Signs of the Times Australia / NZ edition — lifestyle, health, relationships, culture, spirituality, people — published since 1886

Signs of the Times Magazine

Writers Guidelines

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• What articles/topics are of interest to Signs?

• Hints on writing for Signs

• General writing hints

• Suggested writing process

• Completing your submission

• Payments

• Submissions, to where?

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What articles/topics are of interest to Signs?

Signs of the Times is an award-winning monthly (11 times a year) magazine published by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It aims to present the positives of Christianity through demonstrating the attractiveness of Jesus Christ, presenting positive lifestyle choices, and understanding biblical teaching.

That means we are interested in:

• Gospel articles – introduce Jesus Christ as personal Saviour
• Human-interest stories – overcoming the odds, coping with adversity
• Bible teaching – practical outworking of Bible teaching in everyday life, Adventist doctrine (eg Sabbath, baptism)
• Relationships and personal growth – self-development, how to's, kids, family, friendships, overcoming
• Prophetic interpretation – current events fulfilling Bible prophecy, exploration of past prophecies and their fulfilment
• Ethical and social issues – rightness and wrongness, morality etc – must be well researched
• Stories – stories with a moral (without moralising), worthwhile lessons, people doing something of value that inspires

Manuscripts that conform with these guidelines and are in harmony with Christian principles and the teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church will be considered for publication.

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Hints on writing for Signs

• Read previous issues. Read through at least three Signs to see what and how features are presented.
• Inquire first. Yes, we do accept unsolicited manuscripts, but we could save you time if you wrote to us outlining your idea in about 100 words. We’ll soon tell you if we’re interested.
• Choose suitable topics. Consider the list above, but also check back issues of the magazine (you can use the website) to see what has already been published.
• Remember your audience. The reader probably isn't a churchgoer and may have little knowledge of the Bible. The target age is between 25 and 45. These people are busy, with little time to read lengthy articles. They don’t like to be preached to. What are their concerns?
• Word count. We rarely publish articles more than 1500 words in length, so edit mercilessly.
• Timing. If your article is linked to time – Easter, Christmas or Mother's Day – submit it at least four months ahead. You will receive acknowledgment on receipt of your article. Allow at least six weeks to receive an acceptance/rejection; we will try to use an accepted article within 12 months, but this will not always happen.

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General writing hints

There’s a difference between fine writers and good writers. “You don’t have to be a fine writer. Most pros are not. They are lucid; they write without words getting in the way. Fine writers write for immortality; pros don’t have time.” (Flesch)

We see many articles but only a few will be published. Why? Two immediate flaws, either:

1. They’re saying the same thing in the same old ways.

2. The topic is not relevant to our readers.

• Write an outline first, knowing where you are headed before you begin. In your writing, choose your words well, structure the article logically and, most importantly, have something to say.
• Your article should be of real interest to you so your enthusiasm will come across in the writing. 
• Aim to establish contact with your reader and also to do something to those who read it.
• Capture the reader’s attention in the first paragraph. Always check your second or third paragraph to see if it would work better up front. Sometimes, amazingly, your last one will.
• Take care with your writing, so that what you send to a publisher is as near perfect as you can make it.
• Don’t rush your writing. Haste can make you slipshod, and never graceful.
• Keep it simple. Use short, active sentences and use readily understandable words.
• Keep it lively. Use concrete terminology and active voice, first person, direct speech, imagery and strong words (like “will” instead of “may”). Avoid overstatement (understatement is so much more powerful), cliche and tautology, adjectives and adverbs (these are lazy writers' crutches).
• Stick to a theme. Only one per article.
• Let your story do the talking. Don’t place a moral or add a “religious bit” in the last few paragraphs. Show me, don’t tell me.
• Write in “spoken” English (Signs is not an academic journal), using contractions as appropriate.
• Stick to the rules, but break them for effect.
• Be original, not derivative, be yourself.
• Be well researched and accurate (we assume the writer has checked the facts).
• Be profound, but keep the language simple.
• Make personal references.
• Write from the heart.
• Use anecdotes/stories – especially for religious pieces – stories are the photographs that go along with the abstract ideas. Save a good one for your conclusion to give your article significance.
• Keep your reader emotionally involved somehow (contrast works here – comic against highly serious).
• Be complete. You have only black and white so add colour with facts, cases, people, things, colours, sensations, places, dates and figures. If it’s abstract, translate it into the concrete.
• Use a formula. About 80 per cent of articles use this general pattern: Title, subtitle, first paragraph, interpretative sentence, anecdote, anecdote, facts, interpretative sentence, anecdote, facts, conclusion.
• Get people into your article. Avoid purely expositional treatment of truth. (Stories and quotations create interest.) And use the narrative approach to expose a theological truth. Time and Reader's Digest are very good at this.
• Use literary devices, particularly imagery, along with careful, accurate word selection.
• Use expressive, live verbs and nouns rather than unnecessary adverbs and adjectives. ("He darted into the hallway" rather than "he ran".) Avoid the verb “to be.”
• Pepper with subtle alliteration. Create rhythm with the sound, length and even the look of the word.
• Use contrast: in description, sentence length, anecdotes, dialogue attribution, in everything.
• Use dialogue. Let your characters have a conversation. People like "listening in."
• Use specific detail. Don’t deal in generalities.
• Use thought transcription. (As he drove along he thought, I wonder what kind of doctrinal article I should prepare. Perhaps I should.
  . . . )
• Appeal to the senses in an expressive, descriptive way. (Moscow, in winter, smells like an old-fashioned laundry.)
• Have a great ending. That means stopping when you have finished – do not dribble on. Don’t spring any surprises that do not fit the article. Leave the reader satisfied that you have finished.
• Final edit. Read your article aloud. Stop and make changes as the need arises. Many mistakes or poorly structured phrases are easier to hear than see.
• Once in print, check your article for editorial changes. It will help you learn what Signs wants in the future. You need to understand that when we edit, our focus is on the readers and how we can best present an article for them. If we make significant changes, we will send the article back to you before publication for you to check your article and make further suggestions.

