BBB: Brainstorming to Printed Copies

Each quarter, the Blake Bear Bugle comes out with a new issue. This may sound familiar… that’s what you’re reading right now! Each quarter, staff work hard to get each article, comic, and photo to be publishing-ready. With a number of writers and editors that differ every quarter, it can be hard to get each issue to a point where we can print and send it out to the school.

To begin the quarter, editors will plan out the schedule, from the beginning of writing to teacher editing. Then, a Google folder is made and shared with the whole staff; this is where writers will put their drafts. The first meeting of the quarter is brainstorming, where writers brainstorm ideas for upcoming articles and collaborate with others. Over the next few meeting is writing time, typically about 4-5 weeks lond.

After all final written drafts are in, a group of formatters will take all of the writing to edit and format it into a closer version to a final copy. Formatting is done on a platform called Affinity, which helps formatters get a professional look and style to the paper. Formatting is really tricky and takes a lot of practice to really be able to have fun with.

After 1-2 weeks of formatting and peer review, the first formatted drafts are printed and sent to staff members to edit. Once staff members have returned their edits, one person executes them and reprints them for teacher editing.

During teacher editing, about 3-4 teachers are sent a draft and asked to review a page. When their edits are returned, the same editor will execute them.

Now, the paper is at a point where the final draft can be printed. We usually print 80 copies that get delivered throughout the whole school. Printing can take a long time, and will often go wrong and need to be redone.

The Blake Bear Bugle publishing process takes a long time and requires a great amount of work and dedication. Thank you to all staff members who contribute!