How to get published in the Young Blood column of Inquirer

I was lucky enough to have published two articles in Philippine Daily Inquirer's Young Blood column (Lord of the Rings: Not Just Fantasy in 2004 and Faith and Reason in 2005). I'm sharing below some guidelines that I tried to follow when I submitted my articles. It may be of interest to you to know that two other articles I submitted did not get published. I guess I broke one or two of the guidelines below. Now, age has caught up with me. I think I will have to wait until I'm sixty to publish another article. By that time, it will be published in the Highblood column. 


Writing for Young Blood


Select your topic well
It is good to write about a topic you feel very passionate about. You could also write about a striking and unique experience. Current events and issues are also good sources of topics. For example, it may be a good idea to write about soccer while the World Cup is going on, or to write about your views on death as the All Souls’ Day approaches. When writing about current events and issues, it would be good to send your article 1-2 months before the event you are writing on.


Make an attractive title, first paragraph, and last paragraph
If you don’t catch the editor’s attention with your title and/or first paragraph, the editor may not even bother to look at the rest of your article.  The two paragraphs that you have to work on most are the first and the last.  These are the paragraphs that leave the greatest impression on your readers: you provoke the reader with your first paragraph and you summarize or leave your most important message with your last paragraph.


Take care of the flow of thought
The readers should be able to read through your article smoothly.  Thus, there is a need to synthesize, to relate thoughts together, to guide the reader through your article.  Don’t just dump in several esoteric but unrelated concepts in your article.


Write an article which is close to 5,000 characters
Young Blood articles should not exceed 5,000 characters. This is the article length necessary to fill up the whole column allotted to Young Blood.  It may be better to write an article that is close to this limit.  Shorter articles will require another article to fill in the rest of the column allotted to Young Blood; longer articles run the risk of being trimmed down by the editor, perhaps leaving off an important portion of it (this actually happened to me).


Establish your authority on / affinity to the subject you are writing about
It may be good to use your school or company email in sending your article; this establishes your legitimacy and adds a bit to your authority.  In Young Blood, you are supposed to write something about yourself at the end of the article – your age, education, profession, etc.  It would help to add a title or information about yourself that gives you a bit more authority to write about your subject.


Check and double check your work
Check for spelling and grammar using your word processor. Print your article and review it for spelling, grammar and flow of thought. Make a friend read your article and ask for suggestions and corrections.


Follow Inquirer’s guidelines for sending Young Blood articles

• You should not be older than 29 
• Contributions to Young Blood should not have been previously published
• Email your article to youngblood@inquirer.com.ph 
• Copy-paste your article to the email body (don’t send it as an attachment)
• Provide the following information
• Your address
• Your age 
• If a student: school, course and year you’re enrolled in
• If employed: your company and the position you’re holding 

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