Estelle Erasmus

If you’ve read Abigail Thomas, you might think you know everything there is to know about the esteemed writing teacher and legendary author of profound memoirs and insightful fiction.
You might think the same of ASJA member Estelle Erasmus if you’ve read her book “Writing That Gets Noticed,” listened to her Freelance Writing Direct podcast, or subscribe to her Substack of the same name.
You’d be wrong on both counts. Thomas and Erasmus know the power of putting enough – but not too much – of ...

I have been called the “title queen” by my students and bosses. As a magazine-editor-in-chief in the 90s and up till the mid-aughts, I specialized in writing the coverlines, article, column and essay titles for the print publications I worked and wrote for, including Hachette Filipacchi’s Body by Jake, The American Breast Cancer Guide, W.I.T. (Women in Touch), and Esthetique. I also wrote for publications including New Woman and Family Circle, and later the online publications weightwatchers....

The first time I cut a line, I wasn’t really thinking about it. I was in Las Vegas on vacation and had come across a book signing for Suzanne Somers’ Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones. I had a little bit of a connection to Somers. A few years before, in the early aughts, I was editor in chief of the American Breast Cancer Guide, and Somers gave us an exclusive cover story about how she’d treated her breast cancer with a mistletoe extract that was not FDA-approved, instead o...

Illustration: J Studios/Getty Images
Whether you're a student, a journalist, or a business professional, knowing how to do high-quality research and writing using trustworthy data and sources, without giving in to the temptation of AI or ChatGPT, is a skill worth developing.
As I detail in my book Writing That Gets Noticed, locating credible databases and sources and accurately vetting information can be the difference between turning a story around quickly or getting stuck with outdated info...

I live with hearing loss. Nobody but my family and closest friends know that beneath my cascading shoulder-length hair, I have worn miniscule, virtually invisible hearing aids with super-tiny microprocessors in each ear since my 30s because of a potent combination of genetics and all the rock concerts I went to as a teen.
Unfortunately, I was diagnosed with mild-to-moderate hearing loss two decades ago. I’m not alone, although I often feel as if I am. According to the World Health Organizatio...

Want to know what you were like before you were, well, you? Try a past life regression therapy session.
Words Estelle Erasmus
10/27/23
An attractive woman in dangly earrings and a Bohemian black midi dress handed me a soft lavender blanket to snuggle under.
“I want you to feel comfortable,” she said. I think she was trying to make the whole experience more “therapeutic” and less spooky. But then, I am a fan of the supernatural. Who needs to dwell in the scientifically provable all the time? S...

Minda Zetlin cites Estelle Erasmus in her article on emails, based on her interview with Estelle Erasmus

Estelle Erasmus, former editor of five women’s magazines and author of Writing That Gets Noticed: Find Your Voice, Become a Better Storyteller, Get Published is winner of the 2023 Teaching Excellence Award as a writing professor at New York University. Read her interview here with trained health and personal essay writer, Viney Kirpal.
Viney: Congratulations on the publication of Writing That Gets Noticed! Writing to get noticed can be a daunting task. How can one write to get noticed?
Estell...

Have you had the experience of reading a writer at the top of their game like Cheryl Strayed and Ann Hood, both writers I’ve had on my podcast, Freelance Writing Direct, and immediately knowing it is their work?
If you answered yes, you would be sharing a universal response to voice. I say words are like music in my new book Writing That Gets Noticed: Find Your Voice, Become a Better Storyteller, Get Published. People can recognize they are hearing Barbra Streisand or Rhianna — often from the...

My writing students from NYU and Writer’s Digest often ask for advice on how they can improve their work. I often answer with the word “elevate.” It’s one of my favorites because it implies gracefulness and forward momentum, much like a good piece of writing.
It’s one of the reasons I wrote Writing That Gets Noticed: Find Your Voice, Become a Better Storyteller, Get Published, which distills my thirty years in publishing on both sides of the publishing wall, and why I created the Freelance Wr...

Estelle Erasmus is an award-winning journalist, writing coach, and NYU SPS adjunct writing instructor. Her first job in publishing was at Woman’s World, which she describes as “a bootcamp in service journalism.” She has served in various editorial roles at American Woman, Woman’s Own, and Hachette’s Body by Jake. She also launched the publications Esthetique, Women in Touch, and The American Breast Cancer Guide. In 2019, she wrote a piece for The New York Times, How to Bullyproof Your Child t...

Health and beauty is an expanding genre of writing that editors are hungry for. How do you craft a compelling service journalism piece, personal essay, or reported feature on this topic? In Estelle Erasmus’ course Writing About Health and Beauty, you can learn the ins and outs of finding your story, reporting, and pitching on this subject. Erasmus is an award-winning journalist and writing coach who has published extensively in this genre. Read on below for our Q&A with Erasmus to learn more ...

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Estelle Erasmus’s debut writing craft book, Writing that Gets Noticed: Find Your Voice, Become a Better Storyteller, Get Published, (New World Library, July 2023), is a delicate combination of memoir and top-notch professional advice.
Before becoming a mother, Erasmus had a successful career as the editor-in-chief of five national women’s magazines, such as Woman’s Own, W.I.T. Women in Touch, Hachette’s Body by Jake, and The American Breast Cancer Guide. Then, she got married, had di...