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An Article on How to Write an Article
Hello everyone. With the recent influx of what most members are terming “bad” articles, I thought I would try to write an article, not on a deck, but on how to write about a deck. I’m probably not the most qualified person to do this, but I’m certainly not the worst. If even one person writes a good article based off this, it will all have been worth it.
Article by: Kenton A.
Title: An Article on How to Write an Article
Date: January 20th, 2011
Heading
The heading is what grabs people’s attention on the front page. Have the name of your article in a nice, big font. Maybe add colors, underling, bolding, or italicizing. You could also have pictures of your decks main attacker(s). However, try not to use the same picture twice in an article. If you post a picture up here, don’t post it again down when you’re discussing it.“Copyright”
This is the start of the article. It lets us, in very few words, know what we’re about to read. It should contain your name (or names if it’s a joint project), the name of the deck or article, the date the article was written, and the current format. It should look like this:Article by: Name (Last initial/ last name)
Title: Title goes here
Date: Date written goes here
Latest set released: Latest set here
Current Format: Format here (DP-on, MD-on, etc.)
Opening Comments
At the start of all articles there is a section of introductory comments. In here should go a description of the deck (not its strategy), what the decks purpose in life is, and how the deck came about, such as if you invented it, or if it’s already been sweeping tournaments. Mention why you personally use the deck (if you don’t use it, why are you making an article about it?) A good example of this comes from Phazon Elite’s recent article, Blissey/Drapion:In his opening comments we’re told why he made the deck and what its purpose is, without mentioning the main strategy. Compared to most, his opening is long, but informative.
The List
One of the most important sections of an article is the list. This is the section I think is due for an over-haul. Recently, most of the negative comments about an article have been about its “terrible” list. Another problem is that many of the lists are opinion based, and sometimes a card isn’t used because the writer “doesn’t have one”. To avoid all that, I propose a new idea. Instead of posting a full list, post a skeleton list. Make a list of all the truly essential cards. Also, even if you have the card's picture in the article, make sure to link each different card in the list to the gallery. How to do that comes later. Since no article I have seen has done this, I am going to make an example. Here is an example of a skeleton Luxchomp list: See how that’s a nice bare-bones list? It shows 39 essential cards for the deck. In the bare bones list, don’t provide for a varied number of a card, like 3-4 energy gain. Give the lowest number of the card you think is needed. It’s also obvious that 9 energy isn’t enough. Later, there is a section where you can mention extras. Also, don’t provide variations, like 1-2X Luxray GL Lv.X, 3-2X Luxray GL. If there is a possible variation in a Pokémon line like that, discuss it later. However, this list isn’t done. The deck finishing section comes later.
Or you can ignore all that, post a full list, and, in all probability, get bashed more (unless you have an uber list).
Card Descriptions
Here, you provide a description for each card in the essentials lists. Tell us what it does and how it will further the decks goal to win. Since these are the cards you think are needed describe why you think it is necessary to have it in the deck. Tell us how to use it whenever we get it. Explain how to use it early, mid, and late game. Don’t feel pressured to make the description super-long. Some cards need more explanation than others. Cards such as energy do not require nearly as long a description as your main attacker. Provide pictures with your cards. Any main cards, or any card that you think most people have never heard of, should have a picture. That way people don’t need to search around to find out what it does. A good description that tells you what the card is supposed to do is found in Porii Sames paragraph about the infamous Beedrill G:See how he tells you how the card is supposed to be used during the whole game? He tells you how to use it, when to use it, and other cards that work well with it. You don’t want the people playing your deck to draw a card and go “now what do I do with this?” His description tells you what to do with Beedrill whenever you get it.
