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The Zardian is searching for a few good authors.

As we are looking ahead into the future and having to let go of staff that have other pressing things they are needed for, smbdoll and I know that we need to bulk up our writing staff once again.

So, we are looking for some willing hands to join us.

What you need to know:

The Ezine has begun to lean more towards journalism and writings that reflect a journalist's viewpoint. That isn't to say that we are not going to still publish works of fiction, but that most of our emphasis will be on journalism reporting. That encompasses not only AE journalism (interviewing NPCs, heroes, speculation reporting on events in the games) but Real Life issues as well. I also recommend that you refer to Issue 42 for a few notes on writing from smb.

If you think you have what it takes to join our team, then please take some time to write up an article that is reflective of the direction we are going with The Zardian.

If you have any questions, you may contact me or smb via forum pm. Once you have an article that you think qualifies you and shows off your talent at its finest, please email it to ezine@battleon.com.

Thanks and we look forward to your submissions.

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What do we look for in a sample article?

Well, that's a really good question, as I'm not looking for anything particularly specific. I want humor in an article. If it doesn't make me laugh at least once, I'll think twice about printing it. Second, it has to be related in some way to Artix Entertainment. But that doesn't mean it has to be about one of our specific games. It could be a story relating to a special event that's occuring, real life events that remind one of the games, even a report about the quality of your Jinx merchandise. Anything goes as long as it's related to AE games.

What's not acceptable? Well, that's a good question too, and much easier to answer. It's hard to read an article that is typed in all capital letters or all lowercase letters. The keyboard gods gave you the ability to use both, so choose with care. Punctuation is your friend as well. It helps people know where to pause in their reading, how you feel when writing and what is or is not important in a paragraph. If I get confused about things like that, I'm not going to publish your article.

Grammar is VERY important. If you're going to have an article published for millions of people to read you have to display a basic grasp of the English language. I don't want something that you've simply dashed off in the past five minutes and thought was a good idea to send.

Unfortunately I get a lot of submissions that look like the author didn't spend more than a few seconds dashing off the first thing that came to mind. That's a first draft people, not a finished article. The writing process is tedious and boring at times and includes such basics as proofreading and audience consideration. If you're not certain the article is good enough, ask your English teacher to check it over. If you wouldn't hand something in as a homework assignment, I don't want to see it either.

Another important thing to consider is the language and tone in your article. We have everyone from pre-teenagers to senior citizens reading our articles. When writing, you have to keep your tone polite enough not to offend our more conservative users while using a vocabulary level that your ordinary 13 year old will understand. You won't get far as an author without considering your audience and the broad userbase we write for is not an easy audience for beginning authors to get to know.

What if you don't want to write? Nobody says your submissions have to be written. I'm very interested in seeing your skills at Flash art.

I hope this gives a better answer as to what I'm looking for in new contributors. Now that you're better prepared, I expect to see more and higher quality submissions emailed to ezine@battleon.com.

Note:

If you send in a purely creative-writing piece (ie, a story that you've written) and it does not meet the above specifications as to humor or AE-related content, you may be asked to submit an additional sample article so that ezine staff can get a feel for all facets of your writing style.

Once we have judged your writing ability, we may decide to invite you to an interview with both myself and Maegwyn to further investigate your suitability for authorship.

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Authors in Training (AiT)
Title: Author in Training
Responsibility: To assist the ezine staff authors in supplying articles for The Zardian, AE's online magazine.
Selection: AiT are selected based on writing ability (after submitting a sample article to ezine@battleon.com) and an interview with The Zardian's editorial staff. More information on how AiT are selected can be found here: The Zardian discussion board.