If you’re a fan of Narratively, you know that we are all about the BIG story. We like an epic narrative that unfolds in several acts and consists of vivid, cinematic scenes. But part of what we like, too, is a unique perspective. We want to be surprised and delighted — we want to not see it coming. And sometimes that looks like one delicious slice of pie rather than the whole thing… 

Enter The Personals. These first-person pieces still meet two of the main criteria for Narratively stories: They’re about something super unique and interesting, and they’re rooted in detailed and colorful scenes. BUT they instead focus on one moment, one day, one week, one summer, etc. (And consequently, they’re much shorter.) We want your best pieces about a surprising moment, a split-second, life-changing decision, an upside-down view of something that we, as a society, are used to looking at head-on. Send us your story about that time you decided at the last second to leave the altar and make a go of it with your unforbidden love instead, the stranger who gave you advice that changed the trajectory of your life forever, that time you confronted your bully 25 years later only to learn about the hardship they were going through at the time. 

What The Personals Is: You can tell us a story on a subject we’ve heard about before, but give us a unique way in. 

What The Personals Isn’t: We love a good internal-based story like everyone else, a writer working out their opinion or recent revelation on the page, but that is not what we’re looking for here. We want active, exciting first-person stories that revolve around dramatic scenes and moments.

A few Personals pieces and stories we’ve done in the past that are good examples of what we’re looking for:

A Freak Accident Brought Me Closer to My Domineering Dad (1,695) 

The Man Who Betrayed Me Was Also the Man Who Loved Me (1,820)

Unburying My Mother’s Secret (2,185)

I Was Taught to Hate My Lesbian Neighbors. They Took Me In Anyway (1,500 words)

I’m Not an Asian Stereotype, But I Play One on TV (1,400 words)

Why I Apologized to My Rapist (1,500 words)

Details: 

Pitches? Drafts? We are only accepting submissions for these. And please submit only one essay at a time. (Once you hear back, you are welcome to submit another piece if you'd like, but please do wait until you have heard back.) 

Word Count: Ideal length for full drafts is between 1,000 and 1,500 words. Please don’t send anything longer than 2,200 words — longer drafts will not be considered.  

Deadline: We’re considering stories on a rolling basis. 

Rate: $300

We have a new call out… 

This fall, we’re looking to test a handful of new columns, series and storytelling formats, and we want YOU, i.e., writers, journalists, videographers, audio storytellers — really, anyone with a creative mind — to help us produce them.

Your idea could be a recurring first-person column. A reported series you’d guest-edit, bringing in different contributors for each installment. Short self-recorded videos. Bite-size audio stories. Interviews. Illustrated narratives. A storytelling game or experiment. Or, best of all, something we haven’t thought of yet!

We want concepts that make us immediately think: I want to see the next one.

What are we looking for with this call?

Most importantly, we’re looking for a strong, repeatable idea. Think beyond one great story. What’s the engine that could produce five great installments? Ten? Twenty?

Maybe you have unusual access to a subculture we should keep returning to. Maybe there’s a deceptively simple question you want to ask a different person every week. Maybe you want to document an overlooked corner of life today through 90-second videos. Or you have an idea for a first-person column unlike anything we’re publishing now.

We’ll select a small number of ideas to test out (for payment) on Narratively this fall. If one or more connects strongly with readers and feels like something we want to keep building, our hope is to turn it into an ongoing Narratively column or series.

Rates will depend on the format, reporting involved and frequency, most likely ranging from $100 to $1,000 per post.

A few things we aren’t looking for: 

Narratively publishes narrative nonfiction — not fiction or poetry. We’re also generally not looking for opinion columns, cultural commentary or straightforward news analysis. Whatever format your project takes, it should be centered on the story.

And while we’re always interested in individual Narratively stories, this particular call is for repeatable columns, series and formats rather than one-off story pitches.

Most importantly, pitch us something new. Something weird. Something irresistible. Something that makes our readers say: “Tell me more!”

So…what makes something Narratively?

In both our existing series and anything new we might publish, our stories aren’t defined by a particular subject or topic. They’re defined by the fact that they’re:

• Human. There are real people at the center of what we do. In general, we’re much more interested in ordinary people with extraordinary stories than the same celebrities and public figures every other publication is covering.
• Untold. An overlooked subculture. A hidden history. An unusual obsession. A person or experience we’ve somehow never encountered before. 
• Surprising. We love premises that pique our curiosity — the kind that make you immediately think, Wait, what? I need to know more. Once you’re reading, the best Narratively stories take a turn we didn’t see coming, upend a common assumption, or show us something familiar in a completely different way.
• Narrative. This one, you may have guessed from our name :) Our stories are cinematic in scope and immersive in tone. There are scenes, stakes, discoveries, twists and transformations. We want readers to have the experience of being invited into a new world, and then going on an exciting journey.

Submit away! We can't wait to hear from you…