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Suggested writing process

(Adapted from an article by Kenny A Chaffin in The Writer, July 1991. Kenny A Chaffin, an author of scientific articles in Popular Electronics, Science Probe et al, suggests the following nine-step process.)

Step 1: Brainstorm

Get out some paper and without thinking about slants or markets, write down every idea related – however remotely – to your subject. Don’t try to be neat or make complete sentences. This is the creative part. You want to generate as many thoughts, ideas and associations as you can. Some questions you might ask yourself are: How would this idea affect the average person? Who benefits? Who is harmed? What are the advantages? The problems? Explore all the possibilities and get lots of ideas on paper. Later you can eliminate those that don’t fit, but most of them will be fodder for your article.

Step 2: Research

Take your brainstorming list and your initial topic list to the library. Find a few good books on your subject and as many recent articles as possible. The more unusual the idea, the fewer you’ll find. This is a good indicator of whether you’re on track or not. If you can’t find anything, either no-one cares or you have a unique idea – preferably the latter. If you find hundreds of recent articles, you’d better come up with an original slant, or you’ll have trouble getting an editor interested. The best situation is finding a few articles you can use as raw material and background.

The articles will give you the latest information, and the books will fill in the depth. Don’t feel you have to read every book. Just skim each one to find the chapters or sections that seem most applicable to your article.

Don’t over-research. Stop when you run out of leads or when you start seeing repeated references or quotes. Spend some time organising your material and put together a final topic list to guide you. This will be used more or less as your outline.

This is the time to plan interviews. Carefully selected experts to interview for your article. Draw up informed questions based on your research. In this way you can collect relevant quotes from your interviewees that will enliven your article and add to its credibility.

Step 3: First Draft

There’s no telling how many half-finished articles are in files around the world because writers started their first draft before brainstorming and researching their ideas. You, however, are now ready for the first draft.

When you write your first draft, get as much information from your research as you can down on paper as quickly as possible.

Use the final topic list as your outline and include whatever details come to mind as you go along. Don’t stop to look up facts, add transitions or organise your article; that will come later.

If you get stuck, move on to another section but KEEP WRITING. You can go back later and finish the previous one. The ideal situation is to complete the first draft in one sitting. This puts fire into the article and makes it cohesive.

Step 4: Outline

Now that you have the essence on paper, you can solidify your article. This is when to use an outline, one more formal than the topic list, to reveal structural errors, confusion, duplication and even missing sections. Read the first draft as you make a two- or three-level outline of topics and subtopics. This will help you identify sections that should be moved, deleted or added for better flow. Then make the corresponding changes to the article. You’re probably thinking that if you’d done the outline first, you wouldn’t have to rearrange the material. This may be true, but you’ll not get the same enthusiasm into the writing.

