[As another semester
concludes, a series recapping some of the wonderful texts we read in my
classes, along with some other Spring work of mine. Leading up to a preview of
coming attractions for the Summer and Fall semesters. I’d love to hear about
your work, past, present, or future, in comments!]
On two things I’ve
learned in my first few months at a new online gig.
Starting this
past January, I’ve been writing pieces every
two weeks for the Saturday Evening Post online. My editor Jennifer
Bortel has been wonderful to work with, and to be honest it’s been a dream
come true to write for the same magazine that featured all those wonderful Norman Rockwell
covers (among many other important pieces across nearly three centuries of publication).
All of my pieces to date are collected at the first hyperlink above, and I’d
love to hear your thoughts on any of them or anything else I might cover in
this gig.
As with any new
writing opportunity, there have been adjustments and takeaways as I’ve figured
out and started to navigate this new space and community. My other two
longstanding online writing gigs were for overtly progressive websites—first Talking
Points Memo, and then the HuffPost—and
so by far the biggest shift for this community has been writing for an audience
that does not have such a clear political perspective or affiliation (and skews
at least a bit older). For my
first piece in particular, on immigration laws and exclusions in American
history, my early drafts connected those histories to contemporary issues and
debates a bit too blatantly, and Jen and I worked hard to craft a version that
focuses on the histories themselves, and mostly allows readers to consider for
themselves the applications of those histories to 2018 America.
I’ve also
learned a second, related thing about topics. For those other two gigs, the
vast majority of my pieces began with timeliness, with something specific in
the news or contemporary society to which I was responding. That’s happened
occasionally for the Post; but in
truth since I’m not focusing on those contemporary connections in the pieces,
there’s less need to worry about particular such connections as starting
points. Which has freed me up to think about other kinds of pieces: responses
to historical anniversaries, engagements with commemorations like Black History
Month and Women’s History Month, figures or events I just want to make the case
for adding to our collective memories, and more. I believe this new perspective
has led to some of my most unique online pieces to date, and I look forward to
seeing where the next months and pieces take me!
Summer/Fall
preview this weekend,
Ben
PS. What have
you been or are you working on?
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