Skip the diet talk today (+3 writing-related tips)

Hi friends,

Happy Thanksgiving!

I was going to skip today’s newsletter because of the holiday, but at the last-minute I decided to write a “quick post” (which of course turned into a longer-than-expected post). I felt compelled to write it — to share a message about diet culture around the holidays and to offer up lessons learned from a related piece I wrote.

This time of year, it’s common for diet talk to take a seat at the dinner table. We hear relatives and friends talk about how they’re going to need to go on a diet after Thanksgiving dinner, or how they spent the morning working out in order to “earn” their meal. Perhaps we hear them compliment the relative who lost weight since the last holiday gathering, or we watch them quietly critique the one who gained it. Maybe we’re the ones engaging in the diet talk because we don’t know any better, or we find it hard to change.

I wrote about this in an op-ed published in yesterday’s Dallas Morning News. The piece focused on why — as a lifelong runner and as someone in recovery from an eating disorder — I no longer run Turkey Trots. Though I understand why these races are so popular, I take issue with the messaging around them. Often, they’re advertised as ways to enjoy a “guilt-free Thanksgiving,” “burn the calories away” and “earn a second helping!”

As I wrote in the piece: “Instead of interrogating the inherent harm of such messages, we succumb to them. But this is a missed opportunity to speak up and embrace new language for the food we eat, the reasons we exercise and the bodies we live in. We can stay small in the face of diet culture — a system of beliefs that promotes restriction and values thinness — or we can take up space and demand something better.”

Dallas Morning News

I wasn’t sure how this piece would land because, well, Turkey Trots are so beloved. But I’ve gotten dozens of encouraging messages from readers over the past day, and they’ve reminded me of two things: a.) many people are fed up with diet culture, and b.) stories have the power to introduce people to different viewpoints and build community around shared beliefs.

With that in mind, here are some lessons learned from writing my op-ed:

1.) Don’t let rejection or silence prevent you from pursuing a story. I had wanted to pitch this story idea last Thanksgiving but ran out of time. This year has been even busier, so I had to be really deliberate about making the story a priority. From Oct. 20 to Nov. 7, I pitched it to five different editors.

One editor wrote me back with a standard one-line rejection (“I’m going to skip this one but I hope it finds a good home!”); another said she no longer has a freelance budget; another was on maternity leave and not answering emails; and another never responded. Not one to give up easily, I decided to pitch it to a Dallas Morning News editor who has known me for a while and is familiar with my writing. To my delight, she responded right away and said she’d love to run the piece.

2.) Craft a thoughtful pitch. There’s an art to pitching a freelance piece, and it comes with practice. Here’s the pitch I sent to the Dallas Morning News editor (minus the pleasantries at the beginning and end of the email):

I'm pitching a timely personal essay that would delve into why, as a lifelong runner, I no longer run Turkey Trots. These trots have made Thanksgiving the most popular running day in the U.S., but they’re often touted as ways to “earn” a “guilt-free” Thanksgiving meal, as though one must repent for eating in excess. As someone who has spent my entire adult life in ongoing recovery from anorexia, I’ve learned that messages like this can be harmful and are rooted in diet culture. I still run, and I still like road races in general, but I no longer want to feel as though I have to compensate for Thanksgiving dinner by running a turkey trot. Instead, I want to feel thankful for my body and how far it has carried me.

I would write this in my typical first-person narrative style, and I would weave in perspectives from one or two others who share similar takes (an expert and someone else with lived experience). The piece would offer up a fresh perspective on a topic that's relevant to many but has rarely been written about. This essay would touch upon universal themes of athleticism, body acceptance, and self respect, and I think many readers would find it relatable.

Given the time-sensitive nature of the piece, I could have it ready within a week — or sooner, if needed. If there's an editor who you think might be interested in this pitch, can you let me know? I can take it from there.

A few takeaways from the pitch:

• Keep it short. If you’re like me and are prone to writing long, force yourself to be concise. Editors get a lot of freelance pitches and often don’t have time to read through lengthy ones. Also, writing a short pitch forces you to find a focus for your piece. If you’re having trouble keeping it short, it may be that you don’t have a clear enough focus yet.

• Don’t bury the lead. In other words, don’t make an editor wait until the end of your pitch to find out what your story idea is really about. Show that you know how to write journalistically by getting to the heart of your idea right away.

• Explain the style you’ll write it in. Are you pitching a news story? A feature story? A personal essay? An op-ed? There are any number of ways you could frame a piece, so make sure you’ve thought about this before crafting a pitch. In the pitch, clearly articulate your approach so that an editor can tell whether it will be a good fit. In this case, I was pitching the piece to a head editor, which is why I asked if she knew of a section editor who might be interested.

• Find a way to weave in reporting. These days, I never write a piece for publication without doing some reporting (aka interviews). In my pitches, I always explain how I’ll weave in reporting, even for personal essays. Editors like to see that you are eager to expand a piece beyond your own experiences and viewpoints. There are so many advantages to including insights from experts and individuals with lived experiences; doing so advances the knowledge-sharing potential of a piece, and it welcomes a diversity of perspectives.

• Explain why your idea is new, different, worth pursuing. Before pitching my idea, I did a lot of pre-reporting by reading coverage about Turkey Trots, looking at social media forums about these races, and reading about the history of them. With the exception of two pieces, there were hardly any stories about the diet culture messaging around these trots. I saw this as an opportunity to (as I say in the pitch) “offer up a fresh perspective on a topic that's relevant to many but has rarely been written about.”

• Make it timely, and share your turn-around time. This piece was naturally timely, so I emphasized this in my pitch. Also, by the time I contacted the fifth editor, there were only two weeks left before Thanksgiving. I said that I could have the piece ready within a week — or sooner if needed. (I hoped I would get a full week, and fortunately I did.) Mentioning the turnaround time shows that you’re deadline-driven and that you understand (or at least have an appreciation for) how the news cycle works.

• Give a nod to readers. When pitching a piece, always mention readers at least once. Editors like to know that you are writing for an audience and that you’ve given thought to why a piece might resonate with readers. If you haven’t given much thought to your audience, do so while crafting your pitch and then keep this audience in mind while writing your piece. Also, identify the universal themes that will help open up points of relatability. I sometimes mention these themes in my pitch, as I did here.

3.) Be open to new styles of writing. When the Dallas Morning News editor responded to my pitch, she gave me two options: Write it for the Opinion section or the Arts & Life section. I interned for The Dallas Morning News’ Arts & Life section right out of college, so I’m familiar with the type of content it publishes. This naturally felt like the safer and easier option. But I was intrigued by the idea of writing for the Opinion section and having the chance to flex new writing muscles. I talked about it with my husband, then decided to pursue the Opinion option. I was nervous at first because I had never written an op-ed.

For inspiration (and to calm my nerves), I did what I always do: read the work of my favorite writers. In this case, I pored over several of Roxane Gay’s New York Times op-eds. I studied how she approached them and how she framed her arguments, paying particular attention to structure, tone, and word choice. I then determined who I wanted to interview and reached out to three sources, all of whom I ended up including in the piece. Two of my sources were women I had interviewed for my book, and one was a dietician I found online while searching for Dallas-based eating disorder dietitians. (I was keen on including a Dallas-based expert because it’s always good to find local experts when writing for a local publication.)

From there, I outlined my piece. On Post-it notes, I wrote down the main points I wanted to make and moved them around my kitchen table until I found a structure that felt right. The next morning, I went for a run to get into my runner’s headspace, then spent the day writing. Over the next two days, I self-edited the piece in between classes and meetings. My editor “hardly touched it,” so the actual editing process was easy. The hard part was getting it down on paper in the first place — and not giving up in the face of four initial rejections.

I’m glad I stuck with the story, and I hope it will help people be more mindful of how they talk about food, exercise, and bodies — not just on Thanksgiving but every day of the year.

Read the full op-ed here. I would love to hear your thoughts/reactions/questions, so please feel free to share them in the comments section below!

My book Slip: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery won’t be out until August 5, but you can now pre-order it! Pre-orders help expand a book's reach, and my hope is that this book reaches and helps as many people as possible. You can find Slip wherever you buy books: