Working on documents as a team

Start here: Basic Naming Conventions

Example:

Filename_v1_6sc.rtf

Our naming is similar to software conventions (underscore instead of dot, works across more systems). The first number is a major-revision number. Generally start with 0 for drafts we wouldn't want to share. The second number is a minor revision, followed by the initials of whoever made the change. This makes it very easy to go back, or to tell which document is most recent. If you want, include the date Filename_v1_6_20080729_sj.rtf It's good to end with the three-letter code (doc or rtf, whatever it is) so that all computers can read it. Microsoft .doc's with Track Changes on is often a good way to send documents (Avoid docx or this week's latest Microsoft ambiguation.)

Articles and PR Writing Approaches

* At the top of every article write a summary of your goals, information both for yourself, other proof-readers & future "oh what's this" discoveries of your work:
o Target Audience
o The gatekeeper and their goals
o Broad Message (the main story line)
o Our specific goals (specific website we want to mention? One goal in the last batch was to make sure that "event planners realize that event attendees are being actively encouraged to attend greener festivals, and think that that movement is a success" -- make sense? We didn't want to write event planners and say it, we wanted them to see us doing it, so we were talking to attendees but our message was crafted with planners in mind. Think about your article, and the different audiences and goals....
o Specific media requirements (how long? pictures? what is typical for the magazine you're writing for? what do other articles look like?) You might even include a copy or screenshot of a published article that has some broad similarities to ours (not necessarily a green article, but similar from the publication's perspective.)
o Metaphor if we're using one or other style/theme aspects (very helpful when more than one person is editing a doc).
o Other notes (who's working on this doc, what other docs are being worked on?)
* Rarely start with a "generic" press release. Almost always write an article for a very specific publication. Writings tend to turn out much better that way.
* Edit with Microsoft "Track Changes" is often recommended, use common sense. Be sure to accept the changes if you're the one they're intended for, so we don't have them piling up.

Sometimes our goals have minor convolutions we'll need to be aware of: Jambase magazine writes mostly for festival attendees (the gatekeeper wants an article that appeals to festival attendees), while we really care about the 2% of their audience who plan festivals (our real target) and so our goal might be to mention a few key points that will really grab the attention of that 2%... but we still need to write an article that makes Jambase happy to print our article for their whole audience.

It's often best to start with articleX_for_magazineY_v0_1.doc being a document with nothing but the summary section. We talk about the goals, then someone writes the article!