Rolling Music Writers' Thread

when i wrote my EMP paper on house music in march i closed my store for a day and basically didn't leave the store for two days. slept on the couch. ate candy bars. smoked a lot of cigarettes in the basement. read it to a crowd at NYU two days later. it was fun! i don't write a lot. made me wish i had more excuses to do something like that.

I've done my share of late-night/last-minute writing. Worst was for a book of film writing I did. It was just too big a project for me to try to handle in my customary wait-to-get-motivated way. Especially since I was working 8 hours a day 5-6 days a week and taking care of my then 3-year-old son about 3-4 hours every morning. That left late nights as the only available writing time. Last few weeks of it were brutal. I literally fell asleep in the middle of sentences. And of course the quality of the writing suffered.

Now that I'm out of journalism for the first time in my life, I'm trying to figure out how to schedule some writing time away from the office. It's tricky, especially since the things I want to write are mostly just projects of my own, not deadline-driven. We'll see how it goes...

i've probably only stayed up late, like past midnight or 1am, working on something a couple times in the last few years. part of that's that when you have a kid and you have to be up with your wits about you every morning no matter what, i'm not gonna sacrifice sleep for ANYTHING, part of that's just that i've gotten pretty good at budgeting my time and thinking ahead, so usually i only get caught under the gun with tight deadlines if something comes up last night, or my schedule gets unexpectedly crazy. i don't think i function very well when i'm tired anyway, my copy comes out pretty sloppy.

i'm not gonna sacrifice sleep for ANYTHING, part of that's just that i've gotten pretty good at budgeting my time and thinking ahead,

^^^ this is key

whatever my flaws or strengths as a writer may be, i'm pretty proud of the fact that i've never totally blown a deadline (not counting canceled interviews and things beyond my control), never called out of a day job to meet a deadline, and have become kind of a badass at transcribing and writing up interview features within 24 hours of the actual interview. those are things that all come with time, though, as dog latin probably knows everything becomes easier and more attainable with consistent practice.

These days I tend to write up Then Play Long entries late Saturday night/early Sunday morning. The rhythm seems to work for me and I can write undisturbed. There has been a preponderance of fairly lengthy entries of late, which sometimes means staying up past 2am to post the piece, do all the links, etc., but that's mostly been down to gargantuan 20-track/40-track best ofs and/or Classic Rock Classics (TM).

The daft thing is that this is all for the sake of a blog, rather than paid writing/journalism, but I like to approach blogging in the same manner - you set yourself a deadline and you try your best to meet it. Of course the most important thing is that I still enjoy doing it - if it became a chore rather than a pleasure I'd stop it straight away, or at least take a long break. But I do feel that the blog is where the real "me" gets to say something. Plus I get to have a lovely lie-in when I finally get to bed, ahem...and on Sunday morning there's the nice feeling that I've actually accomplished something when I look at how many people have already read it (surprisingly quite a lot, even for the less well-known records).

dude, marcello, your blog is insane and awesome, and i have no doubt that some version of it will be a book. an epic task.

I feel this link should go here:

http://myphonecallssuck.tumblr.com/

In brief -- a music publicist I know vents his frustrations with the types of calls he receives.

http://myphonecallssuck.tumblr.com/post/20791495251/at-the-car-wash-attendant-your-car-muscle-car

A+

it amazes me that some PRs are still trying to send post to the former address of a company i stopped working for in 2008

Whiney and another editor got me away from "I", came to prefer it, esp. conveying my take via sneaky description.Which imposes its own test: later for the passing zings, make your case (but don't cram it too full, as I've been known to do). I don't see too much "I" these days; "we" and "you" are much more problematic: "When we hear, it we're amazed", "you're amazed." I am?

I avoid the first person on dates too.

"so, what do you think about getting some thai food?"

"ONE MIGHT ENJOY THAT. ONE MIGHT ALSO ENJOY SOME SUSHI."

i am pro-one

I can understand why "I" might have been a bad idea in print media, but in this day and age, who am I/you/we/one kidding? I don't mind "I" if necessary.

I'd much, much rather see (and OMG use) "I" than "one." But that "we" and esp. "you", yeesh.

I use "I" a bit but sparingly, I think most commonly when I want to imply "YMMV" to the entire audience.

You Made Me Vrealize. What?

one hates to continuously look up "ymmv" for one's edification.

