is what I call "the encyclopedia entry." This is a type of story that really has no deep meaning to it; it's just a description of something. The Railroad Blueprint and Trackside Guide series are this type of story. The Railroad Blueprint is just supposed to be fun -- it's a cool railroad at a cool location at a cool point in time. That's why they're brief, descriptive, and heavily illustrated, because while 1800 words on the Frisco in Springfield is fine, 6000 words is more detail than almost anyone wants to know. (Sure, the Frisco fans would like that, but those same people are NOT going to like 6000 words for the next 24 months on the Pennsy, the NYC, etc., etc., and again, the point is that the magazine is supposed to appeal to all 110,000 readers all the time, not just a few diehards.) The Trackside Guide series are field guides, and not meant to be bedside reading or a good tale. Yes, they're useful, but not to change your life.

Credentials are just something people use to open doors. They don't prove anything, however. I've seen lots of people with M.D. or Ph.D. behind their name who I'd trust with my life, and a lot with the same initials I wouldn't trust to know what to do with a spill on the floor.

Experience is very important. It can be acquired: lots of authors (me included) may not know anything about a subject when they start. That's why you read, interview, ask questions, submit your draft to experts, revise, ask new questions, compare to other things, etc.

But, like Clint Eastwood once said, "A man's gotta know his limitations." No one expects to be a starting pitcher for the Yankees on their first effort, and by the same token, no one should expect to be a writer for Time Magazine on their first effort either. Big-name writers get big names and big money because, just like a major-league pitcher, they have developed a talent that enables them to do things hardly anyone else can do.

Trains is not the major league in writing, but we're Single A. Even the experts have to work at it. A Fred Frailey or Don Phillips spends a lot of time with me developing the story, discussing the story, and perfecting the story. They'll run it by experts and listen carefully to what they have to say. Their stories aren't isn't just born whole one day. For example, the engineer story in the December issue has over 100 e-mails and a dozen phone calls between me and the author behind it. That's pretty typical for a cover story.

Experience matters in two areas: knowledge of railroads, and knowledge of writing. It's no good to know a lot about railroads if you can't communicate it clearly and succinctly, and it's no good to know how to write if you have nothing to say! I turn down many writers who have experience as a writer but from their proposal I perceive that they don't know anything about railroads and really don't want to learn. But if an author admits that and says, "I don't know very much about railroads, but I worked as a reporter for Time Magazine for 10 years and I think I can learn," well, I'm going to certainly write back. By the same token, if someone says, "I don't know much about writing, but I worked for the C&NW for 30 years in these positions at these locations, and this is the idea I want to get across," I'm going to write back to them, too. I figure the former I can help with the railroading, and the latter I can help with the writing, but trying to do both will generally be impossible.

We all start with no experience and no credentials, and we acquire them through hard work. I didn't learn to be a dispatcher until I'd been miserable many a night, and my first article took me a year of writing and rewriting and asking questions. The learning curve is pretty steep in any craft at first, and it's usually not much fun, either.

Aside from the semi-professional writers looking to make a quick buck (which we almost always turn down), the single thing that handicaps many of the people that propose articles to Trains is that they don't read very much. The single most important thing a writer does is read other people's work -- and articles in other magazines (big magazines) in other fields. That's how you learn how other people use quotes, organize thoughts, use examples to illustrate points, etc. I read a lot. Every night. It's my job. (Fortunately I like to do this.) I read about ocean shipping, naval history, trucking, coal mining, steel making, you name it, but not much about railroads 'cause I see that every day at work. I see a lot of ways that good writers do things, and I steal their good ideas. I see a lot of ways writers muddle things, and I learn by bad example, too. Good magazines are Atlantic Monthly, the New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Business Week. National Geographic articles can be pretty odd, so I wouldn't look at them too closely. Read the stuff that appeals to you, not the stuff that doesn't, and look closely at how they do things.

