Just Written Volume 29: Lauren Larson
Hey friends -
After a couple months off this summer, we’re excited to be back! This week, we’re featuring writer and editor Lauren Larson. Lauren is a fabulous writer whose profiles I first encountered via her work at GQ. Below, you’ll get a look into her work and process, which includes a surprising (to me!) soundtrack suggestion for writing.
Lauren currently works as the features editor at Texas Monthly. Check out a sampling of her writing here.
- Joseph
What are the tools of the trade you can’t live without and why?
Noise-canceling headphones and the Noisli app have changed everything for me. I’m very fussy about noise when I’m working: If I can hear construction, or if someone is cracking their stupid knuckles or chewing audibly near me, I lose it. So I have the Jabra Elite 85h headphones, and I layer Spotify over Noisli, an app that allows you to create custom ambient soundscapes (I like to do the plane drone and cicadas). I write and edit to “1812 Overture” a lot—the one with the cannons. It makes working feel monumental, and between the plane noise and the cicadas and the artillery my brain is pretty well-insulated from distractions.
Tell us about your writing routine.
I always have four documents going: a notes doc, an outline, a “slush draft,” and the first draft I’ll send to an editor. The notes doc includes my initial thoughts on the story based on any early research I’ve done for a pitch or following an assignment. I think it’s really important to write down the stuff that jumps out at me about a story right away, because that’s probably going to be what draws a reader in, too (and as I get mired in the details, I tend to lose sight of the more obvious aspects of a story). I’m terrible at taking notes while I’m in the thick of things—I’ll write “FINGER” and circle it a thousand times and have no idea what it means two minutes later—so as soon as I leave a scene or an interview I scurry home or to a bar and spend an hour plugging absolutely everything I remember into the notes doc.
Then I start writing in the slush draft. I have to begin writing pretty much as soon as I start reporting because otherwise I start overthinking it. If I haven’t thought of a good lede yet I just start in on an easier section, or I’ll just write a random scene. Then I just barf everything out until the core ideas of the piece take shape. At that point I make an outline, which is either really hasty or really involved depending on how sure I am of the structure. Once the outline is nailed down I go through the slush draft, copying and pasting what is salient into the first draft, rewriting or booting everything that sucks. By then I’ve usually centrifuged out most of the bad stuff.
How do you know when you’ve found a story you want to tell?
I love stories that zero in on something (or someone) that everyone thinks about a lot without realizing that they’re thinking about it a lot. I’m also really drawn to narrow stories that tap into something romantic and universal, which is a type of feature that Texas Monthly does beautifully: a bonkers yarn is really a story about sibling jealousy, a true crime romp is really a story about loneliness, etc.
You’re now the features editor at Texas Monthly, and before that you worked as an editor at GQ. What are you looking for in a pitch? What advice would you give to someone pitching to you at Texas Monthly?
I really appreciate it when writers lay out the big idea behind a piece in the pitch. If I can quickly envision a grabby hed and dek for a story after reading the pitch, it’s probably a green light.
I also look for a strong voice in writers’ clips and in the language used in their pitches. I think some writers succumb to “cover letter syndrome” and feel like they need to be very formal when pitching. Perhaps some editors do prefer that, but I like a voicey pitch. I am very concerned that writers will figure out how easily wooed I am by a single clever or lovely turn of phrase.
What is your process to prepare for writing a profile?
I know at least one great writer who swan-dives into interviews not having prepared at all, “because she likes the conversation to build organically,” but the thought of that makes my palms sweat. I go into profile interviews with at least ten pre-written questions for every thirty minutes I’m scheduled to have. That leaves plenty of time to follow other threads that emerge during the conversation—and most interviews end up running way longer than scheduled—but if the profilee doesn’t give much, I’m still prepared to head off any lulls.
What advice would you give to someone who is new to freelancing?
Hit every deadline. Reliability gives you an edge.
What gives you hope about the publishing/magazine industry? What fills you with despair?
Every time a magazine throws up a metered paywall I rejoice (then grumble, because paywall). A subscription model shifts editors’ and writers’ goals in important ways: instead of just focusing on traffic, you’re taking read times into account; instead of pushing out hundreds of blogs with clickbait headlines each week, you’re delivering reporting that feels urgent enough that readers will pay for it. It’s a different, harder, much more satisfying way to work. I’ll usually subscribe to a publication after a few consecutive months of hitting their paywall, and that’s happening more and more often. Businessweek and LA Times just got me, and I’m Insider-curious.
Re: despair, it’s been difficult watching some of the greatest editors of our time fall out of the industry. I’m glad many of those folks seem to have found peace, with their book deals and tech-adjacent jobs, but there’s a dearth of experienced editors to learn from right now. I feel really lucky to have landed at Texas Monthly, with a features director who is one of those editorial north stars, but I know from experience how rare that is. I hope we find ways to make being an editor a sexier long-term option, now that the black car services, expense accounts, and megasalaries are toast.
What we’re reading:
Joseph: I love the Olympics, and have soaked up as much as I can each morning while I start work. After watching Simone Biles drop out of the team competition, I came across this profile of her in the NYTimes, where she speaks out about the physical and mental toll of the last few years. It’s a heartbreaking deep dive into what we expect from our greatest athletes.