Guide [Issue 57] The Writer's Corner: Formatting 101

[Night-Sisters 2,139]

Greetings and g'day. With the pleasantly successful launch of the Amateurs Writing Section well underway, it's evident that there a number of forumers who enjoy writing for the community and wish to improve their skills. This is an admirable goal, so with these people in mind, I have decided to begin a monthly series dedicated solely to the art of writing.

 

In the future, I hope to cover everything from 'how to use humor,' and 'what makes a good guide' to debating the merits of Past tense vs. Present, all presented with a liberal sprinkling of advice, grammatical tips, and a more-or-less witty commentary.  ^_^ However, for this first installment I want to begin with the very basics... thus, Formatting 101 it is. 

 

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Formatting: Why Bother?

 

Encompassing everything from the structure of the writing itself to in article images and the color of your subheaders, formatting is the nitty-gritty attention to detail that takes a piece from 

 

 

             to               

 

 

It's an absolutely necessary part of writing, because no matter how life-changing your words are if they aren't formatted properly, no one will enjoy reading your work.

 

Think I'm wrong? Just try writing a paragraph or two in a super flowery and annoying font and you'll soon see what I mean. Same goes for use of annoying colors, awkward font sizes, and the inability to s p a   c e correctly.

 

 

 

 

The Ten Commandments of Formatting  

 

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Structuring for Dummies 

 

The Basic Guide

 

No matter what genre you write in, every piece contains a beginning, a middle, and ending. That said, beginning writers often flail around helplessly when it comes to structuring their work. It's definitely a learning curve, and a steep one at that, so I'll be breaking down a basic 'Guide' article for your structuring pleasure.

 

Section I: The Title/Header Pic

A header can be words or a picture. While an eye-catching design job is preferable, as long you have something that's properly capitalized for your title you should be fine. 

 

 

 

 

Section II: Article Hook

The first paragraph is important. It's your sales pitch, the opening hook that needs to grab the reader's attention and pull them into the rest of the article. You only have one opening paragraph. Use it to your advantage and make it interesting.  

 

 

As maps go, Monte Carlo is truly an oddball. 

Large, dynamic, and a sniper's dream, half the challenge is ensuring that your teammates don't "accidentally" flip you over the edge. Battles tend to be long and gory as capturing even a single flag is difficult, to say nothing of ten or more. Squadrons of shafters produce inevitable gridlock, and there is a protracted standoff lurking just around every metaphorical corner in the map. Despite -or perhaps, because of- the above, Monte Carlo is an insanely fun, intrinsically challenging, and uniquely interesting map that is well worth a second glance. So, let's get going, and check it out! 

 

 

Section III: Introduction

In a guide, the introduction is often an informative overview of the piece. You want to provide basic information/principles and build from there.

 

Overview

 

The two sides of Monte Carlo are mirror images of each other. The map can easily be divided into four separate quadrants: The Upper Base, the Lower Base, the Underpass, and the Overpass. 

 

 

All team spawn points are found in the Upper and Lower Bases..........

 

 

Section IV: Article Body

And this is where the real fun happens. Most, if not all of the good stuff will be included in your article body... (which just in case you didn't know, should make up about 75% of the piece.) This is where you unload all your critical information and impart all kinds of wisdom on whatever subject it is that you've chosen.

 

Defending

 

For better or worse, there are only three points of access to the flag. Enemies must come up through the Lower Base, jump across the bridge gap, or run a fearsome gauntlet of spots to respawn and snipers in the Upper Base to reach the flag....... 

 

Attacking

 

Attacking in Monte Carlo consists mainly of trying to avoid the shaft lasers while edging shiftily towards the enemy flag. The end.

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...Or perhaps not.While sometimes it certainly feels like going after the enemy flag is a pointless exercise in futility, there are things you can do to make a capture more likely..........

 

Sniping

 

As a Tanker, do you find your playing style characterized by a single-minded determination to avoid the flag? Is spawn-killing your "raison d'être," and does the sheer power of a Shaft on DD send chills racing up your spine?

If you answered yes to any of the above, Monte Carlo might just be a perfect fit for you..........

 

Dealing with Sabotage   

 

Due to the unique nature of the map, it is fairly common to see one tanker flipping others off the edge. Sometimes this is a complete accident, but at other times, it is purposefully done..........

 

Section V: Conclusion

Conclusions are, admittedly, my least favorite part to write. They've always seemed a bit...superfluous. However, your audience will hate you if you don't end at some point, so it's a good idea to have some sort of unique final thought/concluding statement. Or you can just be like me and slap the same generic sentence on the tail end of every article you write. B) At the very least, it's time efficient. 

 

 

Conclusion

 

Play hard, play tactically, play well. Take the enemy snipers in stride, expect to lose the flag numerous times before a capture, and focus on winning as a team. Monte Carlo is very much a "group effort" map, one where all the various branches of the team (snipers, defenders, and attackers) need to cooperate seamlessly to capture flags for the win. It can be great fun, with close, exciting matches, and is definitely a worthwhile map to play. 