A lot of writers that pop up out of nowhere and turn out to be really good for us are people that have never been writers per se, but got a good education -- some cranky teacher forced them years ago to read books and write papers, and in the interim they read a lot and wrote reports and business letters, so they know how to compose their thoughts and get them onto paper.

So where to start? I don't want to disappoint anyone, but at the same time, my responsibility is to 110,000 readers, since they pay the bills. I've got to please them first, and I can't do that with anything less than the best writing I can find for the price I'm able to pay. One thing I suggest to first-time writers is to do a Railroad Reading. These are first-person accounts, and not nearly so demanding of writing ability because they're like a conversation. Sometimes they turn into major articles, too.

[Anonymous]

...

[Anonymous]

Mark-

Thank you very much for your reply. You have certainly given this novice writer some things to consider. I have read your contributor guidelines and I wonder if I could impose on you for your comments on two more questions.

1. Your contribution policies indicate you prefer an written inquiry or "query letter" as my published friends refer to it. Could you give us any comments about what you would consider a good outline of such a query?

2. Do you require that authors have any particular credentials or experience to be considered?

Thanks for your input.

LC

[Anonymous]

W O W [:)]

You talk about a quick response, this was it.

Thanks for the superfast reply.

[Anonymous]

Dear JHH: The Trains manuscript files are all open to Classic Trains, and vice versa. (We share the same editorial assistant and the same space and the same library, too.) Every manuscript addressed to Trains that we can't use goes over to Classic Trains before it's returned (assuming it fits their period), and vice versa.

[Anonymous]

Mr. H [:)]

Your post is very informative and interesting. I am sure L C will appreciate it greatly.

The articles that you stated were outdated for the curent trains magazine could they be used the the Classic Trains magazine? As someone who appreciates history I would enjoy them. They may not be relative to today's railroading but they could serve as a glimpse of the past which would hopefully interest many people. And besides that it would just be a shame to waste them. [:(] [|)]

[Anonymous]

LC: I can answer your questions from our point of view ...

Timeline from submission to publication? It varies from under one hour to over 50 years!. There are manuscripts in the files that David P. Morgan purchased before I was born, that no editor since that date has found a way to use. Our goal today is to purchase no feature unless we're very sure we can use it within six months, because we don't want to (1) waste our limited budget (2) frustrate a contributor. Stories also perish as time goes on, and it's increasingly hard to resurrect them. It can happen, though. If you recall the Sunnyside Yard article last spring, that was purchased in 1956.

How long does editing take? The process starts early. Usually before we schedule the article there's already been a lot of discussion on story development, and the author and I and the story editor have already reached agreement on the major aspects of the story.

Are contributors consulted on editing? Of course! Rarely will there NOT be a lot of discussion between myself, the editor assigned to the story, and the writer. From the time the story is first proposed, assigned, or invented, to the moment we're finished and it goes off to production, we might talk to the author 20 or 30 times. In some cases there's a lot of involvement. I looked into my e-mail sent file on the December 2003 cover feature, and author Chris Livesay and I sent each other over 100 e-mails discussing the story as it progressed from concept to publication, plus we talked to each other on the phone over a dozen times. That's fairly typical for a cover story.

We send a galley to all feature authors at the point where it is copyfit and edited, and in most cases we pick up all of the changes and comments made by the author. The exception is when the author wants to add something, like a whole paragraph of explanation or detail, that results in a net change in the length of the story by more than a sentence or two, because it's already copyfit. In that case we'll be on the phone with the author looking for a place we can cut a paragraph out.

With more experienced writers like Don Phillips, Tom Murray, or Fred Frailey, generally the galley will come back with maybe 10 tiny changes marked on it -- a word change here, a comma there. That's partly because their articles are "pat" to begin with, partly because they know what we need and have already supplied it, and partly because they know that editors never, ever, change anything if they don't have to (because we have plenty of other things to do, like maybe go home on time instead of working evenings of unpaid overtime.)

