When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?
My realization of what I wanted to do happened both early and in pieces. I knew from around 6th grade that I wanted to do something connected to Hollywood, though at that time I was deluding myself into thinking I wanted to be an actor. What I really wanted to do, though, was tell stories, and through the years I realized that for me that meant that I wanted to write TV and movies AND that I wanted to write about them, in equal measure.
What advice do you have for students who are looking to write for a living?
My biggest piece of writing advice is just…to write. There’s literally no way around the fact that if you’re a writer the number one thing you need to do is write, write write. A lot of people will tell you to network, but your network is useless if you don’t have writing to show them, and it’s useless if you haven’t been practicing your writing enough that your writing is good enough to show the right person when the right person asks. If you want to write in media, as a journalist or otherwise, start with a school paper or a personal blog or newsletter that covers the topics you want to write about. If you want to write for TV or movies, write scripts and then write more scripts. There’s no way around the fact that you are going to need to prove to people that you can do the job, and that means writing for yourself first and developing the work ethic to get a project done. That doesn’t mean you need to write for free for other people — but you’re likely going to need to write for free for YOURSELF first.
What is something you wish someone told you about the industry when you were first starting out?
Again, people talk about networking a lot, but I think the popular advice goes about it the wrong way. People tell you to email editors or bosses in the industry you want to be in, to ask them advice or take them to coffee. But in my experience the best networking doesn’t come from trying to social climb upwards in the ranks — it comes from building a community of people also trying to work their way up. They will be more useful to you than anyone, because they’ll provide a necessary support system (and friendship!), and as you all work your way up together more and more opportunities will come literally, from each other and the connections those people make.
What was your first writing job? What did you learn from it?
I sadly came of age in a time in media where unpaid internships were still very common and very expected, so I did two of those — one I was somehow able to swing over a summer vacation, and one I swung during the school year. The first was with a small TV website called Give Me My Remote, where I did a lot of TV recaps and some transcription. My work previously had been for my own blog and as a luckily paid!) editor at my college newspaper’s website, so GMMR was my first time really learning how to turn work around on a quick deadline and embrace how my voice could turn a format that was extremely common at the time into something fun.
I also want to talk about my second writing job, which was at The Mary Sue – first (unfortunately) as an unpaid intern, and then (fortunately) as a paid assistant editor. I learned so much there, writing for the community of nerds the site is built on. It’s a really great group of people who read and comment on the site and having that as an audience was so useful to me as I was learning my way around the internet. It taught me that there ARE good comment’s sections, and that contrary to the opinions of some media folk, our readers are not always stupid or thick-skulled; very often the people reading our stuff are people remarkably like us, interested in the same things, who care in the same ways we do.
How do you deal with criticism on your pieces? (From readers, editors, etc)
I am a stereotypical writer with a stereotypical writer’s ego and writer’s attachment to her own words, but for the most part, somehow, the criticism I receive most is mostly productive and therefore very welcome. I’ve had a lot of great editors with different perspectives, and they’ve all helped me grow in different ways. If I’m not learning then what is the point? I love the learning part. I’m also a proponent of reading the comments — you have to know which ones to let just slide off your back (hint: the racist/sexist ones, and the ones written in bad faith), but I’ve gotten some of the most helpful criticism from the communities of people who read and comment on my stuff.
One of the most important skills a writer can have is knowing what criticism to take to heart and what to let go. My general rule of thumb is to listen very hard when people are telling you that you fucked up in an area relating to culture or identity, but also to consider where every person criticizing you is coming from. Plenty of them will be trolls, plenty of them will be racist/sexist/homophobic/etc — don’t listen to those ones. But sometimes people are just genuinely trying to help you grow. You need to keep your ears open for that.
Which of your pieces are you most proud of?
I have different points of pride from different eras. I am proud that my piece about the importance of imagining Hermione Granger as a woman of color had the impact that it had because that’s continued to resonate with me throughout the years. I am proud whenever I feel like I’ve tried something kind of new and done OK with it, so there are a few other features from the past couple years I’m proud of, including my profile of Terry Crews and my examination of the Harry Potter fandom being at a crossroads. The ones I’m proudest of in general are the ones where I feel like I managed to harness the feeling of an emotional moment or a person in a moment of time, as much as those things can be captured. All I want is for the nuanced truth of a thing to ring through in the writing.
Do you have a favorite piece (not written by you) that you always go back to reread or a piece that you always share with other people? If so, what is it?
The piece that made me KNOW I could pursue a career in writing about culture was Emily Nussbaum’s “When TV Became Art” (http://nymag.com/arts/all/aughts/62513/) The career path was already in my mind from years of reading Jezebel, but I was a freshman in college when Emily’s piece came out and it sealed the deal for me completely.
These fall into different categories, but Edith Zimmerman’s GQ profile of Chris Evans (https://www.gq.com/story/chris-evans-gq-july-2011-cover-story) is one I read at least once a year and still think of constantly, just all the time.
Link to Alanna’s work.
Unsung Heroes 