Course Details

Profile writing is one of the strongest forms of narrative journalism around today, and celebrity profiling its most ubiquitous component. In this town, these assignments are not hard to come by once you know what you're doing. Celebrity profiling has a tricky algorithm but, once you've learned it, things become quite simple.

The teacher will distribute three celebrity profiles of varying quality before the workshop for students to read. These articles will be critiqued in class, but in general this will be a writing workshop, with in-class exercises in interviewing, lede-accomplishing, and ways to make weak quotes sparkle. Because it is nearly impossible to pitch an editor on a celebrity profile, this class will not cover how to secure such assignments. This is about the tools to succeed once opportunity comes knocking.

In this class, you can expect to learn:

• What to ask in and how to conduct a celebrity interview
• How to format a piece assigned at a certain word length
• Amateur pitfalls to avoid
• How to let your own voice direct the story
• How to research your subject's background
• How to use observation in your text
• How to structure the narrative of your profile
• How to rewrite your profile

Instructor Bio

Vanessa Grigoriadis's Courses

Vanessa Grigoriadis writes magazine cover stories about celebrities and feature articles about social trends, crime, and American pop subcultures. She started out as an editorial assistant at New York magazine in 1996 and is now a contributing editor. She is also a contributing editor at Rolling Stone.

Testimonials

I thought the seminar was great! it was great to be able to get honest insight from someone in the business but also to share tips and hear experiences from the other writers in the class. Vanessa's method of teaching was enjoyable, technical, and useful. I would definitely take another class, especially from her. -- Amy Elisa Keith, Associate Staff Correspondent, PEOPLE Magazine Los Angeles Bureau