Know Your Audience
If you want to write for publication, you need to learn one rule: know your audience.
Not only are people interested in different topics, but they have different levels of understanding of those topics.
This applies to all types of published writing, even craft instructions.
For example, if you are describing your necklace to a friend, you might say that it has "glass beads." She'd probably be satisfied with that explanation. She mainly cares if the necklace is breakable or how heavy it will be to wear. If you're writing instructions for other beaders and jewelry makers, that same description won't do. In order to make a version of your necklace, the reader will need a lot more detail about those beads (color, finish, type of glass, size, and shape) to find that bead or a similar one on her own.
The Details, Please . . .
After more than a year of freelance technical editing, I know that one of those details seems to cause beaders more trouble than the others. Which one? Take a close look at the materials list for any project in Stringing. Notice anything?
No? Okay, here's a hint: How many times does the word "bead" appear in the project instructions?
Are you surprised?
The lack of "beads" in some beading magazines is due partly to the audience. Presumably, if you're picking up a specialized magazine on beading, especially one geared towards intermediate readers, you expect to use beads (and not kumquats) to complete the projects. But it's also due to space. In order to provide the maximum amount of information in the least amount of space (printed pages are expensive!), the instructions often use a shape, rather than the general word "bead."**
So instead of "round beads," use "rounds." Instead of "funny eye-shaped bead that I don't know what they're called," write "marquis."
Bead Shape Resources
How do you find the names of all these bead shapes? The place where you bought them is usually a good first source. If the beads are packaged, they're often labeled. If you shop locally, you can ask the staff. If you buy online, you can look up the bead shape. Fire Mountain Gems and Rings & Things both also have good basic glossaries of common bead shapes. You can also study your beading magazines and see which shape names were used in the past.
Three More Tips:
- "Know your audience" doesn't mean you always make things more detailed; sometimes you need to simplify. Say you want to write a
necklace project for 6-year-olds. Listing a material like "6
chartreuse 6mm pressed-glass rounds" wouldn't make sense for that
audience. ("Shar-what?") For them, it would be enough to say "6 beads" or "6 green
beads" or "6 plastic beads," depending upon what's most critical for the project.
- When in doubt, look at the magazine where you'd like to send your work and use their terminology. Your editors will love you for it!
- If you don't know the name of a bead shape, don't stress over it. Do the best you can. Your focus should always be on making the most incredible piece of jewelry you can. Craft publications tend to understand that a great designer is not necessarily also a great writer. Don't let not knowing every detail about a bead stop you from sharing your work.
** Seed beads are still called seed beads, not seeds, at least in Stringing magazine. That's a great example of using a little common sense when writing. A material named "seeds"—especially when mixed media projects are so prevalent—would probably send readers scurrying to their local gardening shop!