I should add that in the case of most features there are outside experts looking at it as well. Most experienced authors have a set of reviewers they use during the process of writing the story, and by the time the author has a final manuscript put together, I'll have seen several progress versions and I'll know who on the outside has seen it too. If it's a subject that we're not conversant in ourselves, we'll usually send it out for review as well. It beats making mistakes.

Railroad Reading is different -- from a magazine production point of view it's a department, not a feature, because it shares space with ads. We don't know how many ads will be sold until very late in the game. Usually we only have 48 hours from when ads are finalized until Railroad Reading has to be finished, and in that period it has to be laid out and edited. Thus the exception to the galley rule is Railroad Reading. But generally, because these are short, first-person accounts, the only editing we have to do is for spelling, grammar, fact, length, and organization, so there's not been a problem in my experience.

The key point is that putting together a magazine like Trains is a collaborative effort (but not a committee effort) of a lot of people. Every editor at Trains sees every story at multiple points along the way. Experienced authors have built a group of experts around them (not just friends, but experts) that advise them along the way, and they rarely go wrong. In a cover story, there might be 30 or 40 people that have had a hand in the article in some way before you see it.

[Anonymous]

....

[Anonymous]

Oh, yeah, one more question to those of you who have written articles. What is the general timeline from submission to publication? How long did editing take? Were you consulted on any of the editing?

LC

[Anonymous]

John [:)]

Thank you very much. This is interesting. I bet we have more than one would be author in the bunch and this may inspire them.

Again, THANK YOU.

[Anonymous]

The book is called Two Track Main. It's about railroad people who experienced the changeover from steam to diesels back in the 1950's when I was growing up. I heard about this publishing services company, Xlibris, from a friend. Sent my manuscript to them and they came back with a galley proof about 6 weeks later. I was responsible for catching all errors, etc. Once I was satisfied with the product, I told them okay, and the book became available for publishing on demand (one copy at a time, or larger quantities). The final product is what they call a "perfect bound", glossy cover paperback. But if one wants, hardback service is available. My book includes pix and maps. I'm super pleased with the results from the interior layout to the cover. Over time, I've ordered many copies for resale at various retail outlets (I've even done some book signings). What's cool is Xlibris sets it up so Two Track Main is also available through Amazon.co., Barnes and Noble.com, Borders.com, as well as through Xlibris.com. I've sold a good number of books through these Internet locations. They even created a web site for my book, xlibris.com/TwoTrackMain.html. It provides a description and excerpt of the book.

Hope this helps.

John

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by johnwbaie

If you have enough material for a book, go for it. I wrote and published a book about trains/railroads just last year. Went through one of those self-publishing companies. They did a great job. Really enjoyed the experience. Sold quite a few too.

John B

John [:)]

Please tell us about it.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

If you have enough material for a book, go for it. I wrote and published a book about trains/railroads just last year. Went through one of those self-publishing companies. They did a great job. Really enjoyed the experience. Sold quite a few too.

John B

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by potlatcher

I have written three articles for the mainstream railfan press, all of them focused on shortlines. Here's what I think I've learned so far.

My first two articles were published in Railfan & Railroad, and they followed the same basic format you have outlined. The editors made few, if any changes to my manuscript. I thought the articles were great, and several of my friends who had similar interests in those lines thought so too. But after several years of subscribing to R&R, I realized that they publish an awful lot of these articles, and frankly, many of them bored me to tears. Looking back at my articles, I realize that I probably put more than a few readers to sleep too.

My third article was published in Trains. The first manuscript I submitted was more of the same. The editor politely told me that I would need to find some element of the shortline's story that would have a broader appeal to readers nationwide. He explained that a nuts-and-bolts article might be very popular among railfans already interested in that region. But a wider audience will want to know about something new or different that the railroad in question is doing to set it apart from other shortlines. Fortunately in my case, I was able to tell about some specific marketing techniques the railroad's management was using to revive rail traffic along its line. After a few more revisions, my article was accepted, although the final version that hit the newsstands was heavily edited to put more of a "spin" on the storyline.

