For those who want to write decent content, regardless of the level of writing, the game title (and the publication that one works for), here are some tips that can make articles better for readers.
1. Give a readable and clean copy.
Editors would rather spend time making the articles look smart rather than focusing on punctuation, grammar and vocabulary. Thus, the writer should give a clean and readable copy to the editors.
Well, if you are doing stuff yourself…good luck. You need to spend time cleaning up your articles, it seems.
2. Show, not tell – when you were able to see the event.
Do not just tell things like (X won 3-1, 16-10 on Cache, 16-2 on Inferno, 3-16 on Overpass) or (XYZ wins DakingZ Cup due to strength of their roster) – there’s a reason why newsfeatures are a thing in Esports writing…and in mainstream journalistic writing.
Show the events through the use of description, emotion and imagery in your features.
3. Make content meaty
Why do primers and other stuff don’t interest people? The content within them doesn’t engage people at all.
4. Write for the audience. Give value to the audience.
Know the audience that you write for.
Don’t write international content for readers who want to see more of their local stars.
Once you know the level of the audience you write for, you can do a good content plan that can reach out to the most number of people possible.
5. Context, context, context
Basically, context for readers go by these questions:
- Why should I read this?
- What are the new things that I can learn from this article?
- Can I see something new?
- Is it something that tells the same event from a different angle?
If you can answer all these questions, then your article is good to go – unless it’s breaking news.
Knowing the scene that you write for also helps in terms of creating better articles that provide guidance to readers about the stuff that they are reading.
6. Beautify it.
No one likes to read a wall of text, not in this age.
Punctuate the article with pictures, stats, diagrams or things that can give context to the article. Good graphics design and typography also help.
This one is more for those who do their content solo – as teams at any decent publication should have access to dedicated graphics designers.
That’s all…hope these help!