Step 5: Fill in the Details

Next, check everything against your references, and review each section for places where additional facts, details or examples could clarify the prose. Be sure any facts you include support your topic and slant. Facts for facts’ sake are simply distracting.

Step 6: Rewrite

It’s time to get your article into shape, and smooth it out. Rewrite or edit the entire article sentence by sentence, paying special attention to the consistency of your style and the angle you’ve chosen. Use transitions that will help the reader move easily through your material.

Now the hard part – let it sit a few days, so you can come back and look at it fresh. You may find yourself so involved with the article that you just want to finish it. This is the best reason for having several projects going at the same time.

Step 7: Read, Rethink and Rearrange

This is your last chance to make BIG changes. When you read your article after a few days, you will probably see mistakes you might otherwise have missed. With your outline at hand, make notes as you read along. Look critically at all aspects of your writing – flow, content, structure, slant, style. Are preliminary topics presented before more complex ones? Will it make sense to your readers?

Step 8: Final Edit

Edit mercilessly. In the previous step you worked on the big picture; now it’s time to work on the final details. Look at each sentence, each word. Check grammar and clarity. Is there variety of sentence and paragraph length?

Step 9: To Market

Commonly called the query, a piece of your action is sent to potential publishers along with a letter. This process is often repeated many times. It is often accompanied by discouragement, sometimes also called the rejection letter.

A query generally consists of a covering letter that describes the general idea of the article, the research you’ve done on the subject and the slant of the article. It will include the first few paragraphs. It follows up with a summary of what the remainder of the article will include, listing the major points. It will indicate why the topic will interest readers and why you are qualified to write about it.

Once you have a go-ahead from an editor, pull out your file and “go for it.”

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Completing your submission

“No editor can ever afford the rejection of a good thing, and no author the publication of a bad one” (Higginson). Signs receives many unsolicited manuscripts each month. To be accepted, yours must stand out, being as presentable and as easy to accept as possible.
Here's some tips:

• Don’t address your submissions: “To whom it may concern,” “Dear Editor,” “Dear Sir.” Don’t use out-of-date masthead lists; use correct titles.
• Don’t try to catch the editor’s eye by using coloured paper, decorations, non-traditional typeset or desktop publishing layouts. It alerts an editor to amateurism. Use quality white A4 with dense, clear print.
• Ensure the material is appropriate to the magazine before you send it. Don’t tell the editor “to do what he wants to” with it, or that “it may be useful.”
• Don’t count on impressing the editor with business cards and titles – just your name, address and phone (business and home).
• Don’t send loose stamps. Attach them to a self-addressed envelope ensuring there’s sufficient for the full return of the manuscript. Say what you want done with the manuscript if it’s not published.
• Never send handwritten articles. Have them typed.
• Have your work sent on computer disk or, even better, via email and in Mircosoft Word format.
• Double space the lines of your article.
• Do put your name on the head of every manuscript page, number the pages (2 of 5 etc) and on a covering letter (typed) give your full name and address, any enclosures (photos), write your name on the back of photos – along with captions and credits, and say if they are to be returned. Never send anything that can’t be replaced.
• Don’t staple or bind your manuscript – it’s inconvenient for transcription.
• Do mention if you’ve been asked to submit the article, that it’s an update or rewrite (include a copy of the request to remind us).
• Do keep your covering letter professional and to the point. Don’t emphasise your inexperience, don’t apologise for your nervousness in submitting, nor that you’ll be disappointed if it’s not published. This is what you should say:
  "Dear _________________/Enclosed for your consideration is (title), (word count) . . . / Enclosed is a self-addressed envelope for returns, (other enclosures) /I appreciate your time . . . / Thank you, Sincerely . . ."
• Do mention the rights (first Australian etc) you are offering if it’s a well-researched piece that you plan to submit elsewhere.
• Avoid the “kiss of death” by sloppy presentations containing glaring inaccuracies in word usage, misspellings, cut/paste discontinuities and so on.
• Don’t forget to include your phone number, email address and postal address (most important to get the cheque in the mail to you).
• Remember that your submission is only one of hundreds – the best way to avoid inferiority is to be professional in what and how you present yourself and your material.

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Payments

A small payment is made for all articles that are published as a token gesture of thanks. Remember, Signs is a not-for-profit magazine. Mention if you’re not looking for any payment and we'll be most grateful.

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Submissions, to where?

See our Contact Us page for all of our contact details.

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