S4 E39: How To Find An Angle For Your Story

Get the show’s transcript

“YD: Sometimes some of these stories will have all of these angles, right? If it is like a big feature or a big spread, I do not know 5000-word reporting. You are going to look at all those angles, right? for your overall story? Sometimes you will just take one specific approach and unpack just one angle of the story, and that is all totally fine. The crisper the angle you can formulate in your pitch, the happier the editor will be and the easier it will be for them to imagine ‘What it is that you are talking about?’ What your plan is and how is that idea that you are proposing, how it is going to fit.”

[INTRODUCTION]

[00:00:42] YD: Welcome to the Genius Womxn podcast. I am your host, Yulia Denisyuk, an award-winning travel photographer and writer with work in some incredible publications like National Geographic, AFAR Magazine and more. This year, you will see my name in places like Condé Nast Traveler. I am on a mission to help other women who want to grow their travel storytelling careers go after their dreams while feeling supported, worthy, and bold. If you are ready to ditch your fear and doubts to the side, step into your brilliance, and take action on your dreams, you are in the right place. Let’s go!

[00:01:22] YD: Today, I am excited to share with you a very special episode that is hopefully going to help you become a better storyteller. Inside our membership, The Circle, our members often asked me the same question, “How do I find an angle for this story? Is the angle of the same as the story itself? What is an angle in general?” This month inside our membership we looked at angles at length during our monthly workshop that was dedicated to different aspects of nailing the story.

[00:01:53] YD: In today's episode, I am sharing with you a part of that conversation that was specifically about finding an angle. What it is, what it is not, and how we find one. Understanding angles will help you craft pitches that will no doubt be more successful. In this workshop, we also learned how to ensure our pitchers have a good fit with the publications we are pitching to. We also discussed news worthiness and timeliness, the other critical aspects of a successful pitch. When you become our circle member, you get access to this full recording and many other conversations we hold inside our membership. Get more information about ways you can join us at geniuswomen.com/circle, that is geniuswomen.com/circle. Alright, let us dive in.

[WORKSHOP EXCERPT]

[00:02:43] YD: Welcome again, everyone, to our monthly focus workshop. For the people who will be listening later, we have some new people joining us this week, which we will talk about as well. But for people who are joining us later, this is or who will be listening later, sorry. This workshop is the workshop we do every month where we set a theme for what we want to be covering in the circle each month. Every month, it varies, sort of the themes varies in scope. This month, I really want us to focus on nailing the story and the different aspects that come to that. 

[00:03:20] YD: The biggest aspect that we are going to discuss today is how do we find an angle? What is an angle anyway for the story? I know this is something that a lot of you have asked me. We have had discussions inside the group about, what is an angle? How do I find one? It does not always make sense; I am really excited to dig into that. What I want to do is, I want to take you through, sort of what I have prepared first and then. Let us have some time for discussion as well. We might not even be able to cover the whole subjects in an hour today. If that is the case, then we will continue talking about it later on as well. 

[00:03:58] YD: Okay, we have a full house today. I am loving it; I am loving it. Sam, Barbie welcome. Welcome as well and great to see everyone. Okay nailing the story. What does that mean? What do I mean? What aspects of it do I think are super important? First of all, I do not know if you guys are familiar with this concept of product market fit from entrepreneurship. As an entrepreneur myself I sort of always look for different metaphors from the entrepreneurship world into our world, because I think that there is a lot of overlaps there. 

Being an entrepreneur myself, it is something that is really close to my heart. There is this concept in entrepreneurship of product market fit, right? You have a product and there is a market. What you are trying to do, and you are trying to see if there is a fit between those two things. A lot of times when I think about our process, and pitching and getting published, I think that is a similar concept for us as well. We have a product too, right? Our product is our story, our idea, something that we want to put out there and there is a market out there. 

The market in our case is actually two layers. The first layer is the editor, the editor is the first market, right? It is the people who are seeing your story first. Then the secondary market is their audience, the audience of their publication.  So, there is a product which is your story and there is a market which is the editor and the publication and all we are trying to do is we are trying to find the fit, right? We are trying to find a fit. Does our product fit with the market to which we are trying to offer this product?

[00:05:41] YD: When you think about it in these terms, I think it helps to get some of that pressure out as well, right? That pressure that we always feel of, you know, getting rejected or is our story good enough? All that internal worry and all that sort of all of the concerns that come with our pitches, and I know that you know this is something that continues to happen again and again. Even as you get better in this career, even I get it sometimes now. You know, I pitched somebody, and I still like “I do not know”.  

