»CL9:-------------------------------------- 
»CL8:»BIG:Tutorial for the up and Coming Editor
»CL9:»SML:-------------------------------------- 

»CL0:Recently I reread the first letter I
got from »CL1:Wolfman»/»CL1:Balance», the 
mained of the old mag »CL1:Upstream»/»CL1:Magbox». 
In that letter he commented on some 8 
articles I had sent to him for 
inclusion in »CL1:Magbox» (must have been 
around 1991?), and the critic was 
somewhat harsh, only one of those 
articles was included, while he 
basically told me that the rest sucked, 
being of the old (even back then 
apparently) how/why/what kind, which 
he tried to distance himself from. 
Ahemm, needless to say, my fragile ego 
did »CL1:NOT appreciate» his wellmeant 
»CL1:critics», and it took me some time 
before I wrote for that mag again, 
hehe. Now, many years after my 
youthful beginnings as an editor, I 
can see that he only tried to help me 
improve my style and that he had a lot 
of good suggestions in his letter. So, 
what am I getting at? Ahh yes, I want 
to try to do a little basic tutorial 
for new writers and people wishing to 
brush up on their skills, in the hope 
that it will help some of you out 
there.

First off, a proper grasp of the
English language is required, like it
or not, but people tend to be
predisposed towards articles with bad
grammar, immediately thinking that the
article can't contain anything
interesting. This is ofcourse sad,
because the article might be otherwise
interesting, and your points valid
»CL0:enough. While an official spellchecker
can remove the worst problems in such 
a text, the grammar in the article 
will appear quite artificial or just 
plain bad, making it harder to read 
and grasp for the readers. So, my 
first advice is the one taking the 
most time. If you want to be a 
skilled, english writer, you MUST 
improve your grammar to a sufficient 
level. This is best achieved by 
reading a lot of english books (should 
be no problem, after all, you LIKE 
reading, eh? If not, writing fluidly 
will be a real problem) and by writing 
lots of english stuff, gradually 
improving and learning new words and 
structures. Well, this is the hard 
part as noted, it will take some skill 
and time, but it is its own reward 
really. Besides, it is always useful 
to express oneself clearly in English, 
not only for scenish articles. 

Ok, now we have dealt with the real
basics, now we're going over to more
concrete tips on how to make your
articles more captivating for the
audience. I mentioned the old
how/why/what kind of articles, which
are very static in their writing 
style, beginning by pointing to a 
problem or issue, and then writing 
about what could/should be done about 
that issue. These are problematic 
articles to make very interesting, if 
you aproach them with this static 
structure of problem - problemsolving. 
Most articles are like that, 
especially by new writers (and yours 
truly, I really never do learn 
anyway ;)), but a lot of twists can 
be employed to make even that kind of
articles interesting. They tend to be
interesting only if the point and the 
problem they illumine are interesting,
but nowadays (as back in 1991), there
are so many articles about the same
problem, that they get really boring
really fast. In order to make them 
more interesting, spice them up! Study 
a newspaper and look on how the
journalists there write their 
articles, it is not really in the way 
of most scene writers, but if we 
emulated their structure more, the 
articles would get more interesting 
too. Mostly the kind of articles I 
have described here are printed in the 
middle of the newspapers, under 
"essays by the readers", you know, 
where readers complain about some 
perceived problem. Those essays are 
mostly pretty primitive, in the 
problem - problemsolving fashion, and 
are btw. usually the least popular 
feature of the newspaper.
        »PIC:Revi112x64x16»










»CL8:More on newspapers... Study them, 
see how the »CL9:journalist» usually 
begins his article, and try to 
»CL9:emulate» it. This is a very important 
point. Just don't go ahead, writing 
what you have to say immediately, 
start slow, so that you have the 
»CL9:attention» of the reader, maybe by 
telling a small story which will 
relate to the points in the article 
lateron, or start by telling something 
of your experiences which will relate 
to the points lateron, or start by 
giving a quick summary of the rest of 
the article, start in various creative
ways, but always put some thought into
your start, it is maybe the most
important part, because it is here 
that you have to catch the reader and 
hold his attention. You can learn alot 
about different starting styles in the
various sections of a newspaper and
other publications written by
professional people. By the same 
token, properly ending your article is
important too, although in another 
way. To round up a well laid up 
article summarize your points, the 
ending is important, and completes the 
article. Do it like you did the start,
in the same style, but with some
closing remarks instead of opening
remarks, and start/end will have been
taken care of. Now only the article
itself remains, hehe.. 

