As of February 2012, I've decided to stop updating this formally as a portfolio. Thanks for stopping by and reading what I've posted; I decided it was best for me to move on from this and focus on more creative work, instead of documenting simple in-the-job writing.

Friday, 1 January 2010

Sound Screen: Album of the Year 2009

Start as you mean to go on, right? I'm kicking off this year with the most ambitious thing I've done with my desired career thus far - with help from some great writers, of course. In December, I proposed an Album of the Year piece to fellow writers with Sound Screen as a kick-start to my new role as music editor with the website.

My theory was to bring everyone together in a common cause while also giving them the creative freedom to do what they wanted. As a result, I got 14 people signed up in a matter of weeks and after sending them a template to follow, I managed the separate offerings to ensure there were no crossovers or double reviews. In the end, everyone did a great job and I set about subbing the 7-8,000 words I was given, as well as writing one myself. It included the standardisation of grammar, terminology (album titles, song names, etc) as well as ensuring the template I set out was consistently formatted after having minor changes in each copy.

I split them into five different articles in order to make it easier to digest from the reader's perspective while also giving the groups of three reviews more individual emphasis and attention from anyone looking at them.

On top of this, I created a central landing page which is currently frozen on the front page in order for people to read specific reviews and get the idea of what we're going for.

I wrote the blurbs, posted the photos, messed with the HTML to get it working and also got more to grips with Wordpress. I'm genuinely proud of what I've achieved, though it obviously wouldn't have been anything without the fantastic efforts off my 14 cohorts.

Here's to another few of these contribution pieces, but it's part of the reason I was so low on articles in December (alongside the obvious commitments to Christmas and family, etc).

Here's the link to the Album of the Year landing page.

If you want a mixed bag or lucky dip of entries, here's part I, part II, part III, part IV and part V.

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