Ann Babe on Finding Characters and Empathy

the story behind her article for Rest of World

Convincing someone to open up and share personal details about their life so that you can then go share it with strangers can be a challenge. But you wouldn’t know it was challenging for Ann Babe in her recent article about South Korea’s honjok, a culture of individualist loners.

When I read Ann’s reporting for Rest of World, I was struck me how close she brings readers to the lives of people who prefer to be alone. Ann succeeded in making me feel like I was walking alongside the main character of the piece. But it didn’t feel invasive or snoopy. Instead it read as though Ann must be writing about a friend.

This story is a thoughtful examination of a cultural trend that is both unconventional and relatable. And today Ann is giving us a sneak peek into the work that went into this piece.

Ann Babe on Empathy in Journalism

How did you first come upon the idea for "Tune in, Drop Out," your recent story for Rest of World?

South Korea is so often covered as a collectivist, community-minded country. Of course, that’s true in many ways, but there are counter-narratives, and those are the narratives that are usually the most interesting. Last year, I was reporting a short story about social isolation in Seoul. The piece was supposed to be focused on tech-powered sharing initiatives that enable residents to come together, but throughout my research I found myself much more drawn to the counter-narrative — the honjok people who are using tech and the digital economy to actually stay apart.

I'm curious about how much work you put into this idea prior to pitching. That's something I personally struggle with—trying to figure out how much work to do before I'm definitely getting paid. Did you find your sources or interview anyone before reaching out to editors?

As a freelancer, that’s a balance I’ve also long struggled with! Now I’m assessing it in terms of the potential payoff — not just the money, but also my personal interest in telling that particular story or my aspiration to get a byline in that particular publication. The more criteria the idea fulfills, the more time I’ll spend on really fleshing out a character-driven pitch that’s based on deep research and pre-interviews, and that outlines a reporting plan.

In this case, since I’d already done quite a bit of that research and pre-interviewing for the previous story I mentioned, most of the groundwork was already laid. And that felt so great! So this is what I might say makes the biggest impact on cutting down on that unpaid time before pitching — building a foundation of knowledge in one community or topic, so that you’re not constantly starting from square one.

How did you go about finding the characters that you focused on in this piece?

Since this story looks at how solitary people use tech, I began by identifying the platforms they prefer and then reaching out to various accounts/profiles. Most people did not reply to me. Some did, but didn’t want to talk. Some talked, but didn’t want the interview to go on for multiple rounds. So I had to cast a wide (i.e. gargantuan!) net, and then see what caught. The woman who ended up becoming the piece’s central character was incredibly patient and generous with her time, and I am so grateful to her.

Were there any challenges in getting people to talk to you about this topic? How do you get interview subjects to open up?

This was the hardest part! As you can imagine, most loners are loners for a reason, so asking them just to meet with me, let alone open up to me, was a huge ask. I invested a ton of time in finding the right sources, sussing out their receptiveness during the pre-interview stage, and then when we met face-to-face, I was careful to explain my intentions. I told them that I wasn’t there to cast judgment on them, and that they shouldn’t feel pressured to answer anything that made them uncomfortable.

How does the final product compare to what you had in mind when you first started pitching this piece?

Well, I pitched this story back in January. Then the pandemic struck. So the piece shifted considerably, and the final version is something I never could have predicted. What I thought would be a portrait of an overlooked way of life suddenly became less about peeling back the curtain to catch a glimpse of someone else, and more about looking in the mirror to see yourself reflected back to you. And it kind of freaked me out, because I somehow got it in my head that I had to write something big and important and emblematic of the times, which was not going to happen. Once I got over that, I was really happy with how the piece turned out.

For readers who want to write longform, reported stories like this one, what skills or experience of yours do you think have been most valuable in landing this kind of assignment?

I’d say curiosity and empathy. Ha, does that sound too Pollyannaish? When reporters show genuine curiosity in something and empathy for the people doing it, I truly believe that comes across to others — to the sources who entrust you with their stories, and to the editors who commission them. In this industry, we think a lot about connections — and I can’t pretend that doesn’t matter (sadly, it does) — but showing that you are deeply invested can also go a long way in getting others to trust you with an assignment.

Besides this piece, what's an article of yours that you're particularly proud of and why?

I wrote a long form piece called “On the Other Side,” published in The California Sunday Magazine, about North Korean women who escape to the South but struggle to fit into its materialistic, superficial, and competitive society. The women I met while reporting that piece truly amaze me, and I was honored to share their experiences from a unique angle.

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That’s all for today friends. If you’re a paid subscriber, I’ll be back in your inbox with weekly writing opportunities and pitch calls on Tuesday!

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