 

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All About Pictures

 

Resources

Dressing your article up with images lends your writing an otherwise unachievable vitality. Creating or finding quality pictures is one of the best ways to make your writing look professional. It's not an easy task, but thankfully there are a number of resources available to the TO community at large that aid in the picture-gathering process. 

 

Map Views

The top-down look at each and every map is a must for any map reviews/guides. You can copy 'n paste the pertinent map view into [Insert Image Editor of Choice] and mark it up as much as you want. Handy? You betchya.

 

Gold Box drop locations

Much in the same way as map views, having the gold box drop locations mapped out for you is an invaluable resource. 

 

Modeless Spectator

Can't get your hands on a Spec Account? Developed and popularized by a certain @Yisroel.Rabin, this method is an excellent substitute for those of us who just need a picture or two. It has limits, certainly, but is a phenomenal way to get in-game images.

 

TO Wiki

A host of interesting pictures can be found all over Wiki, but the game mechanics section is a particularly useful hub from which you can access pictures of hulls, turrets, etc.

 

TankiViewer

Must be downloaded, but worth it. TankiViewer allows you to get an image of every combo at every modification. Excellent for turret/hull reviews and the like.

 

Screenshots 

Taking a proper screenshot is more difficult than it sounds. When I first entered the Reporting world, I remember I could never get my screenshots to look as good as those of my colleagues. This was, in a word, frustrating, so one day I sat down and fiddled with settings until I discovered optimum graphics quality. I've never had a problem since. B) 

 

My favored graphic settings.

 

Now. I've said it once, but I'll say it again; Always. Crop. Your. Images. Get rid of any excess...stuff that has no business being in your picture. Because no one, no one cares about your experience bar. Or the 'destroyed' list. Or about your browsers, chat, and supplies. And for heavens sake, please get rid of that childish scrawl out on your crystals. We all know you're broke, you ain't foolin' nobody. (;

 

 

 

Uploading Images 

To upload pictures, I personally like http://postimage.org/, though I seem to be the only one who appreciates it's reliability. I have it on fairly questionable authority *cough* Goldrock *cough* that http://www.imgur.com/ is decent, but I can't attest to that myself, having never tried it. 

 

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Editing

 

Self-editing your own work is one of the single most important skills to possess as a writer. It certainly isn't easy to go back and objectively hack apart your own writing, but you just have to suck it up and get over it. No one's writing is perfect, and the only way to improve is to recognize the flaws and work to improve. 

 

Everyone has their own unique style of editing...your own distinct method of going about it can be likened to a 'writer's fingerprint'. Because of this, there is no one 'proper formula' for editing, however, in the hopes that it might prove useful, I will at least attempt to provide advice. 

 

• No matter how sick of the article or crunched you are on time, read the piece straight through without stopping to physically edit at least once. Put yourself the shoes of the reader and even though you may have just spent the last three hours writing, try to look at the writing as if for the first time. Think about the overall flow. How fast does the piece read? Are there any jerky transitions or irregularities in the pacing? This overall read is essential for seeing the big-picture view. 

• After the overview, concentrate on the details. Go through paragraph by paragraph, reading out loud if you must, and look for punctuation errors, possible clarity issues, word repetition, and uniform spacing. At the end of the day, it is the nitty-gritty details that mark the difference between amateur and professional writing.  

• Give yourself enough time to edit. It usually takes me a good two hours to go back and do comprehensive edits. Effective time management is key here, so pre-plan and account for editing time. 

• Get a second opinion. No matter how objective you try to be, getting another perspective on your writing is always a good idea. Sometimes the hard truth is that you need to trash an article and restart from scratch - and it can be nearly impossible to see this on your own. 

 

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Lo and behold, you've finally reached the end. Feel free to leave your thoughts and comments below. Any suggestions for next month's subject will be taken into consideration, and I'd appreciate any feedback you have.  

 

That's all, folks!

Credits to @The_Little_Cousin for the signature. Thanks!

 

 

 

Edited July 20, 2017 by Hexed

[Yisroel.Rabin 16,224]

Nice job NS, very fascinating :P

 

The Ten Commandments of Formatting  

:lol: :lol: :lol:

[Penguin40 1,714]

Nice work The Night Sister (not night brother kay) but whee's stories? :(

[Quarks 2,255]

Nice work The Night Sister (not night brother kay) but whee's stories? :(

Stories are a wall of text, only spacing is required. 

[Destrod 2,634]

D iz gud AARTICAL i obei all rule wen i rrite two gud nait sasturs

[Jwimmer 2,835]

Nice guide. Will take some of this stuff into account in the future.

[BLASTER872 1,892]

I like Tahoma more.

[Night-Sisters 2,139]

Nice work The Night Sister (not night brother kay) but whee's stories? :(

Fiction is an art unto itself that required more time and space than was available here. I'll definitely get round to it at some point. 

[Ninja 10,468]

Don't worry NS, I use postimg.org and I don't like imgur.com as the pages are too heavy. Maybe we should start a postimg.org club. Pls no.

[sre123 595]

Brilliant one! :D 

[Al-Za7eF 33]

Nice topic

[Person_Random 4,991]

The article implies you had a series... I can't wait for the next one!