The Helium Guide to Creative Writing

Creative writing has many genres; each is a craft that people spend years working to master. To make things even more complex, many creative writing genres have different forms. On Helium, creative writing can take you in two directions: Writing for a Content Source publisher or writing for yourself.

Creative writing for outside publishers

If you’re submitting creative writing for an outside publisher (one other than helium.com), the criteria are usually very specific. They are explained in the Submission Guidelines for each individual assignment. We can’t stress enough that following the guidelines is extremely important. If the publisher is asking for a mystery story with a main character whose name is Penelope, then your main character should be Penelope. If you don’t follow the guidelines, you run the risk of not being selected for publication or, worse, deleted.

In the past, Helium publishers have looked for mystery stories and personal experience stories. Each publisher had a specific spin or set of criteria they were looking for. One publisher wanted writers to recount personal disasters while gardening. The publisher looking for mysteries was very exact about how and when to divulge certain clues and character information. In the future, outside publishers may be looking for short stories, satire, humor, essays, you name it! Again, following the Submission Guidelines will be the key to your success in creative writing.

As you look to any outside publishers request for a creative writing piece, think about the following items that many creative writing pieces may contain and see if they are addressed by the publisher:

  1. Setting
    • Where does the publisher want my piece to take place?
    • How can I best describe the setting according to the publisher’s needs?
  2. Characters and how they are portrayed
    • Who are my characters– fictional or real?
    • What do they do? What are their goals?
    • What special quirks might they have?
  3. Plot
    • What does the publisher want to take place?
    • Does it require any special twists?
    • If there’s no direction called for, what will my story do to make it achieve the publisher’s other goals?
  4. Other special directions
    • What other special guidelines is the publisher asking for?
    • How does the rest of my submission fit these requirements?

Writer resources from other creative writing publications

The following sites give you an idea of the types of guidelines that other publications require. They offer guidance on technical specification as well as creative needs. Thinking about these when submitting to a Marketplace publisher will put you in the right frame of mind.

Submitting Creative Writing to Helium

Creative writing on Helium is more easygoing than writing for a Marketplace publisher. In the truest sense of creative writing, we ask only that you follow standard form for the genre that you’re submitting to and that your piece addresses the topic of the title.

At Helium, we give creative writers the opportunity to express themselves in 10 areas. Check out our guidelines and some resources below:

Drama

Drama is written expressly for stage or screen. Drama pieces include scene details, stage direction, action and riveting character dialogue; and on Helium, we request that you use the proper format. For dramatic submissions, format is very important. Open your scenes with descriptions of the scenery. Then move on to any stage or camera directions and be sure to label who is speaking. It’s all important and it should all be in your dramatic piece.

Please keep in mind that the Drama channel is not a place for you to ramble on about how your friend Sue was a jerk for telling your other friend Mary how you did such and such at the bar last Friday night. Sure, it’s a dramatic story, but it’s not what the Drama channel is for.

Whether you’re trying to be the next Henrik Ibsen or Larry David, make sure you read up on what makes a good dramatic piece for stage or screen before submitting to this channel.

Looking for more instruction? Check out these sites:

Check out these impressive dramatic pieces on Helium:

Essays

Think of essays on Helium as more refined and reserved types of reflection. The information and points for your academic or literary essays should be well researched and your sources mentioned within the piece in order to add some punch to the point you are making.

Think about the essays you wrote for high school and college. Like a good wine, essays are crafted with care, take time and appeal to a more discriminating audience. Follow in the footsteps of Annie Dillard or David Foster Wallace and craft an intellectually stimulating essay.

Looking for more guidance? Check out these sources:

Muse over these great essays:

Humor

Everyone likes jokes and you can find them everywhere. On Helium, however, we’re looking for something that’s more developed than a joke, something longer than one-liners, limericks or those annoying chain email jokes. Have a funny story to share? Write it here. Have you been working on a humorous treatise about the irony of airline food? Publish it on Helium. And be sure to write so that a general audience can enjoy it. Nothing is worse than reading an inside joke meant for a select few.

