Just Written Vol. 23: Ruth Graham
Welcome to Just Written, a weekly newsletter on the craft of writing and the business of publishing.
Today we're talking with Slate staff writer Ruth Graham. Ruth covers religion and politics, among other topics, and has been published in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, BuzzFeed, The Daily Beast, and more.
What are the tools of the trade you can’t live without?
I live in a small town in rural New Hampshire; I could not have built my career here without Twitter, and I couldn’t do my job here without Slack. Beyond that, I wish I were the kind of person who had a favorite pen and notebook, but my toolset is boring: MacBook Air, Gmail, Word docs, etc. When I need to focus, I use a humiliating but invaluable app called Freedom to block the Internet.
How did you learn to write?
I was always the kind of kid who wrote a lot of stories, and a few times I published the “501 Newspaper,” about the goings-on in my house. William Zinsser’s “On Writing Well,” which I read toward the end of college, taught me to value clarity above ornateness. My first job in journalism was at the New York Sun, which had a rigid style guide that further disabused me of showboating. I have always read a lot of fiction, and I like to think I have also learned something about detail and humor and narrative from writers like Lorrie Moore and Alice Munro.
Ruth's workspace: "I do have a formal office space, where I keep piles of papers and books. But I write wherever I’m comfiest in the house. In winter, it’s usually in this room, which has a wood stove."
Can you tell us about the process of reporting and publishing your Tabitha Isner story?
My editor at the Times approached me last year about finding a story to report about the “pink wave” of women running for office after the 2016 election—basically an invitation for me to pitch on that specific topic. Nothing came of it last year, but I was reaching out to some people in states where it seemed like something interesting was going on. This spring, an organizer in Alabama recommended a few promising candidates there, and my editor and I settled on Isner. I think it was at that point when I got the formal assignment. I took two reporting trips to Alabama, starting in April, and checked in with Isner and her campaign manager many times over the months — they were probably so sick of me by the fall.
The first draft of the story, which I filed in August, did not hang together. I knew it but couldn’t figure out how to fix it. My editor correctly sussed out that this actually wasn’t a story about the “pink wave.” It was a story about a Democrat running in a deep-red district, with minimal local and national support. So we reoriented the approach, which was a little nerve-wracking but at least didn’t require much extra reporting because I had so much material to draw on by then. It was amazing how it just clicked into place once my editor solved that initial puzzle. Thank god for editors.
What do you wish you knew about freelancing when you were starting your career?
To make an Excel sheet to keep track of assignment status. Columns for assignment (“Slate essay,” whatever) and fee, to be entered at the outset. Then six columns to check off as they occur: Assigned, Filed, Edited, Published, Invoiced, and Paid. When a row is completed, I move it to a different table, of completed work for the year. The fee column lets me eyeball how much I’ve made in the year so far, and at the end of the year, the table of paid assignments helps me get ready for taxes. I’m not a terribly organized person, but this system is both easy and satisfying.
Also, pay your quarterly taxes. About 10 years ago I spent a year at a regular job that was technically freelance, and I didn’t do this, and it was horrible.
Tell us about your pitching process. How do you know when an idea is ready to be pitched?
It really depends on the outlet. At places where I have a strong relationship with an editor, I feel comfortable sending along an informal, even half-baked idea, to see if they think it’s worth pursuing more seriously. Otherwise, my main goal is to always try to pitch a story or an argument, rather than a topic — often I start with an interest in the latter, and have to find a way to build the former out of it. If it’s a profile or another story where the subjects’ participation is key, I will reach out to them first to try to get them on board before I pitch.
In case you missed it, check out last week's Just Written with Stephen Wesley. For more interviews, visit our archive.