Interview with Chelsea Ritschel, Lifestyle Writer
Chelsea Ritschel is a lifestyle writer for The Independent. Some responses have been edited for clarity.
How did you get into journalism?
When I was in high school I loved reading and writing so I decided to major in English in college. From there, I decided to pursue my Masters of Science in Publishing because I thought I would go into book publishing.
I was never positive I wanted to write for my career, I always assumed I would edit but after I graduated grad school I found that I was looking more at jobs focused on writing.
While I was searching for jobs, I found the offer for my current job as a Lifestyle writer for The Independent, a British newspaper.
The job description aligned exactly with my interests — food, beauty, fashion, and travel — and I ended up getting the job.
How do you go about writing and researching for articles?
Because I write about a broad range of lifestyle topics, I look for ideas in a few places. Occasionally, if I think the topic of a book sounds interesting, I will reach out to the author to set up an interview, and write an article about that. Otherwise, I often cover stories in the news, whether they be about new beauty products, parenting, travel, etc.
As for research, I typically go to an expert for a comment or opinion when I am writing a story about anything health-related. These include dermatologists, plastic surgeons, etc.
If I’m doing a story I’ve come up with, I usually draw sources from a variety of places to back up what I’ve said.
What about procrastinating/ losing focus?
With writing, it is common and easy to lose focus or procrastinate, especially if the topic isn’t intriguing. I’ve typically found that the more invested I am in a topic, the easier it is to write about. But when it is a topic I don’t care for, or if the subject is just boring, it can be difficult to stay focused long enough to finish.
When that is the case, I usually leave my desk for a bit and stroll around the office to clear my head. Even just getting up and walking to get a glass of water can be helpful when you feel like you don’t want to write.
Or, if the article isn’t on a deadline, leaving it and working on something else can also be useful.
When writing is your career, it is inevitable that you will have days where you find it hard to get the words out but it always comes back eventually.
What is your favorite article that you have written? Or is there a certain type of articles that you enjoy writing more? Why?
I have a few favorite articles — I’m not sure I could pick just one. Because we are a British newspaper, we often cover the royal family so anything royal-wedding related has been fun to cover over the last four months.
I also love writing about makeup and cosmetic-related. Those are typically my favorite articles, as I used to work as a makeup artist so I have a past in cosmetics.
Do you have a favorite book?
I think this is such a hard question because my favorite book changes frequently but one of my most favorite books was South of Broad by Pat Conroy.
Conroy was the first “adult fiction” author I ever read and he stuck with me and also instilled in me a love for South Carolina.
Anything by Liane Moriarty is also great, as are novels by Beatriz Williams.
