So, you want to write an article, but you have no clue how to start or you're just scared of the readers(I 'feelz ya' man). That's alright! Writing is a hard thing to master, but it's something anyone can do with a little practice. The important part is to just write something and get it out there. It's scary letting your "brain-child" out into the world to get judged, but we are building up a community that will help you out if you ever need it, and these guys are understanding (it's due to the heavy hypnotic suggestion). If you have some questions about grammar or spelling you can always contact one of our editors, they know things (something about 42, I forget), and are more than ready to help you out. Really the only thing that matters is to write about something you care about and enjoy doing it (the editors would appreciate correct grammar and spelling, but they'll live), and don't worry too much about mistakes. That's why we have editors, they will fix up everything before the readers see it and none will know(except Admin(He knows everything)).
The following is just one of the forms you can use to get you started. There are entire websites for how to write an article, but I hope mine is more entertaining to read, and it's a bit more focused on writing for games.
Getting Started:
The first, and most important part of writing is to pick a topic. One of the easier things to write is a review. It's simply the impression you got off the game and what you think. You can't do anything wrong with it, and it should be a good starting point to launch your writing career. Something else you might want to consider is a tone and form. It's probably best to imitate someone that you enjoy reading, it can help a bit with writing (right now I am imitating my theater teacher, she always had a sort of floaty effect to her acting, and by imitating her my writing is more upbeat because of it). It also makes it easier to submit because it isn't entirely "yours." Later on you can form your own tone and form.
Introduction:
That pesky introduction(The only reason it took me so long to write this(and school)). the first sentence is always the hardest. After that the words usually write themselves. Unless you are experimenting with new forms(which is fine, but I can't help you here) you want to sum up everything in the first paragraph. Just about everything you'll write about in your article is foreshadowed in some way. I'm not too good with opening, but the general rule of thumb I use is to start with stating the game and developer followed with "I feel this game is ... because ..." It gets most of my writing juices running.
Body of Writing:
This is where you explain everything in detail. You should separate each point into paragraphs. Something like: graphics, gameplay, story; or getting started, introduction, body of writing, conclusion, submitting, improving; or reason of hate, reason of love, reasoning raisins. Really, all you need to do is to write what's on your mind. It's pretty easy to write the body once you have an idea and introduction. If you have any issues you can contact the editors to help out.
Conclusion:
All you really need to do here is to restate what the purpose of the article and all the points you covered that supports what you say. You can give your rating here. It's isn't anything we didn't talk about above. It's just the introduction, but the opposite. the last sentence should be they overall though or final point. Again, if you need help there are plenty of people (brainwashed or not) willing to help out all you need to do is just ask.
Submitting:
It might sound scary (I certainly was scared when I submitted by first article), but take it from an editor, it's very straight forward and as long as your article has a purpose and clearly isn't spam we'll just read through it, correcting a few grammar and spelling issues, and submit it within about an hour. You can help us out by including the thumbnail and tags so we don't have to. The only reason it would bounce is because the grammar and spelling is totally wrong and the editor doesn't want to rewrite half of your article, or its point isn't clear and you might want to restructure it. being denied isn't bad. It's a chance to fix what was wrong and to allow you to learn how to write better in the future. We editor all have short-term memory (might be the brainwashing) and we don't judge. We are your asset and you can use us to figure out what to work on.
Improving:
I would recommend holding onto the pre-submitted article and compare it to the one that makes it to the community. Find all the discrepancies and learn why the editor even bothered to change it. You can ask an editor to give some C&C (constructive criticism) and they can tell you how to improve. Something else you can do it studying others writing. Learn why they formed their sentences certain ways and learn how you can do the same. Play some grammar flash games (this is my favorite way!), or make some grammar games (which I'll play!). There are sources everywhere to help out. Just use them.
:novo:
