BeatRoute Writers Guide

Welcome to the latest incarnation of the BeatRoute Writers Guide. Here, youll find all kinds of
handy tips and guidelines to help you to improve and strengthen your writing and BeatRoute.
Writing and Formatting Tips
Try to keep yourself (e.g. I, me) out of stories and reviews, especially reviews.
! When used well, the first person storytelling style can be very effective, especially
in longer features.
! Reviews written like, I popped this CD into my player and listened to it, hold
no interest for the reader. No one cares it is assume that you somehow listened
to the CD.
! Similarly, don't say, "I think" or "In my opinion," because everyone
already knows that these are your thoughts and opinions: your name is on
the byline.
! Little asides like, the fifth track reminded me of the Stooges, are OK, but try to
avoid them when possible. BE MORE SPECIFIC.
Numbers from one to nine are written alphabetically. Numbers larger than that are written
numerically.
Album and book titles are written in italics.
Song titles go inside quotation marks.
CD and DVD are spelled CD and DVD.
When referring to people, make sure to use their last name unless it causes confusion.
Make sure you understand the meanings of the words youre using. If you dont know
what a word means, use one of the many free dictionaries and thesauri on the web.
Dont assume your reader knows what the band youre talking about sounds like. Take a
little time to describe the music.
Always spell-check and read over your work. Clean copy is the best kind of copy.
BeatRoute is spelled BeatRoute.
Dont capitalize the at the start of a band name, like the Ramones or the Black Keys.
Punctuation marks belong inside quotation marks, like says Prince with great zeal.
Theres no comma before and in a list.
When adding an "s" at the end of the word to make it plural, you do not use an
apostrophe. Eg. CDs, DVDs, the 1960s. NOT CD's, DVD's, the 1960's, unless you want
to say it belongs to the noun.
If you want to abbreviate a decade, use the apostrophe at the front. Eg. the '70s, not the
70's or 1970's (unless you want to say that something belongs to that specific year).
Grammar Reminders
This may be redundant for some of you, but there are still a few common word choice errors that
continue to elude some people..
Your and youre
Your is possessive and refers to something belonging to you or someone else.
Youre is a contraction of you and are.
There, their and theyre
There refers to a place.
Their is possessive and refers to something belonging to a group.
Theyre is a contraction of they and are and refers to a group doing something.
Then and than
Then refers to time or consequence.
Than is used in a comparison.
How to Build a Story
This is a general framework for writing a story, whether it's a short, 350-word sidebar or the
cover story. You do not have to adhere to this framework, but it is a helpful start if you are stuck.
Introduction
This is where you hook your reader into the story. Try opening with a pithy anecdote, an
interesting story or a little known fact.
! You want to, in three or four quick sentences, set up the tone for your story and
engage your reader. This works best with a specific anecdote or fact that
somehow connects to the larger point you are trying to argue.
Do not use the passive voice and, whenever possible, avoid starting with a weak clause
it delays your point.
! Use "Let me know now if you are unsure of this," rather than "If you are not sure
about this, let me know now."
Body Paragraphs
This is where you start to build your argument.
Remember that not everyone may know what the band you're interviewing sounds like.
Take the second and third paragraphs to provide context.
! Even a couple of sentences situating the band in a historical, social or cultural
context i.e. if you're going to talk about genre, talk about where they get their
influences and how they make the genre their own goes a long way to
providing a frame of reference for your reader.
! Lack of context makes the piece seem like a bigger handjob than it really is. DO
NOT JUST PREACH TO THE CONVERTED. Sometimes it's easy to lose
sight of the fact that, for the most part, no one knows the bands we all love.
! There are certain things you can assume (like that most people know who the
Beatles are), but if you are in doubt, define the term (like if you're talking about a
post-hardcore gunk punk band not everyone will know what you mean by
that).
! Think about it like you're writing an essay: don't have the reader try to guess what
you mean. Define and situate everything!
Be creative when describing the band. This may be the hardest part, describing sound
with words, but try to use similes and metaphors to your benefit.
! Draw connections across categories to expand what the reader imagines.
! Use adjectives and adverbs in creative ways, but don't overwrite the piece. Too
flowery is as bad as stark, bare and clinical writing.
As the piece continues, you're going to want to talk about specific examples, the ones
you, ideally, brought up during the interview. Intersperse quotations throughout the piece
to "prove" your points or otherwise augment your argument, but make sure that the entire
piece doesn't become one enormous quote.
! A popular way to construct articles is to go back and forth between your words
and theirs, as if it were a conversation. While this can be effective, you also have
to make sure that there is continuous and logical flow to your writing.