But when you think about it in that terms, right? You have a product and there is a market. Is there a fit? It is, I think it takes a lot of that pressure away because it is just a puts it in a simpler, colder terms even, right? Though you are trying to do, is you are trying to find a fit and there is not always going to be a fit between a product and a marked, right? And that is totally okay, that is absolutely okay.

[00:06:38] YD: What we are trying to do in the process of pitching, we are trying to find that fit as much as possible, right? We do that both by researching the publication and reading the publication and making sure that we tailor our pitches to them. But also, through experience, right? That is how we sort of, over the years, we get better and better at understanding. Is there a fit between this product that I have right here in this market that I'm targeting, right? So again, this is something that we get better at with years. 

The other thing, I also want to bring into this discussion from entrepreneurship, is this idea or this quote, that you have probably heard over there, which is like “You have not failed, you just found 50 ways, it does not work”, right? So that idea that, and it is very relevant and entrepreneurship as well, right? There are very few stories of people bringing new products into the marketplace and succeeding right away. 

They keep trying, keep trying and keep trying and keep launching and relaunching, until they find that product market fit. Because product market fit is what success is, and it is the same here, right? Until you find that story publication fit, you must keep trying until you find it. Again, a lot of that comes from doing, from experience from pitching and talking to editors, right?

[00:08:00] YD: When you send them your pitch, you start that conversation, right? They hopefully are able to tell you, “Well, what is the angle actually? what are you trying to go for here? Or we are not looking for that right now, we are looking for this over here, right?” All these conversations are helping you find that product market fit. 

The more you look at it in those terms and through that lens, I think it I going to help you from getting rid of that internal commotion of, you know, “I am getting a rejection from my pitch, or I am afraid to pitch because I am afraid to get a rejection, right?” Hopefully that makes sense, what I am saying here. But with that said, you know I have this big emphasis on doing, on pitching, on starting conversations and of understanding fit that way. But with that said, there are aspects that can help us get our pitches better and increase our chances of the pitch being successful when we reach out to editors.

[00:09:02] YD: The three key aspects that I think are important in pitching are, first, again finding an angle, which we will talk about today, actual fit, doing the research with publication and newsworthiness. Those three aspects, finding an angle, fit and newsworthiness, we are going to discuss all three of those today. We will spend the most of our time on finding the angle, because again, I know a lot of you guys are asking “What does that even mean? What is an angle? Is the story the angle? Is the angle of the story? How do we think about it”, right? 

[00:09:39] YD: What is an angle? An angle of the story is something that answers the question “So what”, or “Why does this matter”, right? Why does this story matter? Why are you telling the story? So, what like when somebody reads your story, if they can answer that question, “So what?” That is the angle of the story. Another way to think about it is the angle for photographers in the room. The angle is the lens through which you present your information, right?

You are shooting a landscape you can choose to shoot it with a 50-prime lens, or you can choose to shoot it with a 12-to-70-millimeter different lens, right? Depending on which lens you use, your image of the landscape that you take is going to be different. What lens are you taking through which you are presenting the information in your story. It is also a unique take on the story. It is also a lane in which your story will want to swim. There is a story you want to tell, and do not worry if that does not make sense right now, I will take you through an actual example that would make it clearer.

[00:10:45] YD: Let us say, you have a story that you want to tell and there are literally three or four different veins, different avenues, different roads, through which you can take that story through which you can tell that story in several different ways, right? So those different ways in which you say that story is the angle of the story. A practical way to think about it, too, is that oftentimes the angle of the story is the lead. Does anybody remember what a lead is from our class from the storytellers and action class?  The lead is that second sentence that you often see like there is a title and then right under the title is the lead, which is like a short description of what the story is about. Well, the lead oftentimes actually contains the angle through which we are going to be looking at the story. 

[00:11:38] YD: I want to share my screen with you and share this AFAR magazine website. Can you guys all see it? Okay, great. So, this is the home page of AFAR magazine and here is our title, right? How to Plan the Perfect Road Trip and here is our lead, Figuring Out Road Trip Logistics Can Get Overwhelming, Unless You Have the Right Plan in Place. Here already, you can see the angle they are taking with the story, right? 

The story is about planning the perfect road trip and the angle is they’re targeting people who feel like it can get overwhelming to think about all the aspects, all of the logistics of planning a road trip, so that is the angle they are taking. They could be taking a different angle here and talk about perfect road trip for traveling with family. For example, right, we are still talking about the perfect road trip, but there are two very different veins in which we take it.