Filler Cards
This is the new section made to go along with the bare-bones list. This could also come before the card descriptions, and then you could have one section explaining all mentioned cards. In this section, list cards to fit into the missing slots in the list above. At the start of this section, put a very short line with the amount of cards left to fill the deck. This is where you can use your personal preference, and cards you don’t think are all that good. It could also replace the “tech” section in most articles. With each card provide a description of what you think of the card and how to use it if put in your deck. You should use this section to mention any card you think there should be more in the deck than in the bare list. Since you gave a description of the card earlier, a quick reason why you think there should be more is all it will need. Don’t forget to mention the need for extra energy. Again, no article has tried this, so I will make a short example filler section of my own for the Luxchomp above:Those are each an example of the type of cards I mentioned earlier. I personally like energy exchanger; I was just using it as an example. Using these two sections (bare-bones list and filler cards) you can also list more than the allowed 60 cards and let the reader fill in their own list.
Strategy
This should be your most descriptive section. You want to tell people how to WIN with the deck. It should be a long section, sometimes re-stating what you have already said above in card descriptions. Tell people how to use the cards you have given them to win. Tell your audience what to do early game, mid game, and late game. A good strategy section example comes from Darkmot’s Sablelock article:Since Sablelock is mostly a start-of-the-game deck, that’s what he describes, and he tells you about it well. When you talk about your deck make sure anyone can understand what you are telling them to do. Again, with a bare-bones list, the strategy would be more of a general strategy, but that is for you to write when you come to it. Make sure your audience knows how to win.
Matchups
This section is crazy. It’s hard to get matchups without theorymon. You should not have numbered matchups. Nothing is as precise as 50-50 or 65-35. Instead, give the matchup a “(___) to win” matchup (hard, easy, very hard, etc.) Since certain tech cards change matchups, you should mention them. However, don’t change the matchup, just say “easier with insertcardhere”. With Luxchomp, the Gyarados matchup changes with Lucario GL. So you would write “Luxchomp vs. Gyarados, (___) to win. Easier with Lucario GL”. In your summary, describe why the match is easy/hard, and how the tech changes it. If you haven’t played against a certain deck even once, you probably shouldn’t make up the matchup. The decks you test against should be either built from another article, or made by one of your friends, as long as they’re good. Playing against someone who’s been playing for 2 weeks isn’t exactly ideal testing. Remember, the point of a matchup is to tell us HOW TO WIN. If the matchup is hard, tell us WHY it is hard and how we should play to get around our disadvantage. Also tell us how to set up (like the first 3~4 turns), mid game (when all the big guns are on the field) and late game (last 2~3 prizes). Don’t tell us that you won with luck, or by donking; matchups should be described on the side of a standard length game. Also, in a matchup, NEVER. EVER. Assume luck. If you play Gengar SF, you will NEVER get the heads on Fainting Spell. Sure, in a real game you may, but not in a theoretical match up. Never rely on luck. Also, your opponent always gets lucky. If your matchup is Vilegar, you should discuss how to get around Fainting Spell.
In general, each matchup should be a good 4 sentences at LEAST. The more prevalent the deck in the meta game, the longer the matchup should be.
Near-end
This area is optional. You’re right near the end, and you could just close it out, but some short comments may be necessary to clarify something. You could provide an FAQ to discuss why certain cards weren’t mentioned, or a side discussion about why to play your deck as opposed to something else. This is also where you would talk about variations, such as the 3-1 Luxray GL I mentioned earlier. This area should be short or non-existent.Closing Remarks
The closing remarks should be something about the deck, not strategy, something that sounds good as an ending. It doesn’t need to be long, even one sentence about the deck is fine. You’ve described the deck in detail and just need to end the article.Credits
These can come at the end or before the closing statement. Give credit to those who helped you! Tell us what they did. Did they help you write it? Proof read it for you? If someone helped you, don’t shove them off, they deserve to be mentioned.Quick guide to putting pictures in your article:
Since not everyone knows how to do this, here is a quick guide on how to post pictures in your article.
First, head to the Pokegym gallery, then find the card you want. Click on the picture of the card, and it will pull up another page. On that page, copy the link from your browser. It should look something like http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=#####&original=#&c=### . All you want is the string until after the first set of numbers. Cut out the”&” and everything after it. With that link, type:
Miscellaneous:
This isn’t an article section, just a section about article writing in general.