Write humor with particular flair and you’re on your way to following in the footsteps of Art Buchwald, Ogden Nash or David Sedaris.

Check these online resources for tips on writing your next light-hearted yarn:

Read these wonderful humorous stories:

Memoirs

Do you keep a diary or a journal? If so, you’re on your way to becoming a recognized memoir writer on Helium. Our members share personal stories that will make you laugh one minute and cry the next. If you want to share your experiences, please write a compelling piece that will appeal to a general audience. Think “Memoirs of a Geisha” or “The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen.”

Here are some memoir-writing sources:

Relish these Helium memoirs:

Novel Excerpts

Wouldn’t it be great to see how your novel will do with a general audience before you publish it? Unfortunately, Helium does not have the infrastructure for you to submit and publish an entire book, but you can submit excerpts under appropriate titles. If you’re working on chapters and sections, this is a great way to see how you’ll fare in a competitive book market. Each piece must be modified to fit and address the title, and we cannot accept serial pieces (Part 1, 2 . . . ).

If you’re working on the next great American novel, check out some of these resources:

Read through these excerpts before you buy the book!

Poetry

Poetry is one of the most popular channels on Helium. From Shakespearean sonnets to Lyn Lifshin-esque contemporary poems, there’s a little bit of everything represented in Helium’s poetry channel. All we ask is that you write to the topic of the title and follow our Writing Standards and User Agreement guidelines. Poetry submissions must be at least 12 words. Please, no limericks.

Here are some helpful online poetry sites to check out:

Be sure to check out these inspiring poems on Helium:

Reflections

Do you have thoughts to share on a particular topic, but you’ve not done the extensive research or analysis required for an essay? “Reflections” is the channel to pen your ideas and point of view on a myriad of topics.

However, we ask that you don’t get too personal or fixed in your opinions. This is not the place for personal columns, blog posts, opinionated editorials and the like. Instead, we ask that you share a more thought-out deliberation on a certain topic. Approach reflections as if your professor just asked you what you think about a subject.

Chew on this online reflection writing resource:

Read some of our great reflections:

Satire

Satire is an interesting animal. Part humor, part reflection, part short story – it uses humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule to expose or criticize a person, organization or place. It’s especially popular when addressing timely issues of the day.

If you’re familiar with Sinclair Lewis’s “Babbitt,” Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22” or even Stephen Colbert’s program “The Colbert Report,” which pokes fun at many of today’s self-righteous and opinionated TV commentators, you know what makes good satire.

We ask that you don’t use satire to address other Helium members – that’s bad form. It’s also not a place for jokes or personal tirades.

For more guidance on quality satire, peruse these resources:

Have a laugh at these satirical pieces:

Short stories

Short stories are one of Helium’s most popular genres. If you find story writing inspiration from the likes of Anton Chekhov, Isaac Babel, Sarah Orne Jewett, John Cheever or Joyce Carol Oates, then we’d love to get your addition to what can arguably be said is one of the richest forms of creative writing.

Short stories should be purely fictional, between 500 and 2,000 words, and can cover all topics.

Like a good story, you’ll need a beginning, a middle and an end. Colorful descriptions, rich characters and pointed dialogue will most certainly boost your story to another level. And solid ratings on Helium should follow.

Read these sites for more information:

Digest these great short stories:

Songs

The songs subchannel was requested by many Heliumites back in early 2007, and for all our songwriters we created this channel as a place to post your original song lyrics. We do not want song lyrics from other artists – that’s plagiarism. We also don’t want articles about songs. Just your original and, we all hope, award-winning song lyrics.

Check out these resources if you’re working on your next top 40 hit, Indie-rock smash or country classic:

Hum a tune to some of these great lyrics on Helium:

If you submit a well-written and correctly formatted piece to any of the above genres, you’re on your way to success through creative writing on Helium. And remember, poetry has a 15-word minimum, songs have a 50-word minimum and everything else requires at least 400 words.
Last modified January 27, 2012