The Warlocks Den - WoW Warlock Discussions

In the continued effort to remain the best source for Warlock and WoW information, I am proud to be in charge of a new section which will hopefully aid us with this goal. Whether you have already written a guide, or have yet to start, if it’s about Warlocks, can be used by Warlocks and generally helps Warlocks, we want to help you unleash the inner guide write.

How to submit a guide

Submitting a guide can be a scary thought for some people, which is why we have tried to make it as easy and painless as possible. You will notice there are two sections available, the one you are currently in, and subsection to formally submit your guide. The subsection is set up so that only the creator of the thread, along with myself and Akasha, are able to view the contents.

What this means is you can submit a partial guide, a work in progress or a fully completed guide without worrying about people seeing it before you are ready. This subsection is used to approve guides for public posting, upon which time they are moved out into this section to receive feedback and critique from the members. Should the guide be considered as complete, and no further changes are required, they can then be moved into a more permanent home in the Library and be included in the guides listing page.

Note the subsection is also used by myself (and Akasha if she has time) to provide feedback, advice and assistance to put finishing touches or assist with layout. This help is provided to ensure your guide really shines and helps the site as a whole provide a higher quality of content for everyone to use. All feedback is completely optional for the guide writer to take on board.

Rules

• You must be the author of the guide.
  There are many fantastic guides out there, however just because they are posted on the internet does not make them free for the taking. Just like my guides are copyright to The Warlocks Den, other guides may have similar restrictions in place. Any guide submitted for use here must be done so by the original author.

• It must be all your own work.
  Copying and pasting sections of other guides is plagiarism and will not be tolerated. By all means use other guides for inspiration, or quote sections of a guide and provide a link back, but all guides submitted must be written out in your own words.

• Credit where credit due
  If you use content, information, images or links from another player or website, you must give credit. There is nothing more frustrating to have someone use a piece of work you created and not let people know where it came from. If you use it, thank it.

Guide Writing Tips!

These are just tips to aid you in writing the best guide possible about your chosen topic. These are not requirements for the guide and as a writer I do not believe in forced requirements or restrictions. Take the following tips as friendly advice.

Give your guide a title
What you name your guide should explain at first glance what the information inside is about. You can choose to be creative (Digging in the Deadmines) or simply descriptive (A Warlocks guide to WSG).

Introduction
Depending on the type of guide you are writing, it is sometimes helpful to provide a short informative introduction to what your guide is about. You might include things like why you chose to write it, what it’s all about or the demographic it might be aimed at.

Section Headings
If your guide covers multiple parts, for example a guide about a PvP Battleground might cover the two main roles (offense and defense), information about the battleground, how and where you enter and exit, quests or rewards available etc, it can be handy to give each section a “label”. By giving these sections descriptive headings, it allows the reader to quickly scan to a section they are interested in, and generally gives people an idea of what they are about to read.

Formatting and Layout
The layout of your guide is somewhat important. While slapping information together in any old way will still provide readers with what they want to know, ensuring it is easy to read, flows well and isn’t one large wall of text, will make it easier to read. Taking the time to ensure your guide is also aesthetically pleasing will give you a much more professional look and aid in your guide being pointed out to other people.

Spelling and Grammar
This is a very important tip to follow if you are writing a guide, or really, anything that is going to be viewable to the public. Spell checking is almost considered a “must”, and rereading your guide to ensure everything reads well, the correct words are used, and sentence structure is correct should be high on your priority list.

Sadly, as most of you have probably seen around the internet, this is not always something that is followed. Mistakes happen, but a guide written by someone who just smashes his forehead against the keyboard won’t help anyone…

Images
Depending on your guide, it can be extremely helpful to include images. One image can sometimes provide more information than a thousand words, especially handy when you are trying to give directions or explanations on how to do something. There are numerous free image hosting sites out there for you to make use of. (http://imageshack.us/ as an example)

For those unfamiliar with creating images for website use, it is recommended to convert your images to JPEG and try to keep sizes under 100k. If you require assistance with your images, myself or Akasha would be more than willing to convert anything required. Alternatively, you can google for “Free JPG Converter”

Credits
Almost considered a must by any respectable guide writer is giving back to anyone (person or site) that helped your guide grow. It is a rule on this site that credit must be given where due, if you used an image or any information not personally created by you. Other things that can be included is giving thanks to any person, player or website that helped, additional links for further reading or similar guides and listing any sources used.

Lastly, guides take time to be written. They are not usually spare of the moment decisions to spend 5 minutes throwing together some random information and submit it as a guide. That said, what we will do here is assist you in growing and evolving a quick thought into a well laid out, informative guide that people will use.

There is no minimum, or maximum number of words that must be written, some guides can speak volumes with little said, others require more. The aim of this section is to provide a private place away from the public where guides can be molded and perfected.

Guide Ideas / Guides in need

In most cases, you should choose to write a guide about something you know well, and something you really enjoy. A guide should never be written because it is needed, it should be something you can put your knowledge and passion behind. That said, below is some ideas of guides that would be helpful and are currently missing…

• Instance Guides – Quest, zone and Warlock information about all the wonderful instances available.

• Raiding Guides – Information to assist new comers to the high end raiding zones, what they should expect first time, and what their role is on each boss?

• PvP Guides – A lot of people have never tried PvP, and a battleground can be a very scary place to a first timer. Perhaps some information on what they’re all about and what to expect might come in handy.

• Profession Guides – Warlocks tend to go for certain professions, which ones are they and how do they help?

• Anything else in game – There are so many things available in game that could use a guide to help someone. Even if you only help one person, the guide was worth creating.

Happy writing everyone!