Journalism

The Reporter’s Re-entry: Reclaiming the ‘I’ in a World of Third-Person Narratives

Editor’s Note: See Jane Write publishes guest articles by writers who identify as women, non-binary folks, and our allies. Learn more here.

By Mary Chiney

The first thing they teach you in a newsroom is how to disappear.

As a journalist, your training is a masterclass in the art of the invisible. You are taught to stand in the back of the room, notebook pressed against a damp palm, recording the vibrations of someone else’s brilliance while your own voice stays tucked safely behind a press pass. For years, I have made a living in the third person. I have dissected the discographies of global icons for The Quietus, mapped the rising trajectories of African trailblazers for The Recording Academy (Grammy.com) and Afrocritik, and translated the raw, sonic vulnerability of artists like Kid Cudi and Amaarae into the polished, intellectual prose required by “reputable publications.”

In the high-stakes world of culture journalism, the “I” is a liability. To say “I felt” is to invite the ghost of “unprofessionalism” into the room. We are taught that the story is the subject, and we are merely the lens, transparent, unbiased, and essentially, silent.

But lately, I’ve been thinking about the cost of that transparency. When you spend all your time building legacies for others, what happens to the architecture of your own soul? I saw the call for submissions for See Jane Write, and it felt like a mirror being held up to a face I hadn’t looked at in years. It asked a question that journalists rarely ask themselves: Are you the author of your own life, or are you just the biographer of everyone else’s?

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What Writing for ELLE Magazine Taught Me About Freelancing

It all began with an email. On an otherwise ordinary day, I opened my email inbox to find a message with the subject line “October ELLE.”

I clicked on the message to find correspondence from an editor at ELLE magazine who wanted to know if I would be interested in writing an article for the magazine for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

At first, I was certain I was being Punk’d (Remember that show?). But after finding the editor on LinkedIn and other sites I realized this was real. I realized I had just been asked to write for a magazine in the top 3 of my byline bucket list. I was so excited I ran laps through my house for a solid minute before I calmed down enough to share the good news with my husband.

The article was hard work. I had to interview several sources and the assignment required a quick turnaround on the first draft and the revision. But I did it. The article — For Breast Cancer, 40 is the New 50 — ran in both the October issue of the magazine and online.

The experience taught me so much about freelancing. Here are three of the most valuable lessons learned.

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How to Pitch an Article in 7 Steps

Learning how to pitch an article to your favorite media outlets could be the key to you finally getting published and paid so you can stop being a starving artist cliche and finally be a well-fed writer.

My first article for Well + Good was published last month and I was ecstatic. As a freelancer who primarily writes health articles, I’d had Well + Good on my byline bucket list for a while.

To be honest, cold pitching is not my jam. I’m much better at building relationships with editors. So oftentimes I only have to send a two-sentence pitch to editors to get an assignment or they come to me with ideas, and I don’t have to pitch at all.

Related Reading: The Best Thing You Can Do for Your Freelance Writing Career Right Now

But if I want to see my byline in a variety of print and digital publications, I must pitch!

In any pitch, it’s your job to answer 3 crucial questions: Why this? Why now? Why you? Here are my top tips for how to pitch an article to your favorite media outlet.

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How to Quit Your Day Job to Write Full Time

Even though I loved being a high school English teacher, for years I daydreamed about quitting my job to write full time. But I thought it would always be exactly that — a dream.

To be clear, I’d been a full-time writer in the past. Before I started my career in education, I was a staff reporter for a weekly paper in Louisville, Kentucky. But my tenure there just showed me that I wanted to write on my own terms. I wanted to be a full-time freelance writer. But I thought there was no way I could do this unless I was willing to eat PB&J for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. I was convinced living a comfortable lifestyle as a full-time freelancer was impossible.

Then one day I decided I was going to give it a shot anyway!

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