WHAT CAN I WRITE ABOUT?

We are accepting submissions to fill a handful of categories on the community website and elsewhere. Use these descriptions and fit your submissions and pitches into these groups:
 

Gear 

Gear can sometimes be the most exciting part of adventuring outside, right? Here’s your place to talk about it! Anything from reviews to the greatest packing list of all the necessasites for a weekend of wheeling to how to install your newest purchase. Anything you would find helpful chances are so will others. 

Some examples:

• Examples Here

 

Adventures

The people are what make the offraod community really great. This section is full of their stories—and your stories! These can be personal anecdotes, features of impressive adventurers, Q&As with cool people, opinion pieces and more. 

Some examples:

• Examples Here
   

Learn

One of the biggest benefits we can have for each other as a community is the opportunity to learn from one another. This is the place for that. The Learn category can include any tips, tricks, skills, how-tos or explainers to help make out adventures better.

Some examples:

• Examples Here

 

Video

Make a cool video that you think our readers would enjoy? Pass along the link for us to share on the website or social media! 

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PHOTOGRAPHY

Great photos are essential to having a high quality piece of writing. We won’t accept a piece of content without them! All stories, upon submission, are expected to include a minimum of two high quality, high resolution (1400 x 600px  minimum) photos to go with the story. Landscape photos are best! You must also have taken or otherwise own these photos and have legal permission to give them to us for use.

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STYLE GUIDELINES

These guidelines will help us maintain a consistent level of quality and a constant voice throughout our content, but also allow your personal voice to shine through loud and clear.

VOICE

We want to have conversations with our readers, not talk down to them. Think of this as a virtual EMS store. You walk in on a Friday night before your big trip, pick up a couple last minute items and, at the register, strike up a conversation with one of the guides who asks you where you’re going then proceeds to recommend the best leantos for you to stay in. Except here, you’re the store guide.

Show the reader how enthusiastic and excited you are about what you’re telling them, how much you love your outdoor experiences, and how much of an expert you are. Leave them with little doubt that you knew what you were talking about.

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GRAMMAR/STYLE/FORMATTING PREFERENCES

Even though we have skilled editors ready to get your content into publishing shape and optimize it for the web, we like our writers to align as much as possible with our grammar standards, so the editors can focus on content rather than form. Here are the basic guidlines to follow.
 

Headings and Subheadings

These are guideposts for readers. They help deep readers stay on track, and help scanners find the content that they find most relevant. Use them, not merely to break up content, but to orient people for what’s coming next, and keep them engaged.

In headings, use title case, capitalizing everything but conjunctions, prepositions, and articles (unless any of these start the heading). Periods aren’t good for headings, but a question mark can work wonders. In subheadings, use sentence case, capitalizing only the first word.
 

Lists

Lists are great and make some things far easier for readers to get through and make sense of. Be sure that your list follows a consistent syntax, so it doesn’t look disjointed. Whenever possible, always try to supply one photo for each corresponding item in the list.
 

Names and Events

Capitalize only the formal names of places and events.
 

Bold and Italics

If you need a formatting cue for emphasis, then choose italics, but use it sparingly. There is, however, an exception: using italics for the names of published books, periodicals, newspapers, major works of art, and full-length film titles; unpublished works, minor works of art, and television shows should be set in quotation marks.
 

Periods

There is only ONE space after a period, not two. Two spaces was the rule back when typewriters were used, but not with computers. If you do it, get familiar with the Search and Replace feature before you submit it.
 

Oxford Commas

Yes, please, and thank you.
 

Em Dashes

Em dashes help give readers a natural pause in their reading—and they can be used to set off a parenthetical statement. However, they shouldn’t have spaces around them, and two hyphens do not make an em dash. Mac users that, shit + option + dash(-) and PC, Ctrl+ Alt + dash (-). 

 

Exclamation Points

We see them as a bit of a writing crutch. In a hyped-up world, good writers can communicate enthusiasm and emphasis, perhaps even more strongly, without using exclamation points. Please avoid using these every other sentence, try for 1-2 per article. 

 

Numerals

Spell out one through nine in narrative text, and spell out a number if it’s the first word of a sentence. Spell out first, second, third, and so on. For time, use numerals and “AM” or “PM” For dates, use numerals without nd, rd, st, th. Place a comma between the month and the year and following the year, when all three are mentioned (On January 1, 2020, something happened.) Do not place a comma between the month and the year when the day is not mentioned (Something happened in January 2020.)
 

Cardinal Directions

Capitalize north, south, east or west, only if it’s used in reference to a proper region. Take the trail north, but we live in the South.

 

Links And Keywords

When referring to another website, link as appropriate. Don’t link from words like “Click here” or “To learn more.” Instead, write as you normally would and then simply highlight and link the most relevant keywords.