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Dec 11, 2020

Welcome to the sixth edition of Missed Pitches, a home for rejected ideas. As this newsletter grows and approaches the end of 2020, I want to invite you to give me your feedback. Tell me what you like — or don’t like — about this newsletter. What would you do differently? Shoot me an email at pitches.newsletter@gmail.com or tweet me at @MissedPitches.

Want to have your rejected ideas featured in this newsletter? Use this Google Form to submit your entry. Follow on Twitter at @MissedPitches for updates and shout-outs. Read the previous edition here. // rungomez

Irrational relationship choices during covid (by Jillian Heller)
Commentary: White women and the seduction of power (by Halley Sutton)
The racist who loved me (by Lena Nozizwe)
Diving into Brazil’s Polygon of Marijuana (by J.R. Patterson)
COVID made me a parent without being a mother (by Pooja Shah)
Freelance opportunities
Writing jobs
Writing contests

NOTE: The following rejected story pitches have been lightly edited for space and clarity.

Irrational relationship choices during covid (by Jillian Heller, jillheller9@gmail.com)

It's my last month living in Britain and I'm locking down with a Bumble match. The piece will first focus on the rush of new love and how that experience manifests within the unimaginable circumstances we're in. I'd then address my impending visa expiration, and how a time limit affects experiences of love/lust.

Lastly, I'll discuss the possibilities around whether this relationship could last. Is an experience like this purely a glimpse of love through rose-tinted glasses, or is something longer term plausible? Since millennial dating culture has shifted so drastically with covid, perhaps it wouldn't seem so wild to pursue a relationship. So it'll touch on irrational relationship choices during covid and with big life changes upcoming, and the evolving willingness to take risks in the romance department as social distancing measures and lockdowns change the nature of dating.

Commentary: White women and the seduction of power (by Halley Sutton, halley.e.sutton@gmail.com)

I’m wondering if your readers might be interested in an opinion piece exploring how white women, over and over, align themselves with positions of power rather than equity. Examples within the piece include the enslavement and branding of women in the DOS segment of the NXIUM cult, how white women are proud to spend money on the “feminist” label without actually grappling with the hard work that goes along with that title, and how this phenomenon led to an increase in the number of white women who voted for Trump in 2020.

I felt it was important to write this article because I believe more conversations around the nuances of power-versus-equity are necessary in order to disentangle them, and because I believe that until white women can grapple with the way that aligning themselves with power rather than striving for equity damages not just minoritized people, but themselves, true change is not possible.

The racist who loved me (by Lena Nozizwe, starinyourlife@gmail.com)

He described the bi-racial moderator of the last 2020 presidential debate as a “hybrid,” as he complimented her performance. I told him to knock it off. The person who said this to me is not a MAGA hat-wearing member of QAnon or the Po' Boys (as I refer to them). In fact, it's an ex-boyfriend (rightly so) who told me he loved me. And many times he would imagine that we had twins, twins by his definition would have been “hybrids.”

Diving into Brazil’s Polygon of Marijuana (by J.R. Patterson, jrpattersonwrites@gmail.com)

Before the pandemic, I made an expedition on Brazil’s Rio Sao Francisco, one of South America’s longest rivers. I was attempting to follow in the wake of Richard Francis Burton’s 1867 descent of the Sao Francisco River. The river writ large has changed inordinately in the 150 years since first described in detail by Burton. Most of these changes are the result of large hydroelectric projects built on the river, which have displaced thousands of farmers.

The majority of the displaced were left hanging, with no hope of receiving compensation from local or federal governments. Some found themselves moving to large urban centers to beg, others became indentured laborers in the cane fields of Sao Paulo. Still others found a third way. On one bend of the river, where thousands of small, jungled islands braid and strip the river, farmers have taken to the drug trade to eke out a living for themselves. This grouping of marijuana plantations, between Belem do Sao Francisco and Cabrobo, has been dubbed the “poligono da macunha,” the “Polygon of Marijuana.”

Originally convinced by local gangs into growing marijuana to supply growing urban demand for the drug, the trade has proved a viable — and profitable — career for the farmers. Hidden among the maze of mangroves and islands within the Polygon is nearly 30 percent of Brazil’s marijuana crop. There is a price to be paid for this grassroots drug trade, however.

Spurred on by Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro's hardline against drugs, police raids have become increasingly common and dangerous, with police targeting farmers as much as against the gang members pressuring the harvest to continue. Now, the murder rate of this rural area is three times higher than infamously deadly Rio de Janeiro.

I would like to write an article about the area, and the farmers who are placing themselves outside the law to provide for their families and communities.

COVID made me a parent without being a mother (by Pooja Shah, shahp1130@gmail.com)

How has the pandemic reversed traditional roles, particular with respect to parenting? How has my parenting my own mother, who deals with anxiety, illustrate the shift in dynamics and changing “traditional” familial structure?

The pandemic, as everyone understands, has been difficult in many ways including the impact it has on one's mental health. My mom is categorized as an essential worker, as she works as a lab technician at a NYC Hospital, where her primary role is to sort through and label Covid-19 positive and negative test results.

Understandably, her job, coupled with taking the NYC subway to and from the hospital to home has taken a toll on her mental health and substantially increased her pre-existing anxiety levels. I recently left my apartment in Manhattan to move back home to Queens to support her, including cooking, cleaning, taking her to doctor appointments, meditating with her, and finding new coping mechanisms. As a South Asian woman, there are certain inherent culture “duties” allocated for daughters, including looking after parents — for me, I just didn't think that the time would come for me so soon.

I propose to write a 600-800 word article describing how I have experienced “parenting” without even being a mother, but by looking after and dealing with my mother's anxiety. My piece will highlight how I learned from my parents’ methods of what constitutes good parenting and applied it back to their caretaking. I plan to supplement my story with an interview with a mental health expert who can speak to parenting during a pandemic, the psychological and mental impacts, and the ways in which dynamics of households have shifted.

Freelance Opportunities

via @tispr (Dec 10): Calling all freelance health writers! We're looking for someone to write a health-featured piece for our site (PAID). If this sounds like you, send an email to karisa.tate@tispr.com with your rates & portfolio.

via Eric Zassenhaus (Dec 9): Freelancers! If you're interested in covering L.A. tech and startups — particularly in the aerospace, cannabis, ecommerce and biotech spheres — put together some clips and email me (eric@dot.la)

via @SairaMueller (Dec 10): I'm looking for freelance pitches at @WIRED Games! If you have a great innovative feature, how-to guide, or community story idea in games or esports see below to hmu! To pitch please send the following to saira_mueller@wired.com: 1-2 paragraph synopsis of story, 3 of your best clips as links or PDFs, Resume (optional)

via @ryan_schnurr (Dec 10): Periodic reminder that @belt_magazine pays for personal essays, reported features, and photo essays on the Rust Belt. Check out the site to see what kind of work we run. Here's how to pitch and submit: https://beltmag.com/write-for-belt/

via @_simrinsingh_ (Dec 8): Introducing my new publication @dismissedmag! I’m looking for content! Send me your pitches, drafts, artwork. No matter your experience level, I want to share your voices! Email me dismissedmag@gmail.com.