Profiles are not my favorite thing to write. It's possible that they could be, I suppose, but I'd need to have years to work with one person and a guaranteed income. People fascinate me, I've known this for years; I can meet someone (or even not meet, but simply observe a person), and know almost instantly whether or not he or she is intriguing and complex, whether or not I want to know more. I feel like, then, a profile should be a good outlet through wish to do this, but I just wish that I had more time, from every angle.
I always have the worst time with opening a piece--it's something that I ponder for days, tossing ideas around and around in my head, and regardless of whether the initial introduction is the one I end up using, it needs to inspire me in some way, or I can't write the rest of the piece. Obviously, this can be a problem. With this piece, I don't know how I feel about, because the intro I ended up using turned the piece into something different than I originally thought it was going to be about. And that could be okay, for now--I don't know if I have enough about what I originally thought I was going to write about, I need to ask her more questions, but I feel like the piece as it is is kind of boring. I don't know why anyone would want to read it, and that's what I'm most struggling with at the moment.
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I was wondering how real journalists work on profiles like this for such extended periods of time. Do they have second jobs? Are they good enough where magazines and newspapers pay them to follow people around for months, sometimes years? I'm sure Marin would know more about this. We'll have to ask.
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