February 9, 2025

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Major guidelines for breaking into narrative journalism

Major guidelines for breaking into narrative journalism

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Major guidelines for breaking into narrative journalism

Photograph by Tima Miroshnichenko by way of pexels.

Narrative journalism can give visitors with a impressive and fulfilling working experience. As an alternative of reduce-and-dry info and figures, this kind of writing focuses on developing abundant people and telling a story when conveying or examining a elaborate challenge.

But producing a narrative piece — specially your very first a single — can be overwhelming. These content are extraordinarily time-consuming, involve an intellectual and emotional dedication, and may well contain fees editors are not eager to cover. The practical experience and concluded solution, even so, can be properly worth it.

In July, I hosted a webinar on breaking into narrative journalism with panelists Jane C. Hu, a freelance author based mostly in Seattle Brady Huggett, the business editor at Spectrum and Pamela Weintraub, the senior editor for science and psychology at Aeon and the co-editor in main of OpenMind magazine.

Hu shared her experience researching, pitching and finding funding for these character-abundant, challenging stories. Huggett and Weintraub talked about the difficult operate that goes into editing them. All three available beneficial assistance to freelancers. Right here are some crucial takeaways from the webinar.

What is narrative journalism?

  • It tells a story.
  • It goes deep on a distinct person or put.
  • It has a dramatic arc, just like a do the job of fiction.

“Sometimes I assume that an concept can be a protagonist and be accomplished narratively and artistically,” Weintraub claimed.

Is there a minimal duration for productive narrative fiction?

  • These articles or blog posts commonly are a minimum amount of 2,500 words and phrases.

“A great deal of people today associate narrative journalism with extended-form [journalism] particularly,” Hu stated, “but I think you can use things of narrative storytelling in any duration of piece.” 

How lengthy does it just take from acceptance of the pitch to publication?

  • It can take a number of months to as extensive as a year, or even more time.
  • Writers should really assume to post multiple drafts and go by an intensive editing procedure.
  • Freelancers will require to have other, shorter simutaneous initiatives to deliver in revenue.

“My function lifestyle is structured about having typical gigs, using on shorter items and owning regular consumers … and then pitching these significant swing narrative tales or investigations that I know could acquire at minimum a year, it’s possible numerous years,” Hu mentioned.

Does it spend well, and are bills lined?

  • Quite a few publications possibly have compact budgets or none at all for vacation.
  • Publications normally won’t pay out a lot more than their common freelance amount.
  • Freelancers will probably need to have to search for grants or fellowships to dietary supplement the fee and to include travel costs. (Observe for an upcoming AHCJ webinar about implementing for grants and fellowships.)

“These tales are tough to execute, and they are a lot of perform for the author. There are a ton of drafts,” Weintraub said. “I think there has to be motivation outside of the dollars.”

What is the market for narrative journalism?

  • Several publications and editors want to operate narrative articles.
  • Numerous may perhaps publish only a several per year for the reason that these stories call for weighty modifying and, if they are long, may strain the freelance price range.

“When they are completed, we really like them,” Huggett claimed. “We endorse them, we get the finest art that we can, we are really happy of them, we set them up for awards, but we can not do additional than a few of all those a 12 months.” 

How ought to freelancers pitch a narrative article?

  • Freelancers can deliver an editor a limited pre-pitch of a single or two paragraphs to gauge desire.
  • Pitches for prolonged-sort narrative article content have to be more thorough than a pitch for a simple feature tale and could be two or three pages extensive.
  • Freelancers need to critically take into account conducting several interviews and substantial study just for the pitch, particularly if the writer has no former marriage with the editor or is new to narrative journalism.
  • Assure the most important character has agreed to participate in the tale in advance of pitching. Several topics are willing to be interviewed even in advance of the author has a agency assignment, particularly someone whose story has not been instructed.
  • The writing of the pitch should “sing” and exhibit to the editor that this freelancer is capable of writing compelling characters, sketching vivid scenes and setting a narrative arc. Look at including a lead in the pitch that sets the story up and a nutgraf.
  • Be persistent.

Talking of her narrative story for Wired about a woman crew of North Pole explorers, Hu explained: “I experienced truly shopped it close to several other sites, and it experienced even fallen by at 1 other location for just internal, logistical good reasons … It was a authentic rollercoaster, I’ll be sincere.

“For listeners who are intrigued in accomplishing some thing related, just know that it is not often smooth sailing.”

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