We think "ymmv" is a fine acronym, and we know you will too.

i always forget "ymmv" too. it's just not a phrase one ever says in real life, is the thing

yeah "mileage may vary" is a pretty obscure phrase compared to "kissing my teeth"

lol

isk how many times i have to explain that kmt is a thing in the uk

*isdk

oh my god

*idk

thread fubar

"Chups" will always be better than "kissing my teeth".

KMT isn't really a thing in the UK though is it?

https://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/kmt

proves nothing

it proves that a lot of people in the UK are right now using the commonly understood abbreviation kmt

btw lex I noticed your new name and love it

apparently there were protesters in france recently wearing that slogan on their T-shirts. i want one

Used to think I wrote best at night, with a bottle of wine, when I was young and stupid and angry. Then I thought I wrote best early on weekend mornings, when it was quiet. Now I'd rather go for a bike ride on early weekend mornings. I write, in one form or another, all day at work. if I'm blogging or reviewing for someone, which is very rare these days, I do it in the evening, after tea, generally, and try and do it quickly. Revisions? Unlikely.

I dream of writing quickly. On ILX I'm extremely slapdash, and basically type faster than I speak, but outside of that I can spend quarter-hours deliberating over the placement of a comma or agonising over a sentence structure. It's shit because once I've re-read and re-structured a paragraph for the umpteenth time it stops making sense to me, and later when it's published it just sounds wooden.

From this thread: Writing Reviews: How do YOU do it?

Writing Reviews: How do YOU do it?

Disclaimer: I've been writing reviews for a few years now and have got some cool work from it as a result, but I don't think I'm very good at it and I certainly don't think I've improved hugely since I began, so this thread is kinda selfish on my part. Sorry.

― Blue Collar Retail Assistant (Dwight Yorke), Friday, 27 April 2012 09:27 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Where do you write?

What do you about tight turn-arounds?

Do you try and listen to only the album under review as much as possible or do you let your listening habits remain relatively unchanged?

How many drafts should you do?

How much biographical information is necessary?

Basically just tell us your methods and practices, there's so many great writers on here and it'd be awesome to get a peek into the creative process.

So, basically I find the easiest way to go about writing a review is to imagine you're describing the album to a mate. Often if I'm working on something and a friend asks me about what I'm reviewing, I find I can summarise my feelings fairly well to them. That's your opening paragraph, and then it's on from there. I'm not a big fan of going through the whole album track by track, listing highlights and lowlights, I'd rather write about as though I were writing about a person - so rather than talking about the shape of that person's right hand, I'd describe their personality, the way they comport themselves etc...

"imagine you're describing the album to a mate."

That's the best advice about most forms of journalism. I always say that to young writers when discussing use of language: you're telling the reader what is happening. Works well for news. You wouldn't say: "The rain came down in black sheets as the maroon Volvo slid across the greasy surface to a cataclysmic halt in the front door of 67 Office Street." You'd say: "A car crashed into the front door of our office. It skidded on the road because of heavy rain."

Yes, but a record isn't a news item (well it might be sometimes but generally it isn't) and I've never much liked the restaurant waiter approach to record reviewing ("I'm afraid the new Jack White is slightly off, sir, but the new Rufus Wainwright is a dish to savour").*

*Note: I have not yet sat down and listened properly to Blunderbuss which for all I know may well be a visionary work of genius, but you get the idea.

I'd want a second source on the heavy rain explanation

You might be able to claim on insurance so it's well worth verifying.

"Black sheets of rain" are a specific exclusion.

"imagine you're describing the album to a mate."

That's the best advice about most forms of journalism.

i repeat this to my students so damned much. more than any other type of journalism, music journalism seems to be about nailing that tone.

i don't really have "rules" as such cuz it's dependent on the album, the artist, my word count etc, but i was talking to another ilxor writer y'day about how writing generally feels a bit like stitching to me (not that i've ever stitched anything but yeah). jotting down phrases or words i want to use, or ideas i want to cover, either on my phone or in a document, then kind of knitting them together when i come to actually write it.

i can't stand writers who have contempt for their readers. i think that was one of the greatest sins committed by NME during my era there. xp

You wouldn't say: "The rain came down in black sheets as the maroon Volvo slid across the greasy surface to a cataclysmic halt in the front door of 67 Office Street."

why wouldn't you?

("cataclysmic halt" is awful and nonsensical, agreed)

or are you saying "Don't write as if you're Writing Prose"?

for me the ideal is somewhere between bald delivery of facts, and using prose to effectively heighten reality for narrative purposes. it's all a question of balance.

It's like pentin' you have to know the rules before you're allowed to ignore them.

"Black sheets of rain" - wasn't that a dodgy Bob Mould solo album?