! DO NOT just start every paragraph with, "and when asked about this, she
said this" That is an enormous cop out and is not interesting at all.
MAKE SURE YOU ARE TELLING A STORY
! Always ask yourself, "So what?" Why are you writing a story about this particular
artist, beyond the fact that you like them? Why should anyone waste their time
reading your article? This goes back to your hook.
! Figure out an angle that you like and stick to it. Just relaying back your interview,
as if it were a Q&A, doesn't work. There's a time and place for Q&As, but we
greatly prefer your point of view on the band.
! There's a reason we have actual humans interview artists and why we
largely let you talk to your favourite bands: you are the expert. Write as if
you know the band intimately and are telling their greatest stories/
successes.
! Extract a reason for interviewing the artist. Most of the time, we talk to artists
multiple times over the course of a year or two. Why are we featuring this time?
New album? Excellent tell us what they are trying to communicate with this
effort. Coming out on tour again? Excellent how is this time different?
! Do not just write an "update" piece. We can get updates in ten seconds on
Twitter. People read your story because you have a story to tell about
the band, because you actually talked to them.erConclusion
Take the last paragraph or so to wrap up the story.
Do not just end the piece, as if your keyboard suddenly ran out of ink.
A popular technique is to give the artist the last word and end with a quote. This is
perfectly acceptable, as long as the quote makes sense as an ending/parting thought.
Things to keep in mind:
Think of the larger arc of the story before you begin ideally, before you even conduct
the interview. Besides just feeling awesome because you talked to your favourite artist,
think about what you want to say to them and about them!
Always keep in mind that you are telling a story about the band. Quotations are often
most effective when they're used as supporting evidence for your story.
You do not have to follow the question order you used to interview the band. Feel free to
mix up the "actual" order if something really interesting came at the end of the interview
bring it to the front and use it as a hook.
! Maintain journalistic integrity, though: don't put words in other people's mouths
and don't take something out of context. It still has to be fair.
FACT CHECK. Everything. Twice. No, make that three times. There should be no
factual errors in your writing ever.
! Even if you are writing about your favourite band, a band you've known for 15
years, a band that you've seen live seven times, a band to which you know all the
lyrics, fact check. It's easy to goof a year or misspell a name or album title by
accident, especially if you're writing under deadline. Take a moment to double
check everything online.
Learn the history of your band.
! This should be a no-brainer, but take a couple of moments to really make sure you
know what you're talking about. If you're talking to a no-wave band that draws
influences from New York in the '70s, know what you're talking about. Don't just
echo terms you've read in the past.
! Use sources like Wikipedia and AllMusic they are reputable, concise and
complete, for the most part.
! Check out previous interviews the band has given. Learn what they've already
been asked a thousand times so you don't have to spend time talking about the
same old situation.
Go deep. If I can find the same information in your article online in less than 3 seconds,
I'm not interested.
! People read long-form journalism because of the story and because of the ability
to learn something beyond a bullet point on Facebook or a capsule review. Take
the time to formulate interesting, thoughtful questions for your interview.
Try to connect your argument to larger debates in the field. If you're talking to a thrash
band, ask them about re-thrash, about their thrash heroes, about what thrash means to
them.
! To butcher Eleanor Roosevelt, great articles discuss ides, average articles discuss
events, bad articles discuss people.
! Always answer the question, "SO WHAT?"
Make sure your article flows nicely. Generally, journalism starts with very general claims
and funnels down to a specific point. You can play with this, though with a specific
hook, you start in tight, move out to generalities and then come back with specific
examples.
File Formatting
Main copy (Music, City, and Film sections)
All files should be submitted with a headline (usually band name), subhead (title), your
name and 411 information. Headlines must be all caps, and subheads changed to all lower case
except proper names and places. 411 information includes the dates and venues the band you are
writing about is playing.
Stories should start like this:
DJ COOL TIMES
its not easy keeping it cool
by John Doe
or
THE SUMMER BROTHERS
turning up the heat in a bitter-cold Calgary
by Jane Doe
Stories should end like this:
411: You can see Guns N Roses at the Saddledome (Calgary) on June 28 and at Rexall Place
(Edmonton) on June 29.
Review copy
(CD, live, and book reviews)
Live
Live reviews should look like this:
Lineup
Venue
Date
Your review
Name
CD
CD reviews should look like this:
Artist Name
Album Name
Record Label
Your review
Name
Files should be named Artist Album Title.
Book
Book reviews should look like this:
Book Title
Book Author
Publisher, if included
Your review
Name
All files must be submitted in either .doc, .docx or .rtf formats. If your word processor uses
a different file format by default, make sure to export it into a more common format.