Hub Creation: Write Where You Are (Traveling Not Required)

I recently wrote an article about a digital photo shop which I preferred to call a "photo salon" for how nicely decorated its windows and interior are. I now do business with them regularly. That's not the point. The point is, a writers' everyday travels around their own locales take them right by a wealth of subjects for their next freelance articles.

The photo at the top of this article is the "photo salon" I mentioned, but let's take a look at just that same block area of this one town.

The Bell School Pioneer Museum

These photos were all taken this afternoon, and each suggests a topic. There is an old schoolhouse called "The Bell School" whose school bell rang at appropriate times during the school year, and likely was rung for folks to turn out and help fight fires on occasion.

The preserved schoolhouse now houses a Pioneer Museum which is open to the public, and surely there is a story or two that can be written about one or more of the displays to be found there.

Early Utah Dwellings

Nearby are examples of early dwellings of the pioneers in Utah. Typical New England farmhouses, such as those we still see today, already existed back in New England at the time the pioneers in Utah were building such structures as these for shelters. They were still thinking of their own modern homes, fields, and gardens of the day which they had been forced by mobs to abandon without compensation in Missouri and Illinois.

In one of these photos the foreground shows a stone block from the original Nauvoo Temple back in Illinois. The stone was donated to the park by John Huntsman in 1978. Behind it is also a typical well of the day.

It pays to look up, too!

Advertised for you to see and pick up on is the sign announcing a class to be given which should give you material for an article on how to download ebooks. It is only one of many classes being given in the local library, which itself can be the subject of many articles you might write. Learn something new and write an article or two about what you learn.

Current History

Current history is the subject of a memorial erected by a Boy Scout troop with the support of local merchants. The memorial subject is contained in the caption to that photo, and the inscription shows how communities all over the country felt and still feel about their own public servants and military personnel who may almost daily risk their own lives to serve others. The location, description, and story of the creation of such memorials is a likely article topic.

Historical Markers

Most cities and towns these days will erect historical markers that tell stories about their early and famous inhabitants. My photo of one such marker shows that it commemorates the first flour mill in the area, it displays two of its grindstones, and some of its mechanisms for grinding fine flour for cooking, and coarser flour for livestock The flours were then transported in the town and surrounding area by ox-drawn wagons.

The original flour mill was powered by a waterwheel, but that was eventually augmented by steam power for times when the water flow was too limited to do the milling.

Every historical marker is a potential subject for an article.

Nearby stands a tablet with the Ten Commandments which had to be moved from its original site on city-owned property when a suit was brought under the church/state provision of the US Constitution. Its new location and public access, as well as the story of the arguments made in the court case, are another potential source for an article.

The local military training center

Military training centers and military facilities are scattered across the United States. Most localities have one or more of them nearby for active duty personnel, or for reserves and Natonal Guard units. In a majority of cases the facilities are named for a particular member of the armed services, and have stories connected with those people.

In the related photo that person is Jose F. Valdez, a local hero whose heroism as an enlisted private was so extraordinary that he was honored as an example by the naming of this armory after him. In many such facilities with prior authorization you can read a description of the individual and their acts of courage and sacrifice which resulted in the honor. A little reserch, and some writing, can produce a great freelance article which keeps the memory of the person and the events alive and before the public.

These are just a few of the possible subjects you can probably find nearby you which can be turned into your next several freelance articles for local papers, magazines, and other outlets such as HubPages.

Explore a little, take a camera with you, and whatever raises a question in your mind is something someone else would like to see and read about. Go for it!

(c) 2012 Demas W. Jasper All rights reserved.