How to write a BlogClan Article! by Ospreysplash

Ospreysplash shares their tips and tricks to writing a good BlogClan article!

Hi there, and welcome back yet another article! I have a massive article planned about Juniperclaw, so in the meantime, here’s an article for you to enjoy!

Articles are one of the core features of BlogClan, and I love it (This is my 8th article 😛 ). They’re also one of the most important, as they appear on the front page of the Blog, and many people read it. Writing a good article, though, is important. Articles aren’t just big long comments, they are meant to serve some kind of purpose, so how do you achieve that purpose? I’m going to be giving you some pointers on how to write an article that’s intriguing, readable and insightful, as well as writing it in a way that makes everyone happy! Please keep in mind I’m not a professional, but by the time this article is published, I would’ve been a member of the Blog for over a year, and I’ve read a lot of articles over that time. Also, this is all my opinion, so don’t take anything too seriously 🙂

First up
CHOOSE AN INTERESTING TOPIC
There isn’t really much purpose in writing an article if you’re offering the same perspective on a topic written about before. No one’s stopping you from writing an Ashfur article, but if you need to write an Ashfur article, try to approach it from a different angle!
For example:
“How did Ashfur’s childhood shape him?”
Is the article I’d prefer reading over:
“Does Ashfur deserve the Dark Forest?”
If you do write the latter article, try to offer new opinions on the subject! Talk about how Bluestar nurtured Ashfur’s fighting spirit, or how Ferncloud and Dustpelt’s relationship would have made Ashfur think love was simple, rather than just talking about the fire scene again! Nothing’s stopping you from writing about Ashfur, but to have more people read and enjoy your article, pick a new perspective and bring up new points!

WRITE ABOUT SOMETHING YOU CAN REACH 350 WORDS ON
The minimum word count for an article is 350 words, so you need a subject you can write about 1 page on. That’s why you shouldn’t choose a topic such as “SkyClan Frecklewish’s family tree!” because there’s no way I could write 350 words about Frecklewish’s non-existent family tree (she has no known relatives). If you have chosen a subject, like “Why I love Bluestar,” and you don’t have 350 words on the subject, then pull up some other points about Bluestar! Have you covered her relationship with Firestar? Or her other family? Was what she did with her kits right? Do you love her for being a good leader or because she’s interesting? Why may people hate her, and why do you not support their reasons? You can certainly get to 350 words on a subject like that if you try! 🙂 I believe in you!

On that topic…

AVOID BEING TOO VERBOSE
If you’re like me, when the article has a more than 15 minute read time, you start skimming it. Just because an article is long doesn’t mean it’s good (more often than not, it’s super interesting if you can get through it 🙂 ), and long articles start becoming the victims of repeating points. If you realise your article is really starting to become long, read what you’ve just written, and delete anything that you don’t absolutely need to prove your point, because if the article is extremely long, only about 3 people will read it in its entirety, rather than if it is medium length.

PLEASE EDIT
People often tend to take fully edited articles more seriously than ones that have more relaxed grammar. If you aren’t confident in your grammar skills, that is more than ok! Embix and Birchy have noted you can make a little note for them in your article to fix up spelling and grammar mistakes if needed 🙂 If you are confident in your grammar, edit your article before you send it in.
As an example, which article title feels like it will be insightful and persuasive?
why lropardstar is a rlly cooll carecta
Or
Why Leopardstar is a Really Cool Character

BE KIND
Attacking characters in articles is fine, but using a tone of voice that attacks people isn’t ok.
Eg.
Mapleshade’s actions were INEXCUSABLE. NO ONE should like the MOUSEDUNG cat that plagues my pages with horribleness. If you like her, you’re empathising with a MURDERER, and if you like murderers, then that means you think murder is ok.

Woah! Take a step back. The thing wrong with this argument (that I happened to write) is that it attacks and accuses those who like Mapleshade, and that is not ok. Admittedly, Mapleshade is a pretty interesting character, and I enjoyed her novella a lot. Assuming that lovers of Mapleshade think murder is ok is extremely wrong, and hurts the feelings of others very easily.

HAVE AN INTRIGUING OPENING PARAGRAPH
In your opening paragraph, make sure the reader knows what the topic of the article is. Introduce yourself, your stance on the topic, maybe mention some quotes. Introductions should not be heavy with analysing, and instead just explain what you’re talking about!

CHOOSE AN APPROPRIATE IMAGE FOR YOUR ARTICLE!
EMBIX EDIT: Please also make sure that you’re allowed to use the image! Some artists don’t allow people to use or repost their art, even with credit, so be sure to check if this artist is okay with people reporting their art with credit!
Say you were writing an article about Jessy, and why her sass makes for an interesting character.
If you were doing that, don’t choose this image as being your cover for your article:

Don’t get me wrong, it’s an epic image, but it portrays Jessy looking lovestruck and sweet. Your article is not about Jessy being a little fluffball, and the image misleads the reader.
This image would be a lot better:

Jessy looks very much sassy in it, backing up your article points!

If you can draw, make the article even more special by drawing the cover image!

Finally…
DON’T PESTER OUR LOVELY ARTICLE TSARS
Embix and Birchy are real people with real lives 🙂
Before writing your first article, read the FAQs on the submit article page so they don’t have to explain everything to you later. When asking if you received your article, state the name of the article, and ask if it got cut off (meaning a bit of the article is randomly removed. To avoid this, write your article in a word processor, save it, then copy it into a word processor). When asking about the publish date, put the article title again, and only ask if it has a publish date about 3 months after you wrote the article, because that’s about how long it takes for the article to get published!

Have fun writing your articles, and hopefully this helped!