1) Your article shouldn’t contain inside jokes, so don't post anything only you and a few friends understand. No one would know what you’re talking about. To top it off, they’re not allowed anyway. However, just because you shouldn’t have inside jokes doesn’t mean leave out all humor. Jokes are important to an article. They make it fun to read. Don’t overdo it, but a joke here and there can make an article flow better, and will keep readers hooked through the whole thing. Just don’t let it get in the way of the point of the deck.
2) Stay on track. If your article is on Vileplume/Bellossome, don’t have half the article talking about how it beats Luxchomp. A deck should be all-purpose, not all out to beat one deck. Remember, you’re telling us how it works, not “if you face this deck, do this”. That’s what matchups are for.
3)Pictures help an article. You shouldn’t have a pic of every card in your deck (unless you’re using small enough pictures) but it’s nice to have a reference for anyone who may not know what a card does. Provide pics of main cards and any card you think the majority of people don’t know about.
4) Grammar. You are going for a front page article. It should be well written. Do NOT use u instead of you, don’t forget periods and commas, caps, and spacing. Get your there’s theirs and they’re-s right. A wall of text is an eye-sore. The enter key is your friend. Also, do not use acronyms. No lol or FTW or pwnt. They’re fun in a chat room, but they’re no good for an article. And, like, don’t, like, use like, man.
5)Link all your cards to the gallery. To do that, you can either post it the long way, with a full link (which doesn’t look to professional), or you can turn each card name into a link. To do that, start the same way you would to post a picture, buy finding and editing the url to the right length. Once you have that, instead of making it an , post:
[URL=”link here”] Words to link [/URL
Just with an end bracket after the last url. The = and the “are important. Without them, your link will go to an error page. Test your links before posting the article. When you get it right, it will look like this: [URL="http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=48301"]Mudkip![/URL]
In your article, link the cards in the list. Make sure every card mentioned is linked at least once somewere, even if you have it's picture in the article.
6) Judging by the recent articles, your deck needing a good tournament record is out the window. Maybe after states roll around it’ll be back, but for now, write about what you know. If it HAS been doing well, tell us where and why.
8) EXPECT CRITICISM. Yes, some of it isn’t deserved, that’s life, people are jerks. Sometimes it's just an insult. A post like "This list is terrible, no one should play this deck" is just an insult. Ignore it, or shrug it off graciously. However, SOME of the people are actually trying to help you. They may mask it with rudeness, but you are not the ultimate king of Pokémon. There is always someone out there better than you, and they will give you advice if you listen.
9) Be kind and respect people’s opinions in the comments. More than half of someone’s opinion of you comes from how you respond to other people. Be kind. Calling someone a noob is just going to spark fights. This one should be taken everywhere, not just on forums.
10) After a recent article was taken down from the front page the mod said it was because “the original post has been edited. If you want to re-write your article, please re-post it in the submissions again.” Fix typos and add important matchups. If you use the new deck list style, adding cards shouldn't be a problem. However, if, say, a new set comes out or a rotation happens, the whole article may need to be re-writen and re-posted, as an edit may tun it into a huge mess and make early comments no longer relevant.
11) Don’t post your article the day you write it. Take a few days to fine-tune it, add things you missed, test the deck more, and have other people read it. If you post it within minutes of finishing it, you will find problems with it. But it’s a little late then. Even if you do take time to go over it, there's no guarantee It's going to be recived well. In that case, be kind and look back at 9 and 10.
12) From a lot of comments on recent articles, there have been negative comments about the mods that let articles on the front page. I’m not going to comment on that here, as this is an article about writing articles. If you think this is a problem, please discuss it elsewhere.
13) I’m not trying to be the mod telling you what you have to have in your article to get it on the front page, I’m trying to provide a template for you to work off of. If you take my advice, your article will probably have a higher chance of making it than if you don’t.
14) You did not notice that there was no number 7. Unless, of course, you did.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope this one article inspires future writers to give it a go.
Credits:
My brother for proof-reading.
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