[00:12:32] YD: The first one is about, you know, getting rid of overwhelm when we are planning a road trip, the second one is road trip with family. Does that make sense right? The story is the same, it is planning a perfect road trip, but the angle through which or like the lens through which we choose to tell this story, is the angle. Another example here, leads are not always going to be the angles, but in a lot of cases they are. Let me see if I can find another example here. 

Okay, maybe this one, it says here Finders Keepers, right? The title is Finders Keepers, and the lead is Deep in Southwest Arkansas is a State Park that charges visitors $10 to search for gems that can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. They are talking about the state park, Arkansas State Park that, you know, you pay $10 to get in and you might be in, and you should be in, and you can find some gems there that can be worth a lot of money. An opportunity to find a gems by entering, you know, by paying a cheap entrance fee and entering this park is an angle, right? 

Whoever wrote the story did not have to choose that lens to talk about the story. They could choose a lens of nature preservation, right? Or the first National Park in Arkansas. I do not know, but I am making all this up, but they could choose to talk about all the wildlife that was conserved in that National Park, right? Or something else about that National Park, but they chose the specific angle of “Hey, you could pay $10 to get in and you can sign a gem there” That is quite unique angle, right? That is not something that you hear often, so that is another example.

[00:14:14] YD: Okay, so I am going to stop sharing the screen now and go back to thinking about some more examples as well. For example, let us say that our story is A New Chef Opening a Restaurant in Paris, right? So, that is the story, A New Chef Opening a Restaurant in Paris. What could some potential angles be? When I was preparing for the workshop, I have jotted down a few angles that I just literally came up with. And again, this is all, I am making all this up. I am not working about a story of a new chef opening a restaurant in Paris. Let us say that is the idea, New Chef Opening a Restaurant in Paris. What could the angles be? 

First female chef in the industry in 20 years, right? We are still talking about her opening this restaurant, but the angle now, now we are going to be talking about female representation in the industry. That is a very specific lane that we are taking with our angle on the story. We can be talking about how chefs like her are working to make restaurant industry in France more inclusive and diverse, that is a very specific angle on that same story, right? 

Another one could be the economics of opening a restaurant with zero investment. For example, again, we are still talking about her opening a restaurant, but again, we are taking a very specific approach to how we are telling the story. An interview with the chef about her motivation to open the restaurant, a very different approach, right? It is an interview about her personal story and what led to this opening. Then you can also see very clearly how that translates in a lead as well.

[00:15:50] YD: In the chat here, I am going to share with you again just a few examples that I came up with, right? The title of the story is A New Restaurant Opens in Paris this Month. The lead is Koko Flanel is the first female chef in the industry in 50 years, do you see? Again, the title stays the same, it is the same story, but the angle is very different. Second example A New Restaurant Opens in Paris this Month, the young chef opens about her motivations to open the restaurant, right?  A New Restaurant Opens in Paris this Month, the lead is Chefs like Koko Flanel are working to make the industry more inclusive. 

Does that make sense to you guys? How are we thinking about angles and what angles are? So, angles are not the story, right? The story is the story you want to tell. An angle is a unique specific approach through which you are going to tell that story. There is one story, a new restaurant is opening, there are many ways in which you can tell that story. 

[00:16:51] YD: Now sometimes, sometimes some stories will have all these angles, right? If it is like a big feature or a big spread, I do not know, 5000-word reporting. You are going to look at all of those angles, right? For your overall story. Sometimes, you are just taking one specific approach and unpack just one angle of the story, and that is all totally fine. But that is, the crisper the angle you can formulate in your pitch, the happier the editor will be, and the easier it will be for them to imagine. What did they say you are talking about? What your plan is? How is that idea that you are proposing, how it is going to fit with the publication that you have? Okay. 

[00:17:35] YD: So now, what I want us to do is, I want us to come up with a little practice. So, I prepared a little practice exercise for you guys, and we are going to take literally just two minutes. I am going to give you an idea, that I again came up with. It is very random, it is not real and see if you can come up with two or three angles yourself of how would you decide to tell the story, right? And I will come up with a two to three as well. We will share them, we will discuss, and hopefully this will be good start for you to start seeing better and more clearly what angles are, okay? 

[00:18:14] YD: Alright, so the idea that we are going to be working on is, Swimming with Sharks in the Bahamas. So that is the idea and now let us take two minutes. I am going to start the timer here and I am going to turn on some music and literally just drop down a couple of angles that you think you could tell this story through. 

