Study Hall Subscriber Spotlight: Kyle Turner

Kyle Turner is a Study Hall subscriber and freelance writer whose work on film and pop culture has appeared in the New York Times, Teen Vogue, W Magazine, and other publications. On December 1st, Turner, who is also the author of The Queer Film Guide, hosted an AMA, answering subscribers’ questions about entertainment journalism and film criticism. 

We have synthesized the exchange for subscribers who weren’t able to attend. If you’re interested in volunteering to host an AMA, please reach out to [email protected]. 

This AMA has been edited for length and clarity. Editor’s Note: some questions were rewritten to protect participants’ identities.

How did you get started with freelancing?

The slightly truncated version is: I started a blog when I was 13, I had known I wanted to be a film critic or write about film since I was in second grade, and my sophomore year of high school there was a call for writers at a now defunct entertainment website called VeryAware.com. I sent in some blog clips and they took me on as a news writer, and then after a period of regurgitating press releases, they started letting me write longer form essays and review stuff. About a year into it, I decided to just start pitching and cold calling editors I found or followed on Twitter and the like. Then I started freelancing for monetary compensation around senior year of high school and freshman year of college. I would just look up people’s emails and send them ideas or simply beg at their feet to let me write for them. I was [and still] am relentless. I just emailed constantly and didn’t take no for an answer.

Good to hear that your blog worked as a portfolio! Do you think that’s still a way to get more work?

I’m of the opinion that [it’s good to have] some repository for your writing, personal or otherwise. It’s proof of your voice and interests. While I understand that blogging, and its reputation, has changed over time (sometimes in contradictory ways), it’s useful to have, at least for yourself, as an archive. When pitching, it’s absolutely useful for editors to gauge what kind of writer you are. Although some editors may find particular bylines shinier, if you’re a passionate writer, as long as you have evidence of that, I think that should be enough. My blog is old enough to fail its driver’s license test but I still update it for end-of-year stuff. I go back and forth between posting the writing that didn’t get published or that I just wanted to do for myself on my original blog and my Medium.

Do you feel like freelance opportunities in film and TV journalism have declined over the last year?

Yes, totally. I try not to be cynical or defeatist entirely, but as I’m sure many Study Hallers can attest, the media industry (and other arts industries in general) are just not doing well. The whole model that these outlets and industries have based themselves on are unsustainable, and despite the fact that there have been warnings for years, the people in power and with money and institutional sway don’t listen and continue to go on like nothing is happening. While I think opportunities are becoming more difficult to find, and the ones that exist have caveats (don’t pay well, overworked, exploitative, etc.), I do have hope in the sense that a democratized attitude towards film and arts criticism has opened up spaces for new perspectives to be shared. 

I do hope that, not to sound accelerationist, at some point there will be some quasi-revolutionary or systematic change in how the journalism industry evolves and that it will become more equitable for everyone, particularly writers of marginalized backgrounds and the people (like editors) whose job it is to support and care for those writers.

How do you position your pitches? I’ve heard that you should try to be general so editors will see you as someone versatile they can rely on, rather than someone with a hyper-specific idea. However, I’ve also heard that general emails are annoying and that a specific idea is what gets you noticed.

For better or worse, I pitch what I’m sincerely interested in. My skill set is, shall we say, particular. I don’t care enough about Marvel movies to pitch something on them when I know it’ll be half-hearted. I recognize I have had (until super recently) the luxury of not relying on my writing as a primary source of income. But positioning your pitches should be in direct dialogue with what you believe your strengths as a writer are. There are times when I try to angle a pitch to be appealing in a “more general” way, so to speak, but for the most part I’m concerned with why I care about a particular thing and why I think the editor should too. It’s good to be aware of readers, but I believe that if you care enough about something, a reader (no matter how many) may care about it too.

Do you have any tips on how to structure and build a pitch for an essay about film?

My basic “formula” goes something like this: 

• Introduce who you are and what you want to write about
• Tell them what the thing is
• Tell them what makes it interesting in a paragraph or two
• Tell them why you’re the person to write it 
• Thank them for their time

It’s important to make clear what your critical perspective and voice is. Doesn’t matter if it’s film or music or TV or dance; if you have a point of view you think is worth listening to (and you do), you just have to communicate that. My critical ethos can be summed up as “if you can’t say anything new, say it better than anyone else.”

Do you have advice on writing exercises or prompts?

I’m actually terrible at reserving time to write for myself! I’m still learning how to do that. The times that I have been able to write for myself have been when particular ideas or concepts just gnaw at me and I’m like, “I have to get this out”—mostly out of fear I’ll forget what I’m thinking about. I don’t do morning pages or anything like that, and I admit that freelancing for nine years has disincentivized me to write without the prospect of compensation or a public [platform]. But I have tried to train myself to look for ideas for myself, that don’t matter as much in terms of caring if they get published or not. I just try to let inspiration take over.

If you’re sitting there trying to do it, I do think it’s worthwhile to fail first on the page and go back and edit. Even if you throw it away, it’s worth getting it out because it gives you the opportunity to think about what you’ve written and how to express it, even if the expression is an obstacle. Write about the obstacle and how it makes you feel.

Opportunity Finder is streamlining the process of finding editors, searching for rates, and sifting through pitch guides. This is a product built by former freelancers who have firsthand experience with pitching and contacting editors. Try Opportunity Finder.