Longreads has published hundreds of original stories—personal essays, reported features, reading lists, and more—and more than 14,000 editor’s picks. **And they’re all funded by readers like you.** Become a member today. _At one time, Rachel Hartigan edited_ The Washington Post’s Book World _. During a 12-year stint as a writer, reporter, and editor with_ National Geographic _, she covered everything from the genetics of persimmon trees to the long road to women’s suffrage._ _She spoke with Brendan O’Meara, host of_The Creative Nonfiction Podcast_, about being a self-taught writer, how being open to opportunity can change your career, and how editing others can help you improve your own writing._ _Hartigan’s first book,_Lost: Amelia Earhart’s Three Mysterious Deaths and One Extraordinary Life_, both a biography of the aviator’s life and a survey of the leading theories surrounding her death and disappearance, is now available._ **Brendan:** What did your career look like in your head at the start, and how did that change? **Rachel:** I was not a kid with a clear version of what I wanted to do. I really like to read, to write, and to learn things.
My parents were quite aggravated with me because they had spent a lot of money to educate me. I tried being a paralegal at a legal publishing company and then at the Nevada State Legislature. I was probably lounging on the sofa when my dad came in and slapped a _Harper’s Magazine_ on me and said, “There are internships there.
You should apply to that.” OK, it’s in New York. I have friends in New York, so that’s what I did, and somehow I got it. My career has not been a straight path; it’s been a lot of happenstance where I somehow get a job and figure out how to do it once I’m there.
People come to me with plans and say, “I’m going to do this, this, and this,” but that’s not my mindset. I wish I was more like that. My career is always a surprise to me. **Brendan:** With pursuing something a bit squishy, like writing, how did you deal with the pressure of expectation and the burden to prove yourself to your peers and your parents? **Rachel:** My parents weren’t too bad; I was harder on myself because I never went to journalism school.
I have always felt like an apprentice, like I’m still figuring it out. It’s only recently that I feel like I know how to do this. I know how to structure something.
I know how to get a reader going, but I never felt like I had the right credentials. One reason I’ve gone back and forth with writing and editing—and I feel like each one has helped the other—is because it’s much easier to spot the weaknesses in somebody else’s draft than in mine. Sometimes it’s harder to do with your own prose. **Brendan:** An apt metaphor, be it someone else’s work or your own, is looking under the hood like a mechanic to see how things are working, whether everything’s moving as it should.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
