Why Not Write?

Written by Makke

The usual "excuse" for not writing articles for diskmags is the "I have nothing to write about"-excuse. Here's a little list and tips of what to write about, and how to write them.

1. Party-reports

The only thing you really "need" to write this one is to have been or be at a party. A LOT of sceners attend parties, and A LOT of these sceners are gifted with the knowledge of writing. At least I think so.

So how come it's so hard to get people to write party-reports?

The things you mainly should write about in a party-report is how the feeling at the place was, the quality of the compos and of course how well the beloved organizers did their jobs. This you can mix up with your own stories from the party. If you and your friends did something extremely cool or if you just happened to be able to talk your way into the party for free, claiming you were Statix.

2. Reviews

Reviews of demos, musicdisks, graphic-packs, compos... whatever is not hard to write either. However, it takes a little more knowledge than to write a party-report. You should for example know SOMETHING about coding when looking at a demo, so that you know what is hard to code. I don't know shit about coding, that's why I never review anything that involves heavy coding. I only like what I think looks good, and hail good design and nice flashing FX. I'm a tracker, and that's why I prefer to review musicdisks. I also know my way around a recording studio pretty well, and I know what a well-tracked or good-mixed song sounds like... and I know how to use my ears. So what you need really is basic knowledge for what you're reviewing. And make sure not to review something that is in a style that you hate/dislike. Because then it won't get a fair judgement.

3. Opinion articles

Do you have a really original opinion on some issue? Do you have a different point of view than everybody else you've talked to? Write it down. Everybody hopefully has their own opinion, though I know some people don't. But those are lamers, and we don't want to read lamer words, do we?

Writing down your thoughts about a certain issue is all you have to do. But beware, some people might not agree with you, and you might get an e-mail stating what you should go do with your mother. Those e-mails are there to ignore. There are idiots all around the world, and they shouldn't keep you from speaking your mind, because basically, that would be idiotic. Besides, what can this idiot do to harm you? He's actually the one peeing all over his own hands by showing you how childish he can be...

4. Reply articles

These are closely related to the Opinion articles. If somebody states something that you just think is a load of bullshit, say so. But don't e-mail the guy who wrote it, and tell him how stupid he is. That's not fair. If he expresses his opinions in public, so should you if you want to discuss them. If you really stand for what you say this shouldn't be a problem.

5. Interviews

Anyone can make an interview. Just make sure that the questions are relevant and not just "what do your feet smell like?" questions. Not all of them anyway.

And personally I think interviews should be made face to face (in real life that is) or via e-mail. IRC-interviews suck. Why? Because this often means you get short answers, the interview-victim doesn't get that much time to think of a good answer and how to formulate his answer. So I think IRC-interviews are quite boring. Most of the time anyway.

These are probably the easiest things to write about. You could also write technical articles or tutorials, but those are rather hard to write, and it takes more time.

But tossing up a rather good article doesn't have to take THAT long. And, the more you practice the better you get... and it's always good to have good English, and a big vocabulary.

- Makke/Visuale/Hugi/Trebel