TYPES OF WRITING
The first thing you need to do is figure out what type of writing you wish to do: fiction or non-fiction and subcategories. For fiction there are mysteries, romance, drama, etc and for non-fiction there are serious works, travel, essay, etc.
Interestingly, humor, even if it exists only in the fabric of one's cranium, is considered to be non-fiction.
CHOSEN
Okay, so now that you've chosen your path you need to write something. Well, I've found universally that you should (and this seems stupidly simple but it's not), write about your experience. NOT your experiences, necessarily, but your experience. What's the difference?
Experiences - what happened, when it happened
Experience - what you know, understand and believe
In humor this is very important. Humor is only funny if the person reading can understand what you are talking about by relating it to their own experiences. Try to fake it here and you'll come over either as a simpleton or someone off-center. Neither is funny and editors will kill you.
WHAT EDITORS WANT
Editors are in the business of selling magazines, newspapers, etc. They do that by combining articles, photography and stories that they feel will be readily received by their demographic. This means, in essence, that you cannot fit a round peg in a square hole.
They also do not wish to be one of the many, but rather one of the few. If you are writing a travel story about Hawaii, which story would be better received: A story about beaches at Maui or about a small island there than hunts and eats tourists? One story has been done a zillion times, the other is unique.
