Elevate your writing and find your story to celebrate NYW
Written by Alec Aguirre
There are several methods for communicating your school’s story through design and photography; however, the most effective way to share your message is through your writing. The stories in your yearbook matter, and we want to see them captivate an audience. We have the resources and strategies to help you along the way!
Find the Story
Find your angle that is unique to the school year. It would be easy to create repetitive recaps each year of the sports teams’ records or which plays and musicals were performed. Instead, dive deeper and find what made the performance or season unique to this year as opposed to previous ones.
As a writer, think of what would pull you in to want to read the story. Start with a strong narrative preview of what is to come and then utilize supporting pieces like the headline or photography to help illustrate the story itself.
Take a moment to consider all the different places in the yearbook where you will include writing. Your caption writing, headlines, ads, and mods will all include different styles that, with a little practice, will be impactful and eye-catching. Don’t forget that your marketing materials can also showcase your writing as you promote your yearbook. Visit here to explore your options.
It may seem like a lot, but we have the tools and resources to help take your writing to the next level in every category.
Evaluate Your Yearbook
The first step to elevating your writing is to make an honest assessment of what it was like last year. How would you score it?
Once you’ve given yourself a letter grade and recognize which areas you want to improve, dive into our Yearbook Suite. We have curriculum for interviewing to help you get better quotes, captions and headlines to inform and intrigue the reader, editing so your writing is polished and professional and, of course, writing so you can effectively communicate your message.
If you like learning through listening, we recommend watching our latest webinar, Feature It with special guest Susan Massy, the yearbook adviser at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School. You can also check out the replay of Getting the Next Big Story webinar.
Don’t forget to show your captions some love with the Writing Yearbook Captions That Will Captivate eBook. It will give you a simple formula for informative and engaging captions. We also have this helpful blog and video lesson plan for teaching captions here.
We also have a great blog for beginners to understand how to write a profile story in this blog here.
Once you’re confident in your writing ability, it’s time to think of writing within the parameters of your theme. Although it sounds simple, it has a big impact on your book, so give it your all. You can see great examples of theme copy by going to our Theme Gallery for inspiration.
We’re so excited to see what you come up with this year! As always, one of your best resources is your Walsworth rep, so talk to them about what’s best for your school and to get some samples.
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