Writer Guidelines

Nothing here is a hard rule — think of it as a shared sense of what we're going for, mostly so nobody has to guess. These are new as of this issue, which is also why they're aimed at anyone getting a byline going forward rather than a strict standard we're holding Vol. 1 to. Our first batch of pieces went out before any of this existed, which is part of why some of them read shorter and rougher than what's below — that's on us, not on the writers who sent us those pieces with nothing to work from.

We're a small, bootstrapping magazine, not a newsroom with a style department, so treat this as a loose shape to aim for, not a checklist your piece needs to clear before we'll run it.

Roughly how long

Let the piece find its own length — these are just ballpark ranges to aim for, not a word count to hit exactly:

• Short pieces / Departments (Twee items, quick news, small culture notes): around 300–600 words.
• Standard feature articles (most Vol. 1-style pieces — reported stories, essays, explainers): somewhere in the 800–1,500 range, with 800–1,000 being what we're leaning toward right now.
• Long-form features (a real deep dive — history pieces, investigations, multi-source reporting): 2,500–5,000+ words. These are rare — give us a heads-up if you're thinking that big.

Not sure which one fits? Pitch it anyway and we'll figure out the length together.

Tone

Direct, warm, a little wry. We write like we're talking to someone in the room, not performing for an algorithm. Confident opinions are welcome; condescension isn't. Writing about your own life? First person is fine and encouraged. Reporting on something? Ground it in specifics — real names, real numbers, real dates — rather than a vague gesture at a trend.

Loose structure

• Headline: specific beats vague. "Softball, Reimagined" over "A Look at Sports Today."
• Dek: one sentence under the headline that tells a reader what they're about to get.
• Body: short paragraphs are easier to read. Try not to bury the real point in paragraph four.
• Byline: your name runs at the top and again at the end of the piece, linked to your contributor page. If it's a guest essay rather than your regular beat, let us know and we'll note that too.

Images

Got a real photo to go with your piece — yours, or one you have rights to use? Send it along; landscape works best, and we'll credit the photographer. No photo is completely fine too — not every piece needs one, and we're not going to stock-photo our way around a missing image. The one hard line: never send an image you don't have the right to use, and always tell us who took it.

Where you fit

Beats are a starting point, not a box you're locked into — see Contribute for the full list and how to pitch. Vintage, Tech & Apps, and Visual Arts are currently open with no assigned writer, so pieces there are especially welcome.

Where things stand right now

We're a small, volunteer-run team — nobody on staff is currently paid for writing, editing, or building this site, and we're not going to pretend otherwise. If and when that changes, this page will say so plainly.

Pitch us a story