Writing these articles was a lot of fun, and I hope to have similar opportunities in the future. It's a great learning experience as well. So . . . If you want to write about this line, GO FOR IT! Just realize that there are some magazines that may not buy it without what they perceive as a strong story with a wide appeal (after all, they need to sell magazines). Editors are always looking for fresh viewpoints, and they are usually pretty willing to help you focus your article on the railroad's key elements. Don't be afraid to re-write your manuscript a few times too, trying to squeeze as much information into as few words as possible. And no matter to which magazine you submit your article, you owe it to your reader to tell an interesting story. An interesting story will triumph over ALCO's every time

Potlatcher-

Can you give me any idea what sort of article length I should be aiming for? I could probably write a book if I am left alone long enough. My Conductor's coffee runs could easily be a page or two long...lol...

LC

[Anonymous]

There is one thing about writing, you have to write about what is within you. Do not write about what you think people would want to read. Write about what is your passion and if it is railroads, you will find an audience. Good luck.

[jeffhergert]

I wouldn't mind be bored to death by an article on a short line, alcos or not. To me, Trains Magazine is not as good as it used to be. (Maybe the wrong place to say that.) I still subscribe and plan to continue subscribing, but lately, more emphasis seems to be on the class 1big carriers. Short lines are really more vital , I think than people realize. For the most part they need carload/small shippers to survive where the big guys mostly have the 100 cars at a time. Many times even the 100 cars are assembled by a short line(s).
As far as reader interest. The recent articles on the NKP Yard or the PRR Yard in the railroad blueprint really had a lot of appeal for a RI fan working for the UP on the former CNW. (Even the recent article on Hutchinson,KS for me was lacking since they barely mentioned the RI, lots about the SP then UP.) So the NKP or PRR isn't my biggest interest. I still read the articles. Only bored half to death.

[Anonymous]

L C [:D]

THANKS for the info. Nice to hear it is still in the works. I have been editor of a small christian college newspaper and have also been sports editor of our high school paper. I also was a writer for a business college paper. So I know it takes time.

Good Luck [:)] Please keep us posted. Again, thanks.

[Anonymous]

That's the type of article I think is missing in today's press. No one really goes behind the scenes anymore to teach us modelers about what really goes on in the railroading world especially the shortlines. A book of this sort would really help out model railroaders faithfully depict operations and railroad activities on their scale layouts.

[Anonymous]

Jim-

It's in my grip and consists mainly of outlines and ideas at the moment. I have to agree with what potlatch said above. I need a "hook" to sell it. I have some ideas, but I need to reflect on it quite a bit more before it is ready for any real writing. I have spoken to a couple of editors of different publications and some writers and editors I know personally outside the railroad/railfan genre (one has expressed interest, to my shock and amazement-business magazine).

In other words, it is a work in progress, so don't hold your breath. I need to get it to the point of a decent query letter yet.

LC

[Anonymous]

L C [8D] [:p] [:)]

How about a progress report? Is the article going to happen, in the works, or on the back burner?

I, along with others, am interested in seeing it. I have wondered about it several times so I though I would ask. [^] [;)] [8D]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by valleytenderfoot

QUOTE: Originally posted by potlatcher

I have written three articles for the mainstream railfan press, all of them focused on shortlines. Here's what I think I've learned so far.

....
An interesting story will triumph over ALCO's every time

Potlatcher,

Quite true, BUT an interesting story INCLUDING ALCO's would rock!!!![:D]

Jeff

True, very true.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by potlatcher

I have written three articles for the mainstream railfan press, all of them focused on shortlines. Here's what I think I've learned so far.

....
An interesting story will triumph over ALCO's every time

Potlatcher,

Quite true, BUT an interesting story INCLUDING ALCO's would rock!!!![:D]

Jeff