Camden Chat is looking for new writers

Do you have things you want to say about the Orioles and nowhere to say them? Maybe Camden Chat can be your place. We’re looking for new writers for the 2017 season to handle staples like game recaps and opinion/analysis articles and are open for business for brand new ideas that we’ve never done before. What we need is you.

A few things to get out of the way before the big stuff:

1. I’ll be looking for a small but regular commitment of 1-2 posts per week - maybe 2-3 hours above and beyond time you already spend watching/listening to games.
2. I’m not asking for any more than that because this is all unpaid stuff. I’m sorry that’s not different. You should do it because you think it would be fun.
3. I can’t get you credentials.

Still with me? OK. With all of that in mind, if you want to write, I’m going to have you e-mail me something. Along with one of the three things below that you think best describes what you’re interested in doing for the site, tell me a little about yourself and why you’re wanting to write for Camden Chat.

Prior experience isn’t necessary - I’d never done anything like this before I started writing here, and I don’t expect you to either - but if you have a couple of other writing clips you want to share, send those links along too.

The deadline is the end of the day on Sunday, March 19. I’ll try to e-mail confirmation of receiving every submission as they come along. At this time, I’ve got room for as many as 4-5 folks.

If you mostly want to write recaps

Recapping games is maybe my favorite thing about getting to do this. You get to give voice to the big moments, whether they were exciting or frustrating, for everyone who missed the game, wasn’t really paying attention, or just wants to re-live it all.

If this is your thing, great! My assignment for you is this: Within one hour of the game ending, write and e-mail me at (camdenchat AT gmail DOT com) a recap of either a locally televised Orioles spring training game OR a World Baseball Classic game featuring either the American team or the Dominican Republic team.

The one hour is important because that’s what I’ll be expecting in the regular season. There’s no next day’s paper deadline in blogging, but there is a “post while people are still excited/mad” deadline.

Here’s a good example of a recap written by Camden Chat’s Stacey last September.

If you mostly want to write opinion or analysis

You probably don’t need me to tell you that there are a lot of un-analyzed or under-analyzed aspects of the team by the beat reporters on a daily basis. The good news is, if you write for an Orioles blog like Camden Chat, you can dig up the stuff you think they’re ignoring and start a conversation about it.

If this is your thing, great! Write and e-mail me at (camdenchat AT gmail DOT com) with something that’s on your mind about the Orioles right now about the upcoming season.

Excited about a player who’s a bounce-back candidate? Nervous about a player on whom hopes have been pinned and you’re not sure they’re worth all that? Is there something the Orioles did this offseason that really drove you crazy and you don’t think it’s going to work out?

Here’s our section for these posts if you want to get an idea of the kind of stuff we talk about.

If you want to write about something else

We cover quite a lot on Camden Chat, but we don’t cover everything. Do you have some grand idea that you think is not adequately covered in the blogO’sphere and you’d like to be the one to bring it to our audience? That’s great, too. Something new is good too.

Write me an example of your idea at (camdenchat AT gmail DOT com). Along with this submission, include some thoughts on how you would see it evolving as the season goes along.

One thing in this vein I tried to do last season was a weekly AL East round-up. If you want to do that instead of me this year - or if you want to do something else entirely - that would be something we could talk about.

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Those who end up writing for the site will be expected to use a chat app called Slack to communicate easier in real time when necessary. Also, I will ask everyone to either write with your real name or a real-sounding name. For instance, our writer j.q. higgins isn’t really named J.Q. or Higgins. No “Number One O’s Fan For Life,” though.

If you have any questions that I didn’t answer in this post, feel free to ask in the comments below. I look forward to getting your submissions.