A Million Little Delights: Specific / Niche Listicles Free Tip Jar Option

WORD COUNT: 500–1,000 words
PAYMENT: $0.08 per word, based on the final edited word count. Payment is issued upon publication.

A Million Little Delights is seeking delightfully specific, deeply considered, slightly obsessive lists about things you care about far more than anyone reasonably should.

The more specific, the better.

We're not looking for generic “10 Books Every Woman Should Read” or “7 Ways to Romanticize Your Life” lists. We want the list that could only have been dreamed up by someone who has spent an unreasonable amount of time thinking about the subject.

The spirit we're after:

17 Movie Kitchens I Would Happily Move Into — a very serious consideration of memorable movie kitchens based on coziness, windows, countertops, dinner-party potential, and whether you'd actually want to drink your morning coffee there.

Please use this as an example of the specificity, voice, humor, and spirit we love—not as a story to pitch. This piece is already in development for an upcoming issue.

What we're looking for

Give us a premise that's specific enough to make us immediately want to know what's on the list.

The fictional dinner parties you'd most like to attend. Extremely specific souvenirs actually worth bringing home. Literary characters you'd trust to decorate your apartment. Movie coats that deserve their own character credit. Tiny museums worth planning a trip around. The best foods to eat while standing over the kitchen sink. Fictional towns you'd move to immediately—with one serious reservation about each.

You get the idea.

Or, better yet, give us an idea we wouldn't have thought of at all.

Your list should have a point of view. Each entry should earn its place and include enough writing to make the piece satisfying to read—not simply a collection of names with one-line descriptions.

We're especially drawn to lists that combine humor, cultural observation, nostalgia, expertise, curiosity, or an oddly specific personal obsession.

Take something seemingly trivial seriously.

Take something serious a little less seriously.

Just don't be boring about it.

Tell us what you've been keeping a strangely specific mental list of all these years.