Marjorie and Alicia met at a small coffee shop downstairs from Northpoint Magazine’s offices. Alicia wrote features for the magazine, while Marjorie was inspired to follow in her footsteps.
“You recently wrote a piece about the mayor that I loved,” Marjorie said. “How did you decide to write that profile?”
“It’s funny,” Alicia said. “My original idea was to find out where the mayor has lunch. The mayor visits the same few spots, and I wanted to know about the people she was interacting with there.”
“Interesting, Marjorie said. “I feel like that sort of became the background for the piece, rather than the focus.”
“It did,” Alicia agreed. “My editor noticed that what was actually more interesting was how the mayor scheduled her entire day with such rigidity and how that was affecting the moments when the city needed to be flexible.”
“So the editor decided the direction?” Marjorie asked.
“Yeah, you’ll find that in the magazine game, the editor makes a lot of calls,” Alicia said.
“Well, how did those conversations lead to the pictures of the key figures in front of famous statues in the city?” Marjorie asked. “I loved the mayor in front of the famous brown bears.”
“That was actually the art team’s suggestion,” Alicia said.
“So the art team also gets a say in the piece?”
“Yes. So do the marketing team and even the social media group,” Alicia said.
“So does it even feel like your story?” Marjorie said.
“My goal isn’t to have my name in big letters on the piece,” Alicia said. “I’m trying to tell the best story I can and get the piece to reach the largest number of people. If there’s something I don’t agree with, I push back.”
“Like what?”
“They wanted to title the piece, The Mayor is BEARLY There, with the picture in front of the bear statue, and I said no.”
“What if I just want to write for myself and not deal with that?” Marjorie asked.
“Well, when you work by yourself, sometimes you get a bad idea, and you title a story with a bear pun. Or in this case, I would have spent 12 paragraphs describing the salads that the mayor ate.”
“So where should I start?”
“Maybe you could find out where the sheriff has lunch.”