But, it’s still a good story.
2024 started with a few more rejections than I’d like.
Ugh.
Eight years ago, I left my full-time job as editor-in-chief to have a better work-life balance. Since then, I’ve continued to freelance write for various publications and organizations on the Oregon Coast. Work that I’m beyond grateful for. Assignments and pitches that have sustained my living as a writer, but has also given me the flexibility to continue coaching, fixing up houses, and most importantly, starting a family.
Yet, work as a freelancer comes with rejection. Story doesn’t fit the theme. Budget cuts. Not breaking news. No space. There’s a myriad of reasons.
After each rejection, it stings. It’s a little about me, that my idea wasn’t good enough, but mostly I can’t help but think that whatever I pitched: “is still a good story.” Yet, sometimes that piece doesn’t have a place to land. So, I made one.
Looking back on a decade of work, my favorite stories are usually not determined by number of reads or shares on social media, but by the passion of those I interview. I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of finding a unique angle in just about anything. Everyone has a story to tell, and I immensely appreciate those who have agreed and entrusted me to share theirs.
Not every story is breaking news, but our community’s collective stories create empathy and keep us resilient. The “foreshore” is the space between water and cultivated land. It’s not in the breaking waves, but what’s left after the tide recedes: a protection to the shore, even when the whitecaps become fierce.
As a project, I hope Foreshore Features will be a landing place for human interest pieces about the people and places of Tillamook County.
Plus, it’s a fun play on words, because I’ll know “fore-sure” that my feature stories are published.
Reading is support, so thanks for yours!
Have something you’d like to see in print? Feel free to reach out.
Comments