Pitches That Worked: Men’s Journal
We map a pitch from a news-based nugget to a 6,000-word epic

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...