For more than a decade, Narratively.com has been devoted to one big idea: finding remarkable human stories and telling them in ways that surprise, delight and captivate readers.
We’re gonna keep on doing that, but we’re also ready to shake things up!
This fall, we’re looking to test a handful of new columns, series and storytelling formats, and we want 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.
Intrigued? Keep reading for details…
If you’re new to Narratively — or haven’t visited us in a while — please spend some time reading the site before pitching. Our current storytelling falls into a few main formats:
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Deep Dives: Immersive, deeply reported narrative nonfiction that transports readers into an unknown world or extraordinary true story.
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The Personals: Sharply focused first-person stories built around a single surprising, unforgettable experience or event.
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Flash Essays: Very short true stories that manage to surprise, move or delight us in just a few hundred words.
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Secret Lives: Revealing profiles that take readers inside jobs, communities and subcultures most people rarely get to see from the inside.
We love these formats, and they’re not going anywhere. But for this call, we’re specifically looking for ideas that expand what a Narratively story can look, sound or feel like.
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:
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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.
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Untold. An overlooked subculture. A hidden history. An unusual obsession. A person or experience we’ve somehow never encountered before.
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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.
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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.
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.
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!”
Deadline: Wednesday, September 30.
How to Pitch:Head over to our Submittable page for all the details and to submit your idea.
P.S.: If you’re a writer or storyteller and you’re new to the Narratively community, be sure to check out Narratively Academy, our destination for writing classes and community.