More interesting than how/why/what
articles, are articles relaying some
personal experience you've had,
especially if you can twist that
experience over into a broader picture
»CL8:(musings of a swapper? Naah, been
there, done that). Also, check the
diskmags and see what topics are
currently "hot" (as opposed to stale
and overused), and then write your
own unique opinion about that topic,
hopefully adding in some new twists.
Also, if you want to make the readers
notice you, write a really provoking
article, which leaves the reader in no
doubt that you really mean what you
write (if they think you're only
writing it in order to provoke, they
will not think that much of it,
afterall, editors do anything to make
people react, heh). I have done that 
in another article in this mag, you 
should have no problems locating it. 
Provoking articles are great, in that 
they might in turn provoke more 
response and discussion. 

Last thing. Certain mags contain a 
more professional writing style than 
others, and those are the real top 
mags, the mags everybody like and wish 
weren't dead (which they are, sadly), 
and certain writers embody all the 
virtues I write about here. I am not 
afraid to name some, so I'll do that. 
Study the mags and the writers, and 
check their style. I'll point out 
some, so you have something to go 
after, but also remember that a good 
newspaper always has this professional 
approach, so you will always learn 
something by studying (not reading but 
studying) one of them. Ok, mags with 
the best content throughout the years. 
»CL0:Well, the first one to really stand 
out was »CL9:RAW», due to its 
aggressive style, which was very
provoking and interesting. »CL1:RAW» 
took a standard »CL1:tabloid» approach to 
the scene, and that was really the 
first time we reached that level of 
quality (yes, even tabloid papers can 
have some kind of quality, heh). 
People absolutely adored »CL1:RAW» and 
»CL1:Lord Helmet», the maineditor. Good 
for him he had a grammar checker 
though! Abnormalia with mained »CL1:Macno» 
was also noteworthy. It was a sort of 
litterary diskmag, with wellwritten 
short-stories, etc., like »CL1:Oepir Risti» 
nowadays, but with much more content. 
»CL1:Macno» himself was hailed as maybe 
the best writer ever, once upon a 
time. »CL1:ROM» and its mained »CL1:Mop» 
had some of the same approach to 
writing style as »CL1:RAW», meaning that 
they took their inspiration from the
newspapers, but »CL1:ROM» took it from 
more serious, cultured newspapers 
instead, making it an informative and
wellwritten mag, but not as funny and
shocking as »CL1:RAW» in my opinion.
Generation was a sort of synthesis of
all those mags, containing a high 
level of skilled writers and well laid 
out articles, informative and 
sometimes also in a »CL1:RAW» style. It 
was in my opinion the longest running 
quality mag around (gee, I'm biased). 
»CL1:RokDazone», a long time writer 
(remember his early work on e.g. 
»CL1:StolenData»?) developed his skill 
through the years, until he was the 
best overall writer of the scene in 
recent years in my opinion. And as the 
last mag to be mentioned here for 
study purposes is Seenpoint, another
high quality mag, somehow trying to
»CL0:emulate »CL1:RAW» in their aggressive style,
adding an unique humourous twist to
their articles in the first issues, 
but later abandoning it (sadly, I
absolutely loved it, it was really
unique and made the mag stand out) in 
favor of a more serious aproach, which
still featured professional written
articles en masse. The mained »CL1:Fishwave»
can be compared to »CL1:Lord Helmet» in many
ways. Original and writing very
interesting articles. Yes, that's it
for all those diskmags, those were the
diskmags containing the best articles
and general content as far as I am
concerned, if you want to learn
different styles, study those mags and
the newspapers, and the rest will come
fairly easily. It's not that hard,
and you will find that your articles
become more interesting and easier to
read (I hope)!

Lastly, have I learned from and used
all those tips I have just given? If
not, I would be pretty hypocritical,
right? Ahemm, I must admit, I have
never thought that hard about styles,
and I never read the books about
journalism that Wolfman suggested I
read. Uhm, it also took a lot of time
before I really studied a newspaper,
and I didn't do that much either..
Dammit, now I have just destroyed the
entire base of this article, hehe. 
Ahh still I think the points are 
valid, and that one can really 
improve ones writingstyle if 
following atleast some of those 
points :)

»CL9:                    DARKHAWK/IRIS