An Inside Peek At the World of Magazines

In the short year and a half since I first walked into the glossy world of magazine publishing in the Empire State of the South, I've come to realize a few things. To break the team down by job description, the writers are generally pretty neurotic, dorky, ambitious people with addictions to coffee, lunch breaks and alcohol of some sort. 

They have to put an extra effort into being on time, appearing "put together" and maintaining at least an appearance of organization (often failing at all three).  They often have a knack for talking to themselves, being overly emotional and whiny, and eating various scraps of food off the floor. 

Sales girls are the model quality girls. They all know how to dress well, talk rapidly and make friends in a flash. They are mega social networkers, with flagged planners, good hair and very clean cars. They are prettier than anyone you thought possible in real life without being on television. 

To make a restaurant analogy, writers and graphic designers are the kitchen staff, the sales team is on the floor. Sometimes there are power struggles, sometimes you want to kill each other, but at the end of the day, you need each other in order to survive.

Then, you have your anchors, to an otherwise shaky, emotional ship:  the graphic designers. They're your stage directors, your stunt men, your spotter, your safety net. To writers, these are your soul mates. They're the ones that go behind the scenes and make everyone else look like they're brilliant. They are the super heroes. 

They tend to have fabulous fashion sense, laid-back attitudes and an overwhelming supply of empathy, patience and self-discipline. For every weepy, self-doubting writer there's a strong, confident designer who's got her back.

 At some magazines you'll also have a funny, far-smarter-than-you-will-ever-be web team, and a no-nonsense SEO squad to keep everyone else in check.

Then, of course, at the head of the ship you have the master-mind, the super cool, always confident, always talented editor-in-chief. She's the ultimate multi-tasker who knows how to get things done and make it look easy all while sipping a diet coke and juggling an enviable social life. She not only plans parties, she's the life of the party, and while she's at it, she's writing, commanding, cleaning up bad sentences, avoiding serious personality conflicts between employees, and managing one disaster after another.

 At the end of the day, you've got a group of drama queens, pretty girls, ambitious boys, confident type As, introverts, fiesty go-getters, daydreamers, pre-Madonnas and self-centered wannabes: the recipe for disaster. Yet, what you end up getting are the components for one interesting day after the next, and more than enough characters for story, after story,after story.  Better yet, you get to work with a rag-tag gang of your very best friends.