Editorial Board
Editorial Board at ST Spring 2024 Zine Launch (photograph by Sophia Summers)
Myself as MC (photograph by Sophia Summers)
In order to make anything creative happen, you have to get down to business before you get to the fun stuff. You have to make things like schedules and with those schedules, you have to make sure your colleagues are aware of that schedule. And you have to check again if they are on track. And then you have to check again, because everyone is no longer on track.
I have never been 100% creative. I have always had a logical side. And being on the Editorial Board, alongside E. L. Maloney and David Uptin, really stretches that muscle. It means that every challenge comes your way, from every direction. I’ve surely built my resilience, from interpersonal conflict, red tape in our operations and even, admittedly, a last minute scramble to fix the zine before it went to print. But seeing the final product, the ScratchThat 'Emotion" Spring 2024 Zine and website, with all the drafting and the editing, is something to be proud of.
Doing my work with Editorial Board comes with its rewards, most notably MCing the ScratchThat Emotion Spring 2024 Zine launch. I'm proud that our team led ScratchThat Magazine, from July to November 2024, to success. Increased followers on Instagram and TikTok, regular website content from both internal and external writers, and record launch ticket and zine sales are just a few of our achievements.
Working at ScratchThat has grown and consolidated my leadership and organsational skills into a newfound confidence. Read on to learn more about my specific leadership experiences.
The Editorial Note of the Spring 2024 Zine (designed by Jacinta Rosetto)
The cover of the Spring 2024 Zine (by Jacinta Rosetto)
The first page of my piece, Before Our Daugther Arrives, in the Spring 2024 Zine (designed by Harri Thorne)
Edited Works
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Closed-Of Letter to a Mirror-Girl by Poppy Mullins
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Disŝiri by E. L. Maloney
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The Greatest by David Uptin
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I Just Wanted To Go For a Run by Abbey Cook
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Myself In The Way by Callum Ross-Rowland
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Passenger Princess by Jemma Green
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Red Euphoria by Jemma Green
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Spilled Ink Newsletter Issues 61-67, produced by Dylan Oliver, Karma O'Reilly & Sean Sutcliffe
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there you are again by Jemma Green
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Travelling Without Time by Poppy Mullins
Being on the Editorial Board involves, of course, editing. From choosing pieces that go up on the website and in the zine to structure editing Content Team's work, I've opened up to a lot of styles and forms. I really focussed on building a writer-editor relationship, making sure writers understood my edits. Some writers want things blunt, some people like compliments, some like lots of explanation. In the end, there are some pieces here that I'm so proud to be a part of.
Media Team
ScratchThat Magazine Sep '23 and Oct '23 Editions Media Team
From July to November 2023 I managed the ScratchThat Media Team and in 2024, in my Editorial Role, oversaw the Media Team. Both these roles were highly organisational and rather high stakes, considering TikTok and Instagram were our determine the image of ScratchThat.
In both 2023 and 2024, I either wrote captions or edited them, gave briefs and feedback for graphics, made schedules, posted stories and grid posts and more.
With a smaller team in 2024, I had more responsibility to create some graphics myself, having to learn a completely new skill.
Story Image Examples
Here are some Instagram stories I made for ScratchThat's online engagement.
Social Media Schedule
A lot surprisingly goes into posting on social media - aesthetics, grid layout, optimal post times, appropriate promotion, chasing up information and so much more. All this gets tidied up into a schedule, which is (mostly) adhered to.
Instagram Grids
Once all the schedules are followed, we end up with some pretty cool Instagram profile grids. Below are the examples of the grids from July-November 2023 and 2024 respectively. While two very different aesthetics, we managed to marry the essence of the zine, logo and social media for each ScratchThat edition.
Newsletter, Research & Website Teams
As part of the Editorial Board, I oversaw the Research/Website and Newsletter Teams. While fairly self-sufficient teams, with my marketing and brand knowledge, I was able to guide these teams to help build a solid and consistent brand across all of ScratchThat's platforms.
The Research/Website team were able to create comprehensive marketing and brand guide that faciliated our operations across ScratchThat.
Marketing copy is a completely different style to general creative writing. In the earlier issues of the Spilled Ink newsletter, I took the time to thoroughly edit in a way that gave tips and feedback for future issues. I gave advice in major features of marketing copy, like conciseness, a "snappy" tone, signposting, and simple language. This feedback was openly taken on by the Newsletter Team, where there was improvement with each newsletter.
The Newsletter Team created a weekly newsletter that you can view here.
Newsletter Edit Example
Here is the draft of Spilled Ink Issue 60 versus Issue 64, where one is significantly more marked up that the other. There is significant improvement between the two!
Issue 60:
Issue 64: