Welcome Crasstalk writers! Thanks for dropping by the workshop. We hope that this will be an opportunity for us to trade ideas and come up with some new ways to achieve internet victory.
A few notes before we get started:
- Everyone should take a few minutes to reread the Writer’s Guide. Especially the part about image sizing.
- If you need an author’s account please email [email protected] so we can set you up.
- Please use social media to promote your articles, we want new people to see what we are doing here. This is becoming increasingly important for our success and we can talk more about it below.
- Don’t be afraid to ask for help. The admins and editors here want you to be successful. We are always available to give you a hand.
- Please give each other feedback on the ideas people post below. This only works if we work together.
Here’s a few ideas to start off the conversation:
- Music guides and record reviews.
- Internet culture and subculture pieces.
- Gadget reviews.
- Pop culture commentary (beyond recaps and reviews).
- Political analysis pieces or candidate profiles.
- Sports or entertainment business articles.
Here are a few things we would like you to keep in mind:
- Write what you know and what you are passionate about. Look around your life and your community for interesting stories and topics.
- Edit, edit, edit. You not only want the piece to have proper grammar and spelling before you move it to the pending queue, but you also want your post to be the best it can be. You can always ask the admins or editors to read your posts and give you feedback if you want it.
- Write in the third person. You want your posts whenever possible to be more than just personal anecdotes. Personal essays are fine occasionally, but they really aren’t interesting to people outside of our community. We don’t want Crasstalk to become another Live Journal.
- Try collaborating with other writers. We have a lot we can learn from each other and some of our most creative posts have been group efforts.
Also, we have a new tool at your disposal. We now have a permanent post where people can post story ideas. This means you can find a little inspiration if you need it or you can share story ideas that you don’t have the time to do yourself. Anyone can edit this page to add ideas at anytime. Bookmark the link and it will also be in the Writer’s Guide if you need to find it later.
As writers, you are the backbone of this site. While we are a community of commenters, it is the Crasstalk writers who provide the basis for our conversation. We are extremely proud to have writers who make us laugh, challenge our assumptions, and teach us new things. We have been lucky to have some great writing here and we want to see that tradition continue. Thank you all for your hard work.
