The Lessons I Learned from Journalism

Last year, a couple readers asked me how my career in journalism informed and/or helped my career in fiction. It’s an excellent question, and something I’ve been excited to write about since. 

But first, some necessary background info. 

Before I ever wrote a page of fiction, I wanted to be a journalist.

This, initially, had nothing to do with lofty goals like informing the public or holding truth to power. I fell in love with journalism because it was in the pages of the Daily News, New York Post, and the work specifically of David Gonzalez in The New York Times, that I first encountered writers who came from similar backgrounds as my own and made a living using their words to tell stories.