Welcome to Codes of Creativity! Made in partnership with Lenovo and Intel, this series spotlights six members of the Dazed community. Ranging from different parts of the company, each essay gives insight into their work days, creative practices and top tips to make it in their field.

Solomon Pace-McCarrick is a junior music writer for Dazed Digital, producing music coverage for the Dazed site. He is also radio and podcast host (High Focus Records, Voices Radio).

They say you have to make your own luck, but you can still get lucky if you don’t know the recipe. I’m currently writing this on a flight back from São Paulo, Brazil, where I was covering the evolving frontiers of the city’s (baile) funk culture. Even just a year ago, I never would’ve thought that I would be writing such a sentence, or even that this was the sort of opportunity I should be preparing for. I was definitely passionate about exploring music around the world, but woefully uneducated on how this would translate into a real job. In lieu of knowing the recipe, genuine luck played a huge part in me sitting on this flight today. So, by writing about my experiences as a music writer, I hope I can help others to make their own luck with more chances of success than I had!

Right, about me. I’m a junior music writer for the online youth publication Dazed Digital. In my 9-5 role, I mainly provide news coverage, interviews and features for the Dazed music section, but sometimes contribute to our other sections – art & photography, beauty, film, life & culture. Outside of this, I also host an impromptu radio show on London-based community station Voices Radio and produce and host a podcast for UK hip-hop label High Focus.

THE DAY-TO-DAY

At Dazed, my role often starts from the moment I wake up, instantly checking news outlets and aggregators for any stories that have broken overnight. Every day, we have a news meeting at 10am to discuss these stories and decide which should be covered on-site – either as a brief news piece or as part of a longer feature. These news stories are ideally written as soon as possible to ensure the maximum amount of traction on the article.

Once the news meeting has wrapped up and any stories have been written, the next step is to check my emails. Often my inbox is full of music PRs reaching out to arrange coverage for their clients. Every day I’ll sort through these and decide which are the best to pursue – invariably there are more pitches than we have the capacity for and it’s therefore important to identify stories that are particularly thought-provoking or will perform on site. This will usually take me up until midday, with the rest of the day being spent on ongoing stories.

MY TIPS FOR GOOD WRITING

The actual meat and potatoes of my role, writing, is highly subjective, but there are a few guiding principles that I always apply to my practice. One, I write everything by hand. In my experience, thoughts flow better directly onto a page, where you can draw arrows, scribble out and not get too bogged down in making everything perfect. An additional benefit is that the article will then undergo a sort of filtration process when it is typed up, allowing you to catch mistakes that you missed on the first pass.

Second, I firmly believe that a bit of poetry is a necessity when in writing about music. It is impossible to convey the intangible and intersubjective beauty of music through words alone, so metaphors, aphorisms and rhythm become your friends. Journalism, however, is still the art of written communication, and communicating clearly should always remain the primary goal of your writing.

Finally, the biggest way to ensure good writing is to read as much as possible. Many lament the death of reading in younger generations and I can imagine that the consumption of physical books has rapidly declined in recent decades. But I don’t think that that means that young people don’t read at all. In fact, Instagram captions, newsletters and Spotify bios are all being read constantly (and are, unfortunately, an increasing part of the modern journalist’s role). Whatever it is, keep reading and studying how information is conveyed effectively and engagingly in different mediums.

GENERAL ADVICE & ROUTES TO SUCCESS

Aside from the practicalities of writing itself, a key piece of advice for aspiring young writers is knowing the lay of the digital landscape. Building up your resume and accumulating bylines is critical for a writer to advance their career, and to do this you need to know which publications to pitch to. This landscape is always changing but, as a general rule, all writers should keep up to date on at least the publications that directly align with their interests, and the different ways that they cover them. A good way to do this is to follow publications on social media platforms so that you are constantly plugged into their coverage, as well as keeping a close eye on news aggregator sites and forums (for example, I use the Reddit /r/HipHopHeads daily to make sure I’m up-to-date on rap news).

For example, the Dazed music section is renowned for approaching popular culture with a critical lens and is therefore more receptive to long-read pitches. Therefore, if you have an idea for a longread piece, you should look for previous longreads that Dazed has published, and think about how you can match their tone, angle and structure. One of my favourite music commissions in recent memory is Isobel Van Dyke’s “Is the future of music anonymous?”. It has all the hallmarks of a great pitch: unique angle, focused on pop culture and thoroughly researched. Conversely, the UK hip-hop website UKHH caters to a small and dedicated audience, so pitches there might be more ‘zoomed in’ to the particularities of a scene that the wider public might not be familiar with.

Finally, we arrive at the aspect of my role which is the hardest to explain: the ideas themselves. Its inexplicability is also its beauty. After all, every writer has their own way of seeing the world. Generally, however, it is important to stay curious and keep asking questions. The stubborn and overconfident are rarely able to continuously produce interesting and authentic ideas. Additionally, in the media landscape of today, relevance is everything. So, tying your ideas to existing trends and discussions on social media, or specific upcoming events, tours or project releases can help increase your chances of getting commissioned.

On the other hand, don’t get too bogged down if your first (or second, or third) pitch isn’t successful. I once heard an editor at a separate publication say they commission around ten per cent of the pitches that they receive. Statistically, rejection is inevitable, so don’t get too attached to every pitch you send, be prepared to keep the ideas coming and play the numbers game – once an editor bites with a pitch, double down on that angle and format in future pitches.

Lastly, stay passionate. Your passion is the reason you are probably reading this right now and is what will eventually drive you to succeed, as long as you protect it. Lord knows I’ve misplaced my passion countless times in the struggle to be successful, pushing myself to work ridiculous hours until I forgot why I was doing it in the first place. As such, I think the biggest piece of advice I can give is to make sure to leave room for downtime. The biggest lightbulb moments always happen during moments of passive thinking and play. If you consistently make room for downtime, the passion should always find its way back to you.

If all of the above goes well, then I might be seeing you on a press trip sometime soon.