William A. Patterson
(He/Him)
Covers:
Approaching short-form or long-form vignettes on any topic, in the spirit of Montaigne.
Doesn't Cover:
None.
Interview
What was your first job as a journalist?
My own creative nonfiction work when I was 25. It's in my book.
Have you ever used a typewriter?
Yes.
How is social media changing news?
Social media means you have be apophatic as a journalist: get the wheat away from the chaff. Everything is grist for the mill, however.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Tossup: Didion, Adler, Mailer, Capote; they're all real journalists. If I could choose a writer to create one, Dürrenmatt. Or, Kilgore Trout.
What does it mean to be a journalist?
To get the truth, to get the truth right, to do it with greatest artistry possible.
What's the funniest news-related #hashtag you've seen?
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
I have no idea: tickle context.
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
Microsoft, Adobe, ABAP (language), Android, iOS (OS's).
What's your favorite social network?
The one in my head. Not the one in my girlfriend's head.
Who do you wish followed you?
Deborah Treisman
Why did you become a journalist?
To write.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
I did not. I had my own comic strip and pitched my thought-bubbles for Hallmark cards.
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
Nonfiction, as standing today, my "Ukraine: Untermenschliche Freddy Kruger role in the Second World War." Fiction, a novella, "FONTAINEBLEAU"
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Don't leave the case cold. Not if you can help it. Follow the ones you need to follow.
When's the best time to pitch you?
6 AM, like everyone.
What's the best pitch you ever got?
From a writer who initially liked it when I started to rewrite his short story, then came to dislike the idea.
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
The worst I ever got. That's glib, I really don't know. Probably one of the meandering ones, without structure.
What's your favorite drink?
Freshly squeezed orange juice. Double cappuccino sweetned with stevia. 10th of a millileter of ocean water pursed thru my lips after a scuba.
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
Swimming in the Aegean Riveria.
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
I don't have any. Seriously. I'm eclectic that way.
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
That the reader, during the course of reading, can divine the writer’s [my] course, ideology, mentality, position, etc. (in whose absence provision is made for a background moral interlude for reader and writer, which I find essential).
Would you like to take the Muck Rack Interview?
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