planet forward in action is a new initiative to support faculty across our network of schools by suggesting curriculum that guides both teachers and students through the process of ideating, developing, and pitching environmental stories.
our planet forward education experts have compiled curriculum offerings for university and college faculty – and students! – to freely incorporate into classes, club activities, or just as a “best practices” guideline for developing an idea into a planet forward submission. divided into three parts, we break out the planet forward storytelling process into easy-to-digest segments:
the guide below contains publicly available introductions to each of the three parts. nine additional detailed lesson plans, three per part, are available for participating 2022年世界杯亚洲预选赛结果 & pillar school faculty.
please review our 2022年世界杯亚洲预选赛结果 membership guidelines and email darcy gentleman, ph.d., at darcy@planetforward.org to sign up your school.
the full guide is designed to be easily incorporated into classes as assigned reading or included as supplemental information to support existing assignments.
ideas come in many shapes and forms, inspired by personal experience, derived from consuming media, or emerging from observing, researching, or contemplating the natural and/or built world.
to form an idea into a story for possible publication, it needs to be framed so that the publisher, in this case planet forward (pf), can assess its suitability to enter the editing process for consideration of publication.
convincing a publisher to consider a story that has not been finished yet is called “pitching.” as described in parts 2 and 3, a pitch can really help you create a submission that we are happy to accept!
most planet forward works are nonfiction (article, multimedia, podcast, video, or short “vertical” video), but pitches for artistic pieces are also welcome.
content that is fictional might be better pitched with a “companion piece” expressing what nonfiction topic inspired the artistic piece.
for example, an art installation on pollution might be published with a contextualizing paragraph including relevant topical data. (see also: “smoke and mirrors: exposing environmental racism through art”)
“t.a.m.e.d.” is a useful guide to transform your idea into a pitch:
example
once you have tamed your idea into a story frame for pitching, ask yourself questions to inform how you will provide context and framing to the editor in your pitch and ultimate submission. use the wwwwwh journalistic rubric:
who? what? where? when? why? how?
then, use your answers to help define what the submission will explore, report, or discuss:
finally, in the pitch, clearly articulate why your audience would want to consume your piece. synthesize together the wwwwwh elements, source-supported characters, and the ideal audience into a “hook.” use that hook and your framing to make a successful pitch.
note: pitches are not required for planet forward, but can increase your chance of acceptance, because you’ll have the chance to check in with an editor on how to focus your piece before you submit it.
this process of refining your tamed idea into a pitchable hook can be a bit of work, but it is very worth your time to both get serious and specific about what you’re pitching. it helps the editor understand what you are proposing and helps you make smart choices when writing/shooting/recording/editing. even if you are a seasoned storyteller who quickly gets ideas tamed, this process should become a regular part of your professional practice.
get real about preparing for and then researching and structuring your story by asking these sorts of questions:
then, synthesize those answers into a structured plan to guide your idea into becoming a story:
articulate a brief description of your hook and reporting/telling plan. for example:
many publishers require a pitch before they will consider a story submission. this can be true even if the author has won awards. it is because a publication’s editors want to know what might be coming their way so they can get ready to spend a proper amount of time on the content.
another important reason to pitch is that while your story idea might be excellent, not every publication is the right fit, and the timing may not be right for a particular publication.
for example, your topic might be ideal to where you pitched it, but an editor has decided not to accept content on that particular topic for the next six months.
if you do not take the time to pitch, editors might take one look at a piece about rivers and reject it without much explanation. by first proposing a story, you can create an opportunity that might not exist if you risk jumping straight to submission.
imagine you are preparing a short video about microplastics in rivers, but the publication focuses on oceans. if you take the time to mention in the pitch email that one of your interviewees is an engineer developing a way of filtering microplastics out of rivers so less ends up in oceans, the editors will be intrigued. in response to the pitch, they might ask you if, instead of just video, you could add some text and anxplainer diagram to include more about this filtering technology. then you can focus the story to where the publication wants it, increasing your chances of getting a “yes” to the story.
planet forward does not require pitches to submit, but because of the reasons above, we highly recommend that you pitch us first. we would be happy to help you send us something that we might publish.
the following guidelines can help you get something published with planet forward:
then, consider pitching another story – with practice and pitch/submission/editing experience, you will get better and find yourself with more ideas for more stories than you might ever have imagined if you did not start with one good pitch.
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