When a small local news item captivated writer Justin Heckert, he knew there was a bigger story to be told. “I read a small, buried article on CNN.com about this extraordinary event in which a dad and his autistic son were swept out to sea,” says Heckert. “They survived, treading water, after they’d been separated during the night. It seemed perfect for an ambitious narrative story.” Heckert pitched the idea to a few outlets, including Esquire and The New Yorker, but it never got off the ground. A few months later, he got a serendipitous email from Terrance Noland, executive editor at Men’s Journal, whom he had met earlier at an industry event, asking if Heckert had any story ideas. “I never geared the pitch any differently for any publication I sent it to,” says Heckert. “I was certain, initially, that it was just a story about a father and son.” Here, Heckert and Noland explain how his story idea surfaced as a 6,000 word feature, Lost in the Waves, in the November 2009 issue of Men’s Journal.
What the Writer Did
Justin Heckert:
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I initially pitched the story to an editor at Esquire a few months before I got that initial email from Terry. I’d written a few things for the editor before, but never a feature. The editor loved the Walt-and-Christopher idea when I sent it to him in the winter of 2008. I had also called Walt and told him I was a writer interested in talking about what happened to him — something I thought would help the pitch, and help me to sell the idea to an editor, if they already knew Walt was on board. The Esquire editor was going to try and get it green-lit, and he said he’d get back to me. I badgered him for a little while, never hearing much back, and so I had to move on. About five months had gone by since I first pitched it, and that’s when I heard from Terry, which was the journalistic equivalent of a godsend. Terry and I were judging the same category in the City and Regional Magazine Association awards last year [2009], and he sent me an email and asked if I had any story ideas. So it wasn’t a normal circumstance of me reaching out to Terry and trying to get him to pay attention to it. He was already paying attention.
At first I sent him a few sentences about the idea. When he said he was really interested in this particular idea (which turned out to be “Lost in the Waves”), I sent him the pitch. The pitch wasn’t that long, and it wasn’t that masterful, and it wasn’t something I’d worked to polish like I was writing a shorter version of the story. I hate writing long pitches — I just wanted to get the idea out there in a few paragraphs.
The Pitch
| From: Justin Heckert To: Terrance NolandThe father and son drifted out into the ocean.(1) They were treading water, slipping below the surface and fighting for air. Walter and Chris Marino were pulled out to sea at 7:30 p.m. on a Saturday night in early September by the outgoing tide at Ponce de Leon Inlet, in Florida, where they had been swimming together. As the sun dropped below the surface, and as the light dimmed from the water, Walter, 47, the father, finally let go of his son so they wouldn’t drag each other under. (2)As the night went on, they drifted farther apart, miles from shore. Walter tried to keep Chris, 12, calm, yelling out phrases from Disney movies like Toy Story. “To infinity!” he would shout, and Chris, who is autistic and doesn’t say much, would yell back, “And beyond!” (3) After several more hours, Walter heard only silence. Then he was alone in the complete black of the sky and water, treading for his life.When Walter no longer got a reply from his son, he yelled some more, and then was convinced Chris was gone. And so that whole night, in the dark, he thought about his daughter. He could not let his daughter lose her brother and her father on the same day. He forced his legs to move. When the coast guard found him the next morning, after he’d treaded water alone for 15 hours, Walter was asked if he’d wanted to go to a hospital or stay on the boat and continue the search for his son. “They asked me if I wanted to be above or below,” he told a Florida newspaper, “And I chose to be below because I knew Christopher, in my mind — that Christopher was gone and I didn’t want to see, you know, my son floating facedown.”(4) “So the Coast Guard stops the boat and says, ‘Mr. Marino, we need you to come up,’ which I thought was code for ‘We need you to come up and identify the body.’ And that was my green mile. Those three steps — I mean, I just needed help to get up to the top to see. And when I got up there, they pointed to the helicopter and said, ‘See that helicopter over there? That has your son, and he’s fine.'” Which is the other part of this story. Chris survived, too, miles away from his father, treading as he’d been taught in the pool by Walter. Three men in a fishing boat found him 9 miles from the coast, head bobbing, legs kicking. (Both father and son had only severe hypothermia, and were stung several times by jellyfish.) Walter had taught his son how to swim at the local YMCA, while he was growing up, had taught him how to float, too, and Chris had remembered everything he was taught. Chris, his dad says, has always loved to float and tread. And those things saved his life. (5) I think this is a story of a richly compelling narrative of the ordeal that both of them experienced in the ocean, a story of epic survival (6); I also think it’s really a story about a father and son. (7) |
Why the Editor Bit
Terrance Noland, executive editor, Men’s Journal
I was familiar with Justin’s work from judging the City and Regional Magazine Association Awards. He’d won “writer of the year” when I was judging that category, so I knew he was talented and I knew what he was capable of producing. Then we connected by email when he was a co-judge in a later year of that same contest. Out of that interaction I actually invited him to pitch me ideas, asked him if he had anything special percolating, and he sent me this pitch. No doubt my familiarity with his work had a big influence on how receptive I was. It didn’t matter to me whether those were stories from a national magazine; when I look at clips I’m just looking to see if someone can flat-out write — if there is a real voice there, if he or she can tell a story, and if there’s some spark there or some risk-taking in the writing that elevates their pieces beyond the standard fare.
We didn’t know how just how layered the piece would become, but there was at least the whiff of possibility, and sometimes that’s enough to take a leap. It ran as a major feature in the magazine. I think I assigned it at 3,500 words, and it wound up running more like 6,000, which says a lot about Justin. It turned out to be an amazing story, one that evolved as Justin reported it. The core survival tale remained, but all the complex family issues — the difficulty of raising an autistic son and the split between parents on how best to do that, and the pivotal moment/decision at sea when the father has to push the son away — all that was like a gift from the gods. But I credit Justin for seeing those things for what they were and for fully utilizing them in the piece. My experience with him on this piece definitely made me want to use him again, and in fact right now he’s looking into another possible feature for us.
Key Components of the Pitch
(1) Use a lead that grabs the editor’s attention. Back to pitch
(2) The writer concisely introduces the characters, date, time, location, and conflict. Back to pitch
(3) Including dialogue brings the reader into the moment. Back to pitch
(4) By quoting a newspaper, the writer demonstrates he has researched the subject. Back to pitch
(5) The writer is able to convey the survival tale succinctly. “Too many writers will send a long sprawl of an idea, and it’s clear they don’t have a good bead on the story,” says Noland. “They are just throwing a bunch of information at me, hoping something will stick. That gives me no confidence in the writer. I like to feel that the writer has a good sense of the story and what it could be.” Back to pitch
(6) Noland says, “I also like to see some conviction, some passion from them. But you can’t fake that passion. If you don’t really believe in a story, don’t push it as if you do. That will burn you down the line.” Back to pitch
(7) In your pitch, be sure to indicate why this particular story will resonate with the publication’s audience. “While there was an obvious compelling survival tale at the core, it hinted there was something more going on — that there was a father and son element that would resonate with readers and elevate the piece beyond merely an adventure tale,” Noland says. “As an editor, I’m always looking for those extra layers that will give a piece some complexity and depth.” Back to pitch
