"Turn the Beat Around": Writing tips
By Cynthia R. Greenlee
The (Durham, N.C.) Herald-Sun

LAS VEGAS -- Every person's life has an accompanying soundtrack: almost wordless lullabies, off-key renditions of "Happy Birthday" or songs unique to our personal histories. Los Angeles Times reporter Michael Quintanilla's collection would include Vicki Sue Robinson's "Turn the Beat Around" -- an ode to his love of ’70s pop culture.

But that disco hit's title also applies to Quintanilla's writing philosophy, the way he turns his beat (fashion) around. He explained his approach to the American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors in an Oct. 17 workshop called "Confessions of A Former Disco Maniac." It was, perhaps, the world's only journalism session to begin under the sparkly gyrations of a disco ball.

"Although fashion writing might appear as entire fluff," said Quintanilla, dressed in an artfully rumpled black shirt and jeans, "it doesn't have to be. You can still come to the best stories off the runway."

His journalistic style is adventurous in its language, copious in its rainbow of local color and highly personal. He turned a trip to Milan's couture runways not into a dissertation on the season's showstoppers, but into a first-person piece about how a clothing item can occupy a place of near-mythical significance, if only to one person.

During that visit, Quintanilla lost his Mami's cotton scarf somewhere in the Italian city. His article about his emotional search for this valued keepsake wound up on the newspaper's front, ahead of the fashion roundup.

"We are only human, all of us," Quintanilla said. "After all, we call them human interest stories, stories about the human condition, hope, passion and so many stories about self-discovery, loss, sorrow, soul ... friendship. The L.A.Times loves stories about friendship. I figured it out, kind of, because people in L.A. don't have friends. I think readers really like it when [journalists] are human, too."

In lieu of giving miniature disco ball keychains to readers (as Quintanilla did for the workshop audience), journalists can follow his tips:

"Good writing is a snap when we don't try to impress people."

"I suggest always breaking the rules. Don't tell every story in narrative form." Using "I" in an article is no longer taboo. For instance, a misdirected phone call from a reader evolved into a long, diary-form story about the subject's struggle with AIDS and his developing friendship with Quintanilla.

"The best reporters aren't smooth talkers. They’re smooth listeners."

"Every story is like a blind date, and how far you get depends on how seductive you are."

Look at interviews as "inner views," a chance to expose what isn't immediately apparent.

Lastly, "always remember to take risks, experiment, leave your mark." Quintanilla did all three in a story about a Houston event in homage to a Texas institution: big hair. He described one woman's feet-high pompadour as "Viagrously altitudinous." Making up words? Perhaps, but we all know he's referring to something of massive, erect dimensions.