eds of thousands of readers is much greater than he often
realizes. When he considers the extent to which most men and women are
unconsciously guided in their ideas and aspirations by what they read in
newspapers and magazines, he cannot fail to appreciate his
responsibility. Grasping the full significance of his special feature
writing, he will no longer be content to write just well enough to sell
his product, but will determine to devote his effort to producing
articles that are the best of which he is capable.

CHAPTER III

FINDING SUBJECTS AND MATERIAL

SOURCES OF SUBJECTS. "What shall I write about?" is the first question
that inexperienced writers ask their literary advisers. "If you haven't
anything to write about, why write at all?" might be an easy answer.
Most persons, as a matter of fact, have plenty to write about but do not
realize it. Not lack of subjects, but inability to recognize the
possibilities of what lies at hand, is their real difficulty.

The best method of finding subjects is to look at every person, every
event, every experience--in short, at everything--with a view to seeing
whether or not it has possibilities for a special feature article. Even
in the apparently prosaic round of everyday life will be found a variety
of themes. A circular letter from a business firm announcing a new
policy, a classified advertisement in a newspaper, the complaint of a
scrub-woman, a new variety of fruit in the grocer's window, an increase
in the price of laundry work, a hurried luncheon at a cafeteria--any of
the hundred and one daily experiences may suggest a "live" topic for an
article.

"Every foot of ground is five feet deep with subjects; all you have to
do is to scratch the surface for one," declared the editor of a popular
magazine who is also a successful writer of special articles. This
statement may be taken as literally true. Within the narrow confines of
one's house and yard, for instance, are many topics. A year's experience
with the family budget, a home-made device, an attempt to solve the
servant problem, a method of making pin-money, a practical means of
economizing in household management, are forms of personal experience
that may be made interesting to newspaper and magazine readers. A garden
on a city lot, a poultry house in a back yard, a novel form of garage,
a new use for a gasoline engine, a labor-saving device on the farm, may
afford equally good topics. One's own experie