This week, one of my editors presented me with the ultimate gift an editor can give a writer: his trust. He assigned me a major feature story, that he is letting me write in first person narrative.
To people apart from the writing world, this may seem quite trivial, but writers know that first person narrative stories are a hard sell. Depending on the writer you could get a world of strange results. First person stories offer too many options, sometimes so many that a writer would get overwhelmed and lost in their own copy. I am excited that my editor trusts me with this challenge. Now all I must do is make good use of this valuable space and freedom.
2 responses so far ↓
tonya // September 23, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Personal essays are THE HARDEST thing in the world to write — at least for me. You’d think it would be easier since we blog, but when you’re writing for a publication, it’s soooo hard. There are too many options. I’ve had editors give me suggestions on about five possible different ways a piece could go, since the couple I’ve written have basically tried to cover ALL bases, ridiculously. They’re so hard!
Well good luck! Congratulations on getting the assignment and let us know when it’s published!
writingariel // September 23, 2007 at 2:23 pm
Thanks! You are right–there are too many options! I’m glad my deadline is light years away, that way I can give it more time.
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