Ghostwriting – Study Hall
Until late this summer, I worked as a senior producer at a company that made podcasts for clients and media partners. I quit, in part, because I saw how far my ideas could go without my name attached to them.
In this new phase of my career, I’m working on a book proposal, I’ve landed a gig as a columnist reporting on gender and media, and I’m writing and submitting one-off essays like this one. It’s thrilling to have conversations with editors who care about my ideas and who look forward to reading my writing. In my first week as a freelancer, I wrote up my first batch of pieces and submitted them. And then I received the same piece of feedback from three different editors: “This is a great start and I love where you’re going, but I’d love to see more of you in this.”
Twice is a coincidence; three times is a pattern. I couldn’t help but laugh. I had a lot of anxieties as I prepared for a phase of my career that involved being more visible and owning my work and perspective, but I didn’t expect to struggle so mightily with committing my perspective to the page. I imagined what it would look like to include more of myself in my writing, and was surprised at the discomfort I felt.