[00:18:34] YD: Who wants to share their angle? And you do not have to all share if you do not want to, but if you feel like it, please, please share your angle. Go for it Barbie. 

[00:18:42] B: I have two, but I will just pick one. The second one I wrote was, okay, Swimming with Sharks in the Bahamas: Face your fears, overcoming your shark phobia.

[00:18:50] YD: Perfect! Exactly, right? Great, great angle. Any other angles?

[00:18:56] Speaker 2: 10 things not to do while swimming with sharks in the Bahamas. 

[00:18:59] YD: Yes, amazing, amazing. You see how different those two? We are still talking about swimming with sharks and look at how different those angles are. Anyone else? 

[00:19:08] Speaker 3: I have all the gear you need to swim with sharks. 

[00:19:14] YD: You guys are awesome students, you are getting it. Vanessa, did you want to share one?

[00:19:20] V: I have an interview with the tour operator, so why someone would start such? I did not have a cool line, but that was the angle.

[00:19:29] YD: Perfect, exactly, right? I had Swimming with Sharks: An ethical travel experience. This tourist activity provides a way for conservation efforts in the Bahamas to continue, right? Do you see how we all are talking about swimming with sharks, right? That is the idea, that is the story, but the angle is so specific and so unique. Each take that you guys provided is so unique, that is the angle, okay? Does that make sense to you? How we are thinking about angle, what they mean, what they are? 

[00:19:59] YD: I also want to say that with experience you will be able to, what I call is like “getting a nose for angles”. You will develop and nose right like you will almost like innately, like feel or know what a good angle could be. It takes time, right? It takes time, it takes experience. There is sort of two ways for us to get better at finding angles faster. 

And those two ways are: the first one, you already know, the first one is doing it, right?  In every pitch that you develop dedicate specific time to thinking about the angle well. And the second way to do it is now, from now on when your publications when you are on your favorite publication’s website, do that thing that we just did at AFAR.com right? And look at their titles, look at their leads and see if you can tease out the angles in their stories. 

[00:20:59] YD: So, from now on, when you are reading a story, do not just read it for your enjoyment, which of course, that is great too. But read it with that critical eye because that will help you train yourself and start recognizing those angles better as well. That is all I am going to say on angles because we have two more aspects to cover. But before we move to those two, any questions that you guys want to throw at me for angles specifically or comments or feedback? 

[00:21:27] Speaker 3: I guess just, when you are sending a pitch, are you kind of including that angle line as like the title, so it is not just pitch Swimming with Sharks in the Bahamas, it is like pitch, Swimming with Sharks, Bahamas, blah blah blah even if it is longer? Like you are kind of just thinking about as the title?

[00:21:43] YD: No, it is not the title. The title is your story idea. The angle will be the lead, right? So, when you are crafting your pitch and you will see that like I teach that in the class as well and in a lot of our pitch review examples you will see that, that is how the genius who have taken the class. They follow that same template that I provide. But basically, the template is title, lead, like one or two summary, which is the angle and then a one paragraph of you know that expands on this idea. So, your angle will be included in the lead.

[00:22:15] Speaker 3: Okay, that makes sense. I was not sure if it was all I kind of want extended title and theory. 

[00:22:21] YD: I mean, you could do that too. But I think it is super clear if you do it that way, right? Title, which is your story idea. Lead, which is your angle and then the short paragraph of the pitch. Sometimes you can even expand on the angle below, right? Because the way I do it, again title, lead, short paragraph and then sort of one to two sentences. In the story, I would go into blah, blah, blah, I would go into the intricacies of shrimp farming in Iceland. I do not know something like that, right. But you are expanding on the angle in that sort of follow up sentence. But yeah, that is how you would do it. 

[00:22:58] Speaker 3: Okay.

[00:22:59] YD: Cool. Any other thoughts, questions on angles? Awesome, now you guys are all angle experts. I love it. 

[END OF EXCERPT]

[00:23:11] YD: Thanks again for listening to this episode on finding angles today. I hope you found the ideas with this post here relevant and helpful to you. If you are looking for support, opportunities, and community in the travel media space, consider joining us in the circle. The circle is now open for enrollment and we are planning lots more exciting programming for you in the weeks and months to come. Get more details about the membership and when I run sales. @geniuswoman.com/circle. Thanks again for listening and I will see you next week for an episode where I will take you behind the scenes of my recent assignment in Austria.

[END]