Looking to write a First Person piece for CBC Saskatchewan? Here's how to pitch us

Do you have a personal story or experience that can educate or help others?

CBCis looking for Saskatchewan people to write 500- to 700-word First Person pieces.

Anyone can pitch us by sending an email to sask-first-person-grp@cbc.ca. Successful pitchers will be paid for their work.

Pitching can be difficult. With that in mind, here are some tips on how to make yours stand out.

Focus (and have a headline in mind)

A good piece should focus on one thing and explore it in-depth, rather than giving us a broad overview of a subject.

For example:

• "I've been a nurse for 30 years and learned a lot," is much too broad and doesn't have a clear hook or direction.
• "My mother's illness gave me a new perspective on my career as a nurse," is much more focused andcould be explored thoroughly in a reasonable amount of space.

One thing that can help with focus is to think of a headline that could go with your piece and also be in the subject line of your pitch email. If you can't sum the basic idea up in a headline it's probably too broad for 500 to 700 words.

Introduce yourself (and convince us you are the person for the job)

There needs to be some reason for people to want to hear about your experience on the topic in question.

For example, someone who has never set foot on a farm is probably not the best person to write about the Prairie farm experience.

This doesn't mean you have to have been published before. First-time contributors are always welcome and can often have new insight on a topic.

We do not accept pitches from politicians, people running for office or employees of political parties. We may work with someone who used to be one of those things, but would be very careful about the potential for conflict of interest.

Why does your piece matter?

Our readers' time is valuable. If they read one of our pieces, we want them to feel like they spent that time well.

A good piece will spur conversation. Maybe you've got a unique take on the news of the day. Perhaps your personal story will inform how the reader thinks about the world.

Whatever your reasoning, your pitch should convince us that people including us should hear what you have to say.

Who will read this?

Your piece doesn't have to be for everyone on the planet, but it should be worth reading for people from a variety of backgrounds and walks of life.

It's OK to write about something people don't know much about, but that new knowledge should be relevant to that person, or at the very least entertaining to learn.

Some examples

For inspiration, here are a few past First Person pieces that we feel were successful:

Click here for many more examples of First Person pieces from CBC Saskatchewan.