Your Writing Featured On TSN?
“All of us who enjoy Think Simple Now, are part of an invisible society,
seeking to uplift their lives, and enhance the quality of living.
Writing about our own experiences, and the lessons we drew from them,
will bring this community even closer.”
~ Nirupama Naresh
Unfortunately we are not accepting new guest posts right now. The following is for your information only.
Think Simple Now (TSN) is a happiness community of people striving to live consciously. The stories we feature are extracted from real life—lessons and epiphanies to inspire and to remind us the important elements that make life beautiful.
If you’ve been following our blog’s featured articles, or felt drawn towards our uplifting conversations on facebook, you may be interested in contributing an in-depth, self-reflective story of something you recently learned or discovered.
Every featured article is sent to over 6000 email inboxes, to over 18,000 RSS readers, to over 13,000 facebook-ers, and is exposed to 350,000 monthly readers from the web. As such, we take writing quality seriously. (But don’t let that scare you away. Give it a shot.)
With readers from over 200 countries and territories; your writing will change lives. Your story will touch the hearts of many new friends from around the world.
The following is a general guideline for what we’re looking for.
Writing Guideline:
- Length – 800-2000 words.
- Motivational Quote – Begin the article with an inspirational quote related to the topic you are covering. This sets the tone for the article.
- Story – Start the article with a story that draws us to the point of the article using personal experiences.
- Heart – The most important quality we look for is “Heart”. We want writing that comes directly from the heart: raw, honest, transparent and authentic. Share with us your inner thoughts. Show us the personal side. Show us who you really are inside.
- Lesson & Takeaways – Include lessons you’ve learned through the experience. Share with us lessons and useful resources that we can takeaway to improve our own lives.
- Self-Reflective – No preaching. We are all here to share from our own experiences.
- Clarity – Have one main point that you want to drive home. Get to the point quickly and directly. Remove rambling and inessentials that doesn’t add to the story.
- Concise – If you can convey the same meaning using less words or more direct phrasing, do it. Keep it sentences short and crisp.
- Short Paragraphs – Between 1-3 sentences per paragraph. Even if it doesn’t make sense to break a paragraph into two, do it. 2-5 lines maximum for each paragraph.
- Bullets, Lists, Numbers – Where possible, use bullets lists, and numbered sections to organize. Bullet list like the one you’re reading. It makes it very easy to communicate ideas clearly.
Once you’re done writing. Please proof read twice for spelling, grammar and clarity corrections. Then follow the steps below to submit.
Submission Details
- Document – word doc ending in .doc or .docx. We will not accept links to blogs, embedded in email, or in html format. Please do not include html tags in the submission body.
- Formatting Details
- Font size: 12px
- Font Type: Cambria (or Arial if Cambria is not available)
- Font Color: Black
- Line Spacing: single
- Paragraph Spacing: After: 1 line (or 12pt)
- Additional Attachments – include the following with your submission. The following will only be used in the event your article submission is accepted to be featured.
- Name & Link – The name you want displayed at the start of the article. If you have a website, include the url you want your name to link to. For example, “By Tina Su”.
- Bio – One paragraph about you–the author. The paragraph can contain up to 3 links. The bio will be placed at article end.
- Photos – Include several photos of yourself smiling into the camera (if possible). We need 2-3 or more photos to select the one that will work best for design reasons. This is optional, we don’t have to display a photo (but we highly recommend it). Please don’t use photos of you wearing sunglasses. Do not edit the photo.
- File Name – Name your file with the following naming format: [First Name] – [Start of Title].doc
- Example: “Tina – How to Live Beautifully.doc”
- Example, “Cat – How to Wake Up Early.doc”
- Email – submission [at] thinksimplenow.com (replacing [at] with @. Remove spaces)
- Email Subject – “Submission for TSN Feature”
Other Details
- All submitted writing must not have been previously published elsewhere online (in print or via email newsletter is okay).
- Your writing may be edited for clarity.
- One of our editors will review your submission. It can take up to 8 weeks to receive a response from us. We read everything, and will respond with a yes or no as soon as we can.
- Not all submissions will be featured. Please don’t take it personally or feel offended if your writing is not featured.
- By submitting, you are giving us the permission to edit and publish your writing on TSN.
Thank you for taking the time to share your wisdom with us. From all the readers on TSN, I thank you in advanced for your courage and generosity in sharing a self-reflective piece of yourself with us, so that we can all grow and learn.
Love,
Tina
March 13, 2011
Seattle, USA
P.S. For those interested. Below is the background story that was part of the original guest post submission guideline page.
Background Story
The seed of this site was sowed, when I first started writing in my journal in 2005, as a method of healing to overcome relationship troubles. To my surprise, self-reflective writing, and contemplation on what we’ve learned through our daily challenges is an empowering tool to find clarity, gain personal insight, and heal old wounds.
Sometimes, I would share snippets of my journal with friends and family, and their response was always that of feeling a close connect to the emotions described, because they too experienced similar feelings. Here is a snippet from my journal during that time.
The conclusion is that all of us are more similar than we think. Sharing our inner thoughts and ah-hah moments will not only make ourselves feel better, but our stories can also help others recognize the truth within their own lives. Our sharing draws us closer, and reminds others that they are not alone on this confusing but often wonderful journey of life.
This site has been a tremendous platform of healing and personal growth for me, and I would love to open up the floors and hear some of your stories and lessons learned.