Aminet 44/Aminet 44 (2001)(GTI - Schatztruhe)[!][Aug 2001].iso/Aminet/demo/mag/GDS-DISC11b.lha/text/EverybodyIsAWriter.txt

Text File | 1998-10-02 | 8KB | 141 lines

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«»«ac»
«c1»EVERYBODY`S A WRITER«»
«»«al»
«c3»BY GHANDY/DARKAGE^GODS«»
«»«as»
«c5»You demand diskmags should be full of good articles? Not only the quantity you
want to see in the menu, also the topics should be enjoyable and the reports
nice to read? You are right and you are not. It`s correct to demand such
things from people that claim to bring out a good diskmag but it`s not correct
only to spot what`s going on like a TV spectator! If you dislike what you get
served, «c2»become active and write yourself. «c5»It ain`t THAT hard to do!!! This
article was written to convice those people that have doubts about their own
abilities.«»
«»
Did you think the first article of «c2»Fishwave, Rokdazone or The Ripper «c5»was as
cool as the rest? Knock, knock!! Wake up, it`s more than obvious that you
never got hold of their first steps as they didn`t want to show them to anyone,
simply because they were ashamed of it, hehe. They could not be proud of it,
just as you will maybe have a bit problems with your first try but if you
examine it a bit, it won`t be really a problem after all.«»
«»
«c2»The English language as a barrier? «c5»Yes, understandable, especially for Polish
Sceners as they don`t learn this language so well in the school. To my
surprise also the kids in Italy & France aren`t forced to learn the world
language no. 1 as well as they should do as European inhabitants!! If you
run around in a smaller Italian town and ask some younger looking Italians
how to reach your target, most of them won`t understand your question or they
will only understand but not speak themselves. And this is sadly also true for
people who have visited highschool. But if you know a bit about the grammar,
the rest is not hard to do. Fishwave`s trick was that when he was writing an
article, if he didn`t know a special word, no matter if adjective, verb or
noun, he wrote it down in German and translated it later. This way he was
able to write fluently, he didn`t lose what he wanted to write while
looking up the English expression in the dictionary. So he was able to finish
the complete article first and then finally he used the dictionary to fix
the German words.«»
«»
You`ll never be as good as «c2»Wade, Mop & Co.? «c5»Well, they didn`t have to learn
anything except their writing style as English is their native language. And
style is also something you can learn, you especially learn a lot while
reading other people`s articles. Normally it`s really simple: A good article
has an introducing part, a main part about the topic you wanted to deal with
and a closing part. You can heat up the readers' expectations in the first words
or you write down some statements from other Sceners. Or you start with a
quote out of a book or poem, there are one hundred thousand possibilities.«»
«»
It also helps if you have the whole structure of the article in your mind.
Not that you must know every sentence that you want to write, but it`s
better if you have a plan where your article will go. You can follow this
path or leave it, just as you like. But roughly knowing what you want to
talk about makes it easier. If if it`s better for you, write down your
thoughts on a piece of paper first.«»
«»
Even a good writer isn`t able to write his sentences once and have the
finished product in his hands. Everybody, really everybody has to go
back, check what he wrote, make corrections or change things if you have
an idea how it could sound better. Maybe it helps you to print it out
or even to read it loud for yourself. Another good idea is it to give it
someone else to check it. He or she has maybe good ideas or can remove
the one or other grammar mistake etc.«»
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«c6»Topics - what topics??«»
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«c5»What to write about? Also, this shouldn`t be anything that could knock you
out! The easiest articles are interviews. Just ask your partners what
comes in your mind, you can «c2»correct your spelling errors later «c5»after the
interview or you do it via email. This gives the interviewed person more
time to think about his answers but you lose his spontaneous reactions you
would earn in the irc.«»
«»
Writing stuff for diskmags give you the possibility to let everybody hear
what your opinion is about this and that. To be an editor is a great
thing, but you also have to be reasonable. It doesn`t make sense only to try
to convince the readers of your opinions. And if you don`t write anything else,
it becomes very boring and people will soon think you`re selfish. But really,
being an editor is something with much responsibility. You cannot change the
whole Scene by publishing one article, but with time you can give the
people many aspects how they judge about things. It`s up to you if people tend
to give up and leave the Scene or if you are able to motivate them to keep on
track.«»
«»
Normally the job of an editor is something that could not be better! You have
only little work, not so much as, for example, a coder has but there`s no way
to gain fame in shorter time!! Think about how hard it is to establish yourself
as a coder and how easy it is to become known as article writer! It`s not
correct, but that`s how things go. Not enough, everybody wants you in their group
and they fight with each other to get YOU into the editors crew of their diskmag.
The reason is simple and shortly told: There are not many people who contribute to
mags and that`s why your value is THAT high! Crazy but true!«»
«»
But back to hints what to write: You could write about your visits at parties
or computer fairs, reviews of group or person homepages, you could write down
the complete story of a group and judge all productions they have ever done. But,
this isn`t so easy. What else? You could reply to other people`s thoughts, you
could start a campaign or a survey, ask the same question to many different Sceners
and print their answers afterwards, Making Of`s are also always welcome.. argh!
There are SO many possibilities waiting for you! You must only do it.«»
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«c6»Help wanted?«»
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«c2»The clique of writers is a friendly guild: «c5»You could get support & help from
anybody you ask. Send somebody an article and ask him what he`s thinking about
it, how you could find an end or what you could do better etc. etc. and he`ll
help you for sure! Compared to the coders, there`s no reason not to share
knowledge. We don`t have to work hours after hours for a good effect whose source
we don`t want to give away to others to learn how it works. It`s all public,
you can read the output everywhere, there are no secrets possible for editors.
And normally the majority of readers should stop treating editors as magic people,
we do something which is easy to do. Even lazy guys like me are able to
be wellknown and my output during the past years was more than poor to be
honest! Ever thought why swappers tend to start a bright career as an editor
after they have retired? For them it`s the easiest and most clever way to get
famous, not to forget that except some training you need nearly zero talent
to become it. Examples? What about «c2»Darkhawk, «c5»who never retired as a swapper,
«c2»Mop, Astro, Cesium, Kaosmaster, Fishwave, Ghandy, «c5»dunno how many other editors
or former writers I forgot to mention.«»
«»
It`s not important to be perfect, it`s important to start to do something!!!
Perfection comes along with time! And for non-commercial journalists that
don`t get a single buck there`s absolutly no perfection needed. Nobody will
dare to pay you for your efforts and so why should your stuff be as good as
that from wellpaid journalists, eh?? «c2»Got the point?«»
«»
«c5»Surely it`s easier to condemn other people`s product instead of
starting your own projects. I hear those guys again and again: "This sucks
and that sucks, this is worse and this could have done better." Stop screaming
you scummy mates, «c2»do it yourself «c5»and we`ll see if it really will be better!!«»
«»
So you see - it`s not so hard to write articles and writing has a lot of
advantages. What you`re waiting for?«»
«»
Start your texteditor and send your results to «c4»[e-mail]!!«»
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